The Seven Madmen

First, I cannot spell amaturish, and this is probably not even a word. If you find you cannot get over this enough to trust this review, going on would be pointless- although this opening fits the book's own shortcomings. Now, this book is a great read, usually. Huge lines, impressive thoughts, a star character (the Astrologer). Brilliant chapter about the secret society's plan for society. However, the book is terribly editted and the plot gets away from the author. It becomes puzzling that a book with so much to say can have the same conversation multiple times as if the author forgot he had already done these lines already and nobody ever caught that he had and took the second paragraph out. The book falls apart at the end and I'm not sure to what end one of the murdered characters suddenly comes back. It may have been plot twist or simply a lapse in the memory of the author. But read it, I loved it sometimes and it occassionally hits on all cylinders. Its like a motorcycle that won't always start...or something.

This is a post-modern expressionistic essay on alienation in modern cities, well worth your time...

The Seven Madmen by madman Roberto Arlt is a Latin American classic. The book's anti-hero Erdosain takes the reader on a unhappy trip through Buenos Aires. The novel is filled with revoulutionaries and thugs who prove Arlt's theory that niether religion nor society can help man find his soul in modern society.

Arlt would have turned 100 this year, but his novels are still with us. Written when he was 26, Arlt's life is a perfect metaphor of deja vu: he's a similar case as Dostoevsky: sick, a failure as an inventor, has to write and publish his books in chapters because of his debts, died young, at 42, but left behind one of the most ironic and intelligent protagonists: The Astrologer: Always finding a way to change the conservative way of life, he's a parabolle of failure and dreams, but magnificently sketched in few, precise lines. If anyone wants to understand the greatness of Latin American literature, this is a perfect start.

This is one of the strangest (and greatest) novels of the 20th century. Written by the eccentric Argentinian Roberto Arlt, it explores the tortured inner life of bill-collector Remo Erdosain and follows him as he becomes involved with a bizarre terrorist plot to overthrow the government. Filled with lunatics, pimps, and prostitutes, this novel creates a vivid picture of Buenos Aires in the 1920s, where the lucky few live in luxury and the rest suffer the strain and humiliation of poverty and social impotence. If you are looking for a brilliant and disturbing novel, look no further--there is nothing else like The Seven Madmen. Hopefully we will see the rest of Arlt's work come out in English translation soon, as well as that of his contemporary Roberto Mariani, because this is cutting-edge literature at its finest. Arlt was a true rebel who was way ahead of his time, and The Seven Madmen belongs near the top of any list of great 20th century novels. Its style remains stunningly innovative to this day.