FRESH LOOK
ture. Each offers a different perspective and a unique style. Nevertheless,
the transitions between sections are
awkward. They fail to smoothly tie
the overall book together.
Jorge Volpi
Debate, 2009,
MEJÍA VERGNAUD
Softcover, 259 pages
REVIEWED BY ANDRÉS
The book’s brightest sections are
its portraits of Latin America’s cities
and people. Volpi’s writing talent is
demonstrated when he describes a
snobbish literary festival in the Colombian city of Cartagena where Gabriel García Márquez is scheduled
to speak. “Only at the Vatican, and
nowadays not even there, such an
intense air of sanctity can be perceived, such a fervent devotion, an
admiration that borders with ecstasy,” Volpi writes with barely concealed irony.
Panama Canal Zone, 2050. After years of growing tensions, the armies of the Southern Alliance
(a confederation of all South American nations) and the North American
Union (formed by Mexico, Canada
and the U.S.) clash in what comes
to be known as the Seven-Day War.
Hostilities cease when the Southern
Alliance president is removed from
office by a coup. Renewed contacts
between the two blocs lead to gradual integration. In 2110, the climax
comes with the promulgation of the
Constitution of the United States of
the Americas—a Pan-Continental
federal country.
Among the questions left unan-swered by El insomnio de Bolívar is
which literary genre it belongs to.
The book explores the meaning of
Latin America through analyzing its
past, present and future. Although on
one level it is an imaginative work of
futuristic fiction, it may also be classified as a political essay. The book
covers, among other topics, the history, governance systems and economic woes of Latin America.
Toward the end of the book, however, his tone changes from sarcastic to professorial, when he offers
a dull, long and exhaustive description of current literary trends in
Latin America.
Is this a political forecast, fantasy
literature or science fiction? Jorge
Volpi’s prize-winning El insomnio
de Bolívar: Cuatro consideraciones intempestivas sobre América Latina en
el siglo XXI (Bolivar’s Insomnia: Four
Untimely Considerations on Latin
America in the XXI Century) contains all three possibilities. And that
is both the strength and the weakness
of this engrossing book.
Volpi’s book underlines his stature
as one of the region’s shrewdest observers. As an analyst, he defies tradition and refuses to blame external
agents and causes—such as imperialism and the United States—for
Latin America’s suffering. As a critic,
Volpi risks isolation from fellow intellectuals by refusing to join the
utopian thinking that has seduced
and corrupted so many Latin American minds.
Born in 1968 in Mexico City, Volpi
is the author of six published novels
and six non-fiction books. He has
been awarded some of the most pres-
tigious prizes in Spanish-language lit-
erature such as the Biblioteca Breve,
and, for his latest book, he won the
The difficulty in pinning down a
specific genre is not necessarily an
argument against the book. As the
author himself might argue, stick-
ing to a single genre would leave im-
portant areas uncovered. Had Volpi
decided to write a purely fictional
work, readers might have missed
the serious political commentary
he felt was important to his presen-
tation. And a formal academic work
would have constrained his exqui-
site style, which provides captivat-
ing portraits of Latin American cities,
places and people. The only label that
really fits this book is a simple one:
a meditation.
Debate-Casa de América 2009 prize.
Actually, the book is composed of
meditations on four topics: the dis-
appearance of the traditional con-
cept of Latin America; the region’s
perennial struggle with political and
economic pains; the new frontiers of
Latin American literature; and the fu-
But oddly enough, Volpi seems to
drop his critical abilities when ana-
lyzing Latin America’s political and
economic problems. Ignoring sound
academic methodology, he opts for
generalizations that do not explore
the causes or relevant case studies
when looking at the region’s evolu-
tion. Since politics and economic de-
velopment represent a substantial
part of the book—and are crucial to
Volpi’s arguments—this unfortunate
slip into superficiality, cliché and ex-
travagant assertions is a fatal weak-
ness of El insomnio de Bolívar. Volpi’s
determination to reach general con-
clusions about Latin America forces
him to ignore differences and nu-
El insomnio de Bolívar:
Cuatro consideraciones
intempestivas sobre América
Latina en el siglo XXI
