Muristek
The Argentinian provocateur turns her cynical gaze on the literary world itself in her third novel – with mixed results
You sometimes hear it said, usually by those looking in from outside, that the literary world is a cosy, circle-jerking kind of place. Oh, if only they knew! Like any human zone where access to power is to be had, the book world is rife with cut-throat careerists, mafia-like cliques, group hierarchies, herd opinions, playground politics, backstabbing, arse-licking and all the other shades in venality’s rainbow. Indeed, it offers up so plump and unguarded a throat, it’s a surprise more blade-wielding satirists don’t lunge in and slit it right open.
Going by her latest novel, the Argentine Pola Oloixarac is a writer whose default mode of interpreting the world is cynicism. While this carries some obvious limitations, it positions her well to dissect her industry’s pretensions and poke fun at its pieties. The success of Oloixarac’s first novel, Savage Theories, propelled her into the arena of world literature with its international festivals, prize committees, calculated postures and erotic intrigues. Her third novel, nimbly translated by Adam Morris, trains its satiric sights on this rarefied milieu.
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