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carmenghia's review against another edition
1.0
I really did not enjoy this book. It was so disjointed and rambling. Thankfully, it was short.
sirenaneptuno's review against another edition
5.0
De seguro recordarás los calcetines del colegio o las pesadillas que no te dejaban dormir por la noche. ¿Qué tal si fuera eso lo que repasaras eternamente después de morir? Esa es la historia que nos relata Antes, de Carmen Boullosa: una niña sin nombre, aferrada a los recuerdos de la primera y única parte de su vida. Con dos hermanas mayores, una madre que no llama mamá, un padre que ella no comprende y una abuela que adora, la niña revive todos los momentos en los que el miedo, tema central de la obra, se ha presentado en su vida.
El estilo de Antes es exquisito: prosa suave con sabor poético y gracia en las palabras. No es forzada en lo más mínimo a pesar de no ser una voz que escucharías en la calle, a menos, claro, que estés hablando con Boullosa misma. Sus personajes son, en su mayoría, pasajeros y fugaces, pero los detalles en los que existen son cotidianos y humanos. Al leer la voz de la niña sin nombre la sientes como un rasguño.
A lo largo de la trama, desarrollada en Distrito Federal, se aprecian elementos del Realismo Mágico que creíamos desaparecido años atrás: roperos con habilidades fantásticas, muertes inexplicables. Una historia de fantasmas, o de realidades que no corresponden a las nuestras, pero , ¿por qué no? Encajan a la perfección en el mundo de una niña que todo observa y todo teme.
Boullosa nos ofrece una reflexión acerca del miedo, no de la valentía, sino del miedo mismo: cómo es que la niña se ve atormentada por su destino, sus acciones y las acciones de quienes la rodean. Y aunque es fácil perderse entre detalles y llevar el hilo de la historia requiere un poco más de atención que una novela de tarde de sábado, con cada párrafo que pasa sabes que está valiendo la pena.
El estilo de Antes es exquisito: prosa suave con sabor poético y gracia en las palabras. No es forzada en lo más mínimo a pesar de no ser una voz que escucharías en la calle, a menos, claro, que estés hablando con Boullosa misma. Sus personajes son, en su mayoría, pasajeros y fugaces, pero los detalles en los que existen son cotidianos y humanos. Al leer la voz de la niña sin nombre la sientes como un rasguño.
A lo largo de la trama, desarrollada en Distrito Federal, se aprecian elementos del Realismo Mágico que creíamos desaparecido años atrás: roperos con habilidades fantásticas, muertes inexplicables. Una historia de fantasmas, o de realidades que no corresponden a las nuestras, pero , ¿por qué no? Encajan a la perfección en el mundo de una niña que todo observa y todo teme.
Boullosa nos ofrece una reflexión acerca del miedo, no de la valentía, sino del miedo mismo: cómo es que la niña se ve atormentada por su destino, sus acciones y las acciones de quienes la rodean. Y aunque es fácil perderse entre detalles y llevar el hilo de la historia requiere un poco más de atención que una novela de tarde de sábado, con cada párrafo que pasa sabes que está valiendo la pena.
justinpaszul's review
5.0
A ghost story where the ghost doesn't appear til the end, except that everything else in her life (cupboards, markers, social interactions) is also a ghost, in a very childhood-synaesthetic way. It's also about growing up (the true ghost that haunts us all)
barrynorton's review
4.0
Short, but rather a difficult read. I found her later work more accessible.
idleutopia_reads's review
3.0
“I only have memories and what I imagine I might have experienced between the memories…. Only here can I weave my story with such pleasure, without the memories breaking off when summoned, because only their pleasure takes place.”
There is so much innocence in this part ghost story/part coming of age book called Before by Carmen Boullosa. To be honest, I have no idea what I read so why don’t we fumble along until the story makes sense. We’re visiting a woman who is visiting the landscape of her past to revisit an old fear that has haunted her since childhood. She had two older sisters who she was closed to but suddenly they grew up and she was no longer part of her circle. She is bullied at school, made to experience some pretty traumatic events, she calls her mother by her first name “Esther” and is proud of the artist her mother is.
There also seem to be steps that she hears a night that appear to only haunt her. She tries to stave off these ghosts by building a protective white pebble circle that gets destroyed every morning by her maid but is rebuilt by her every night until the stones get thrown away.
I think that with many Mexican women writers I have read the idea of being a woman in patriarchal macho society takes center stage. We witness a mother who is criticized for seemingly putting her art before her daughters, including being chastised by her own daughter who won’t call her Mom, there is a preoccupation with adopting a role that comes with a girl becoming a woman and the roles that are imposed or readily accepted once that event happens, how it can ostracize a girl that isn’t part of this club yet, the idea of innocence in the exploration of other bodies surrounding you, the idea of wanting to assert a self when there is a domineering force towering over your decisions, even when men rarely make it into the story, their force is still felt and oppresses.
As we follow our protagonist throughout her visit to the past, to her old fear, we begin to wonder if she was right to fear the fall into womanhood, the implications that comes with this new stage of life and dealing with grief by pretending to be dead to the world surrounding her and refusing to acknowledge her mother in her recounting of her story. All in the name of protecting her innocence from a horrible truth we get to witness in the end. Does any of this make sense?
I have no clue but the writing! I seriously couldn’t help but follow along. I wanted to know what this fear was, what the world she grew up in contained, the fears of a girl becoming a woman, how that fear turns into ghosts attacking her and the world around her. Looking back, I can remember a protection in being a girl that I knew would be gone once I became a woman, there are certain expectations placed on us that we know are coming and seem to haunt us as we see the inevitable future ahead of us. I think when we look at this story in this frame we can’t help what admire what Boullosa has done. Thanks for coming along this journey with me. It seems I did finally know what this story was about and it is utterly brilliant.
There is so much innocence in this part ghost story/part coming of age book called Before by Carmen Boullosa. To be honest, I have no idea what I read so why don’t we fumble along until the story makes sense. We’re visiting a woman who is visiting the landscape of her past to revisit an old fear that has haunted her since childhood. She had two older sisters who she was closed to but suddenly they grew up and she was no longer part of her circle. She is bullied at school, made to experience some pretty traumatic events, she calls her mother by her first name “Esther” and is proud of the artist her mother is.
There also seem to be steps that she hears a night that appear to only haunt her. She tries to stave off these ghosts by building a protective white pebble circle that gets destroyed every morning by her maid but is rebuilt by her every night until the stones get thrown away.
I think that with many Mexican women writers I have read the idea of being a woman in patriarchal macho society takes center stage. We witness a mother who is criticized for seemingly putting her art before her daughters, including being chastised by her own daughter who won’t call her Mom, there is a preoccupation with adopting a role that comes with a girl becoming a woman and the roles that are imposed or readily accepted once that event happens, how it can ostracize a girl that isn’t part of this club yet, the idea of innocence in the exploration of other bodies surrounding you, the idea of wanting to assert a self when there is a domineering force towering over your decisions, even when men rarely make it into the story, their force is still felt and oppresses.
As we follow our protagonist throughout her visit to the past, to her old fear, we begin to wonder if she was right to fear the fall into womanhood, the implications that comes with this new stage of life and dealing with grief by pretending to be dead to the world surrounding her and refusing to acknowledge her mother in her recounting of her story. All in the name of protecting her innocence from a horrible truth we get to witness in the end. Does any of this make sense?
I have no clue but the writing! I seriously couldn’t help but follow along. I wanted to know what this fear was, what the world she grew up in contained, the fears of a girl becoming a woman, how that fear turns into ghosts attacking her and the world around her. Looking back, I can remember a protection in being a girl that I knew would be gone once I became a woman, there are certain expectations placed on us that we know are coming and seem to haunt us as we see the inevitable future ahead of us. I think when we look at this story in this frame we can’t help what admire what Boullosa has done. Thanks for coming along this journey with me. It seems I did finally know what this story was about and it is utterly brilliant.
sookieskipper's review
3.0
If one were to see their life beyond the grave, what would they first want to see? The fondest memories? Deepest secrets? Abominable mistakes? In Before, the protagonist weaves her narration by summoning memories of her childhood beyond the grave that intensely focuses on the relationship she had with her mother and the complexities that adolescence brings. The patriarchal influence the protagonist experiences negates the budding individuality and its exploration. She struggles from within to understand the people and the world around her and in every way how she doesn't fit. The fatal nature of the narration eases into her final moments, macabre in its own regard.
The protagonist experiences extreme disassociation from surrounding and by nature is fearful of many things, thus her actions become uneasy to comprehend. In many ways there is an impulse driving the character (and probably the writer as well), when she reacts to certain situations in a specific way. This made me lose track in several places and the eerie atmosphere didn't help. It could be a translation issue but several sections of the book didn't hold my interest.
The protagonist experiences extreme disassociation from surrounding and by nature is fearful of many things, thus her actions become uneasy to comprehend. In many ways there is an impulse driving the character (and probably the writer as well), when she reacts to certain situations in a specific way. This made me lose track in several places and the eerie atmosphere didn't help. It could be a translation issue but several sections of the book didn't hold my interest.
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