Helen R. Lane Livres

An "introduction to the nonfascist life" (Michel Foucault, from the Preface) When it first appeared in France, Anti-Oedipus was hailed as a masterpiece by some and "a work of heretical madness" by others. In it, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari set forth the following theory: Western society's innate herd instinct has allowed the government, the media, and even the principles of economics to take advantage of each person's unwillingness to be cut off from the group. What's more, those who suffer from mental disorders may not be insane, but could be individuals in the purest sense, because they are by nature isolated from society. More than twenty-five years after its original publication, Anti-Oedipus still stands as a controversial contribution to a much-needed dialogue on the nature of free thinking.

In a small gallery in Florence, a Peruvian writer happens upon an exhibition of photographs from the Amazon jungle. As he stares at a picture of a tribal storyteller who holds a circle of Machiguenga Indians entranced, he is overcome by the eerie sense that he knows this man, that the storyteller is not an Indian at all, but an old school friend.

A collage made of pictures of Buenos Aires, divided in short stories (some surprisingly brief), told in the warm, humorous, precise and metaphorical style that made Luisa Valenzuela a recognized worldwide author.