corrente

Just for the record, I've decided to ammend my contribution the the deserted island book lift effort. Aside from my silly and embarrassingly obnoxious presentations (below) on the subject I did give some gen-u-ine thought to the puzzle. Although I still have no idea whether it would be best to be stranded with five books that you had previously read (and therefore be stuck reading nothing new under the sun - pun intended) or to take along five books that you had never read before; risking the possibly that you will be disappointed by your choices and stuck on a deserted island with five books you find unreadable. Or, whether it would be best to take along five books filled nothing but blank white pages which you yourself could fill to your hearts delight. In any case I suspect it would be combination of all three.

So... just as a kind of public service I'd like to offer the following for those who may be interested in some really good deserted island reading this summer.

Two volumes by Alvaro Muti titled "Maqroll: Three Novellas" (1992) and "The Adventures of Maqroll" (four novellas - 1994). I've always really liked these stories. Which consist of a kind of epic voyage in seven novellas -- The Snow of the Admiral, Ilona Comes with the Rain, Un Bel Morir, Amirbar, The Tramp Steamer's Last Port of Call, Abdul Bashur: Dreamer of Ships, and Triptych on Sea and Land -- When it comes to castaways and rogues of every sort, including mysterious ports of call and exotic island desserts, you can't beat the wanderings of the Gaviero. Review clips:

Magroll the Gaviero - a personage of romantic ancestry with a poet's consciousness - scans the horizon from the mainmast. What his eyes discover - quicksand, the dense, dwarfed vegetation of malaria, immense salt marshes, obelisks and squared towers, a geometry of prisons, offices and slaughterhouses - is not so much a physical world as a moral landscape... the wondrous created in an abrupt shower of images that are gratuitous, meaningless, yet unexplainably spellbinding." ~ Octavio Paz

As the novellas move through time they have the cumlative effect of a single novel - one complicated by many stories and, within the stories, dreams, hallucinations and reflections, as Maqroll finds himself in every climate, in exotic places, amid characters of unpredictable, psychopathic violence... a fascinating and original work, rich in thought and action. ~ New York Times Book Review

...Maqroll is an adventurer, a wanderer, going from one shady occupation to another. ...one is reminded of Machado de Assis, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and perhaps Thomas Mann of Felix Krull ~ Los Angeles Times Book Review

Recall Joseph Conrad. And one can think of Maqroll himself not only as a Byronic figure but also as a male counterpart of isabel Allende's Eva Luna; both are spellbinding storytellers. ~ Boston Globe

You get the idea.
More about the author here: Alvaro Muti

I think these books are now out of print but I know you can find used copies.

I'll also tag Swan at
A Quiet Evening

Q1 - You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be [saved]?
Q2 - Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Q3 - The last book you bought is?
Q4 - What are you currently reading?
Q5 - Five books you would take to a deserted island?

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