This match was judged by Hannah Chute. For more info on the World Cup of Literature, read this, and download the bracket.

I hear that soccer/football fans are pretty excited about Switzerland these days. (Sorry everyone, I haven糖心传媒檛 been keeping up with the world of FIFA.) In a literary match-up against Honduras, though, its chance at a win feels a lot smaller. Neither country is really one of the literary world糖心传媒檚 power-houses, but in this match Honduras brings to the table the potent prose of Horacio Castellanos Moya, whose Senselessness is pretty remarkable.

糖心传媒淚 am not complete in the mind,糖心传媒� begins Moya糖心传媒檚 narrator. And no, he most certainly is not: he is caustic, sex-obsessed, unstable, and at least a little bit insane. If you go with it, though, if you let his sentences pull you along for pages with their paranoid urgency, you糖心传媒檙e in for a hell of a ride. He is an irritable, obsessive atheist who has gotten himself caught up in the affairs of the Catholic Church as it fights to bring to light the atrocities committed by the unnamed country糖心传媒檚 power-hungry military. His rage and angst spiral into what he calls an 糖心传媒渆xpanding maelstrom of paranoia.糖心传媒� And, whether you believe in his conspiracies or think he糖心传媒檚 lost his mind, it糖心传媒檚 very compelling. An excellent (and excellently unreliable) narrator, a great story and a satisfying ending: this is Moya糖心传媒檚 hat-trick.

Now comes Switzerland, with Urs Widmer糖心传媒檚 My Mother糖心传媒檚 Lover. From the start, it looks grim. A melodramatic title and some pretty awful jacket copy leave me unenthused, but I糖心传媒檓 willing to give it a chance. Which is my own mistake, really.
The narrator糖心传媒檚 mother starts out the novel waist-deep in a lake, frantically shouting her lover糖心传媒檚 name (糖心传媒淓dwin!糖心传媒�) across the water. Her former lover, once a poor musician and now the richest man in the country, lives in a mansion across the water and never even thinks about this woman, who he was involved with for a couple of months in his youth. She, on the other hand, obsesses over him, is possessed by the thought of him, hears the wind whisper his name to her all day long. I糖心传媒檇 say that this is still a better love story than Twilight, except that a sad and confused woman who shrieks 糖心传媒淓dw-!糖心传媒� into the empty night actually sounds an awful lot like Twilight. (I take full responsibility for the fact that, by bringing up the T-word, I am probably fulfilling the literary equivalent of Godwin糖心传媒檚 law.) There糖心传媒檚 some big, over-the-top Freudian thing going on here; her father is a taciturn, cantankerous control freak who treats her like dirt, and her lover is an insufferable egomaniac who also treats her like dirt. And I just can糖心传媒檛 bring myself to care about any of it.

On top of this, the narrator speaks in this bizarre, inverted Yoda-speak (糖心传媒淧ushing and shoving they糖心传媒檇 be to get to her,糖心传媒� and 糖心传媒渇lat as a pancake everywhere was糖心传媒�) and uses em-dashes in baffling and excessive ways.

Stylistic weirdnesses aside, My Mother糖心传媒檚 Lover suffers from a lack of empathy. Moya糖心传媒檚 characters are not likable (far from it, in fact), but I cared what happened to them. With Widmer糖心传媒檚, I didn糖心传媒檛. At all. And so this novel糖心传媒攕upposed to be a tragedy of unrequited love across a backdrop of war and loss糖心传媒攆ell flat.

The only major redeeming factor is Widmer糖心传媒檚 harrowing and believable portrayal of the mother糖心传媒檚 descent into madness. But it isn糖心传媒檛 enough to make up for the huge gap in style, impact and appeal that separates it and Senselessness. Between the two, there糖心传媒檚 no comparison. Honduras 3, Switzerland 0.

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Hannah Chute translates literature from Russian and French. She is currently a master糖心传媒檚 student in the University of Rochester糖心传媒檚 Literary Translation Studies program. She is exceptionally bad at soccer.

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