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On Elegance While Sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui, translated by Idra Novey

Language: Spanish
Country: Argentina
Publisher: Dalkey Archive
Pages: 172

Why This Book Should Win: Because it hasn糖心传媒檛 won any other awards, and it deserves at least one. On Elegance While Sleeping is our first opportunity to read a complete work by Tegui in English. Also, where else can we find heterosexuality, homosexuality, pedophilia, prostitution, and bestiality all wrapped into the experiences of one character.

Today糖心传媒檚 entry is from Gwen Dawson, who runs the always excellent blog. And who will be joining the BTBA judging panel for 2012.

Emilio Lascano Tegui (1887-1966) was, at various times during his eventful life, an Argentinean, a Parisian, a self-labeled viscount, a translator, a journalist, a curator, a painter, a decorator, a diplomat, a mechanic, an orator, a dentist, and, fortunately for us, a writer. Tegui糖心传媒檚 1925 novel On Elegance While Sleeping, a cult classic in Argentina, Tegui糖心传媒檚 home country, is now available for the first time to an English-speaking audience (thanks to Dalkey Archive Press and translator Idra Novey). This genre-defying novel is framed as a four-year series of chronologically-ordered diary entries composed by an unnamed French infantryman in the late 1800s. Like its author, this novel糖心传媒檚 narrator concerns himself with a bit of everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink (or, should I say, the cultivation of carrots). The entries touch on the themes of life, illness (specifically, syphilis), death, sex, gender, memory, crime, and literature, to name just a few. Seamlessly shifting among present reflections, past recollections, and stories within stories, the entries examine the mundane (one begins 糖心传媒淐otton mittens bother me when they糖心传媒檙e dyed black.糖心传媒�) as well as the sublime (糖心传媒淣othing spreads sadness like popularity.糖心传媒�) and range in length from just two sentences to almost seven pages. The result is a work of art that糖心传媒檚 impossible to categorize. Is it autobiography? Allegory? A crime novel? An experiment in form? In a word, yes.

Just before we lose our bearings wandering among this heady collection of seemingly aimless thoughts糖心传媒攖hat is, at the perfect moment糖心传媒�On Elegance While Sleeping changes registers. The novel adopts a foreboding tone as the diary entries slowly coalesce into the thoughts of a man intent on committing murder. Driven by a Raskolnikov-like need 糖心传媒淸t]o unburden humanity of an imperfect being: a weakness,糖心传媒� the diarist lays out his motivations in chilling and poetic prose:

I糖心传媒檝e sketched out my plans and am ready. I have a new strength in me, taken from the secret core of my life, driving me on, controlling me. It糖心传媒檚 health, youth, and optimism combined. Until yesterday, my tentative novel (糖心传媒淭he Syphilis of Don Juan糖心传媒�) served as a haven for my imagination. Today, it doesn糖心传媒檛 satisfy my thirst糖心传媒攐r, better said, can no longer stem the anguish that gnaws at me on the eve of an act that is now quite inevitable. I糖心传媒檓 halfway between a comedy and a strange sort of drama, and feel an overbearing need to lower the curtain. No simple curtain: the front curtain of the stage, the grand drape, the great iron and asbestos curtain that drops like a zinc plate from the sixth floor and creaks as it falls. Something like that, flamboyant, coarse, unexpected糖心传媒攕omething that will impose its tyranny over my life without question. I糖心传媒檓 going to kill someone.

Tegui糖心传媒檚 prose is a seductive mix of hard edges and soft contours, flowing musings and sharp declarations. Translator Idra Novey maintains this delicate balance, juxtaposing 糖心传媒渁 haven for my imagination糖心传媒� with 糖心传媒渢he anguish that gnaws糖心传媒� and following a complex and elegant three-sentence metaphor with the startling declaration, 糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓 going to kill someone.糖心传媒� Tegui糖心传媒檚 compelling style relies as much on rhythm and sound as it does on content, and Novey masterfully recreates this effect in English.

At its core, On Elegance While Sleeping gives us access to the soul of a man who is desperately seeking. Whether it糖心传媒檚 love, sex, happiness, connection with his fellow man, an imaginative outlet, or simply a good story, the problem is the same: to find what he lacks. He asks, 糖心传媒淐ould it be that the thing I糖心传媒檓 missing is courage?糖心传媒� Does our diarist have the fortitude to follow through with his murderous plan? To discover the answer, you糖心传媒檒l have to read the book.