The Art of Flight. Sergio Pitol

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       More praise for Sergio Pitol:

      “Pitol is not just our best living storyteller, he is also the strongest renovator of our literature.”

       —ÁLVARO ENRIGUE, author of Sudden Death

      “One of Mexico’s most culturally complex and composite writers. He is certainly the strangest, most unfathomable and eccentric… [His] voice…reverberates beyond the margins of his books.”

       —VALERIA LUISELLI, author of Faces in the Crowd

      “[The Art of Flight] is the most celebrated of Pitol’s novels… It travels through readings—from Antonio Tabucchi to [William] Faulkner and Thomas Mann—through cities, films, notebooks, and recordings, melancholy memories, hypnosis, and dreams.”

       —Letras Libres

      “The bountiful work of [Sergio Pitol] is one of the most original in the Spanish language.”

       —El País

      “[The Art of Flight] combines cultural density with autobiographical vigor…a landscape that is classic, desolate, ironic, parodic, and very lively.”

       —CARLOS MONSIVÁIS

      Deep Vellum Publishing

      2919 Commerce St. #159, Dallas, Texas 75226

      deepvellum.org · @deepvellum

      Copyright © 2015 by Sergio Pitol

      Originally published as El arte de la fuga in 1997 by Ediciones Era, Mexico City, Mexico Introduction “Pitol baja la lluvia” for The Art of Flight © 2004 by Enrique Vila-Matas

      Translation copyright © 2015 by George Henson

      First edition, 2015

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN: 978-1-941920-07-7 (ebook)

      LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER: 2015930299

      —

      Esta publicación fue realizada con el estímulo del PROGRAMA DE APOYO A LA TRADUCCIÓN (PROTRAD) dependiente de instituciones culturales mexicanas.

      This publication was carried out with the support of the PROGRAM TO SUPPORT THE TRANSLATION OF MEXICAN WORKS INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES (PROTRAD) with the collective support of Mexico’s cultural institutions.

      —

      Cover design & typesetting by Anna Zylicz · annazylicz.com

      Text set in Bembo, a typeface modeled on typefaces cut by Francesco Griffo for Aldo Manuzio’s printing of De Aetna in 1495 in Venice.

      Deep Vellum titles are published under the fiscal sponsorship of

      The Writer’s Garret, a nationally recognized nonprofit literary arts organization.

      Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution.

       Contents

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INTRODUCTION BY ENRIQUE VILA-MATAS

I. MEMORY

EVERYTHING IS IN ALL THINGS

YES, I TOO HAVE HAD MY VISION

PAST AND PRESENT

LUNCH AT THE BELLINGHAUSEN

EVERYTHING IS ALL THINGS

WITH MONSIVÁIS THE YOUNGER

ONE DAY IN 1957

THE RETURN HOME

ANOTHER DAY, IN 1962

NOW

THE WOUND OF TIME

DREAMS, NOTHING MORE

TEST OF INITIATION

DIARY FROM ESCUDILLERS

       A VINDICATION OF HYPNOSIS

       SIENA REVISITED

      II. WRITING

       THE NARRATOR

       THE DARK TWIN

       DROCTULF AND OTHERS

       THE MARQUISE WAS NEVER CONTENT TO STAY AT HOME

       ON RECONCILIATIONS

       AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH

       WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL

       TRAVELING AND WRITING

       AN ARS POETICA?

       HERE COMES THE PARADE!

       CHARMS

      III. READINGS

       THE GREAT THEATER OF THE WORLD

       OUR CONTEMPORARY CHEKHOV

       ŠVEJK

       BOROLA AGAINST THE WORLD

       TWO WEEKS WITH THOMAS MANN

       THE GATES OF PARADISE

       OUR ULYSSES

       PEREIRA DECLARES

      IV. ENDING

       JOURNEY TO CHIAPAS

       I. THE BEGINNINGS

       II. WATER FROM THE SAME RIVER

       III. FROM THEN UNTIL NOW

      V. TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

      VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TRANSLATED TEXTS

       AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR BIOGRAPHIES

       PUBLISHER’S NOTE

INTRODUCTION

      PITOL IN THE RAIN

       By Enrique Vila-Matas