Review by Booklist Review
Luiselli's debut book of essays, published in conjunction with her first novel, Faces in the Crowd (2014), brings the captivating, meditative work of Mexican-born Luiselli stateside. In these short, linked essays, Luiselli explores themes of motion, travel, transition, and reflection. Whether wandering in a Venetian graveyard in search of Joseph Brodsky's resting place or navigating neighborhoods and contemplating the state of longing described by the Portuguese term saudade, erudite Luiselli writes with a cosmopolitan appreciation for cityscapes. She nods to such literary figures as Swiss writer Robert Walser, French poet Charles Baudelaire, and German critic Walter Benjamin, joining the long tradition of writerly saunters, strolls, and flaneries. Luiselli's prose moves quickly, and the resulting essays challenge readers to rethink notions of space and place. In Relingos, Luiselli considers the cartography of empty space and addresses the imaginary architecture of Roland Barthes without sounding unpleasantly academic or didactic. By combining the perceptive intelligence of Helene Cixous with the free-form sentences of W. G. Sebald, these essays establish Luiselli as one of her generation's finest nonfiction writers.--Baez, Diego Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Writing about Mexico City is a task doomed to failure," notes Luiselli, yet that's the just task she takes on in her essays exploring that city, as well as Venice and New York. Each essay is subdivided into bite-size observations, arranged lackadaisically under subtitles that relate more to the subject at large than the contents of their section: construction signs, for example, or cycling directions for Luiselli's route through her neighborhood. These essays take an unhurried pace well-suited for the ambling walks and bike rides that inspired them, deepened by literary and historical asides that situate these places in a context beyond the present moment. Language holds as much significance as geography here, particularly those words that have no easy translation, such as Portuguese's melancholic saudade or the Spanish concept of relingos-unclaimed urban space. This leads some sections to become overly enamored of their own lyricism, but the final essay brings the collection to a satisfying conclusion, returning to Venice and the San Michele graveyard in which the first essay occurs, while incorporating key details from earlier pieces. Luiselli's writing here seems more rightly called poetry than prose, evoking all the sensory detail that implies and leaving any prosaic conclusions for after the journey's end. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
