the speed of light (la velocidad de la luz), javier cercas's 2005 novel, is an ambitious work that confronts a number of significant themes, including success, friendship, memory, forgiveness, and the legacy of the vietnam war. spanning some seventeen years in the life of its semi-autobiographical narrator, the speed of light begins with the young aspiring writer and his struggling artist friend, marcos, setting out for a night on the town, which they would inevitably spend getting high, drinking beer, and championing the masterpieces they had yet to even conceive of. we didn't know any painters or writers, we didn't go to art openings or book launches but we probably liked to imagine ourselves as two bohemians in an era when bohemians no longer existed or as two terrible kamikazes ready to explode cheerfully against reality; in fact we were nothing more than two arrogant provincials lost in the capital, lonely and furious... we were brutally ambitious. we aspired to fail. but not simply to fail any old way: we aspired to total, radical, absolute failure. it was our way of aspiring to success.on that evening, the young writer encounters an old professor who offers him an opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant in the spanish department at the university of illinois (urbana-champaign). his decision to accept the offer sets in motion the rest of the story, and ends up radically shaping the course of both his life and literary career.once stateside in urbana (at the same university where cercas himself once worked), the narrator meets rodney falk, a fellow assistant in the spanish department with whom he must share an office. falk, a "surly, eccentric," well-read veteran of the vietnam war, is generally ostracized by his peers (more on account of his perceived peculiarities and anti-social nature than his being years older than most of the other lecturers). falk and the narrator quickly become friends, and their lives become entangled in a way that will not prove evident until many years later, despite long interludes where neither has contact with the other. the narrator, over the course of many years, learns more about the enigmatic falk through falk's own father, a series of letters falk wrote home while in vietnam, and eventually falk's wife and young son. the narrator's quest to understand falk, and perhaps one day tell his story, becomes somewhat of an obsession- concurrent with the modest success he has recently enjoyed (to excess) as a novelist.cercas's narrator comes to find out that falk was a participant in the my khe massacre (a hamlet in the same village as the more well-known mỹ lai)- a horrendous incident that has a lasting and destructive effect on falk's life. although the speed of light is punctuated by a good many narrative revelations, it is cadenced by a steady progression of corresponding insights on the part of the narrator himself. cercas's storytelling skills are finely honed, and his prose adds richly to the already captivating tale. what distinguishes the novel most of all are the humanity and compunction with which cercas imbues both falk and the narrator. while many novels have been written about the haunting legacy of war, and especially vietnam, the speed of light forgoes focusing on the arduous experiences of combat in an inhospitable foreign land and instead centers upon the indelible mark left on its participants' psyche, spirit, and character; as well as the ramifications that imprint has on a veteran's friends and loved ones. cercas, in a choice that lends the novel its ambitiousness, does not limit his story to the consequences of war, but enlivens it by adding a counter to his suffering war veteran- the narrator, whose writerly success stands in contrast to the pathos and self-defeat suffered by falk. yet, when the narrator's own life begins to spiral out of his control, as a result of the success he is unable to endure, the similarities between the two character's lives becomes readily apparent and their inherent vulnerabilities as individuals exposed.the speed of light is a compelling, intimate novel. its serious subject matter is dealt with sincerely and free of affectation. cercas's story is one concerned with notions of fidelity, the pitfalls of accomplishment, and the psychological aftereffects of war atrocities. the speed of light is an emotional, compassionate work and an excellent demonstration by cercas on the power of literature to affect one deeply. 'the atrocious thing about this war is that it's not a war. here the enemy is nobody, because it could be anybody, and they're nowhere, because they're everywhere: inside and out, up and down, in front and behind. they're nobody, but they exist. in other wars you tried to defeat them; not in this one: in this one you try to kill them, even though we all know that by killing them we won't defeat them. it's not worth kidding yourself: this is a war of exterminations, so the more things we kill- people or animals or plants, it's all the same- the better... of course we all make an effort to pretend we understand something, that we know why we're here and killing and maybe dying, but we do it only so we don't go completely crazy. because here we're all crazy, crazy and lonely and without any possibility of advancing or retreating, without any possibility of loss or gain, as if we were going endlessly round and round an invisible circle at the bottom of an empty well, where the sun never reaches. i'm writing in the dark. i'm not afraid. but sometimes it scares me to think i'm on the verge of discovering who i am, that i'll come around a bend on a path some day and see a soldier, and it will be me.'*translated from the spanish by anne mclean (cortázar, vila-matas, evelio rosero, et al)
An aspiring young Spanish novelist finds himself teaching as a visiting scholar in Urbana, Illinois, in the 1980s where he befriends a Vietnam War veteran and fellow university instructor with whom he shares an office. I've read my fair share of Vietnam War novels over the years, and this one had the added interest of being written through the lense of an outsider with little experience or knowledge of the war firsthand (or even of America's long and tortured history with the war first hand), but unfortunately Cercas, even writing from the outside, dredges up the same old plot points: two brothers go to war, one dies, the other volunteers for a combat unit that ends up committing a village massacre a la My Lai, he comes up broken, he gets called a baby killer and gets spat at as soon as he gets off the plane, etc. etc. The writing itself is reserved in a way that I found pleasing, and there are some lovely scenes and descriptive bits. But the moment our intrepid veteran got spat at by a bunch of college hippies lurking in Chicago's O'Hare airport, my hackles went up and never quite got smoothed down again. (It's a particular pet peeve of mine, this mythology of the returning war hero dripping peacenik spittle from his otherwise pristine uniform, in part because I think it's been used to undermine and control anti-war sentiment over the last forty years. It's also been largely debunked as an accurate portrayal of veteran experience (see http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?... just for starters) and yet continues to crop up in otherwise perfectly good books. But I digress.)Can't entirely recommend this book, though I haven't written this author off entirely either.
What do You think about The Speed Of Light (2007)?
Quando Tatiana Feltrin disse que A Velocidade da Luz foi um dos melhores livros que ela leu no ano passado (2013), não hesitei. Confiando no gosto da blogueira, comecei a leitura às cegas, sem ter lido sinopse ou sequer alguma resenha e, portanto, não tinha ideia do que me aguardava. A Velocidade da Luz conta a história do narrador, um espanhol aspirante a escritor, que sonha em escrever um livro, e Rodney Falk, um americano veterano da guerra do Vietnã. O narrador deixa a Espanha para lecionar língua espanhola em uma universidade em Urbana, no estado americano do Illinois, onde cria uma amizade estrita com o ex-combatente. Em posse das cartas que Rodney enviara ao pai durante a guerra, o narrador tentará compreender o que, de fato, aconteceu e escrever a história do amigo.Ao passo que o autor discorre sobre as dificuldades de se narrar uma história, tenta entender o ex-combatente e toda a bagagem que se traz de uma guerra. É uma história de glória e declínio. De degradação, de bebedeira e traição, de fracasso – e das consequências disso nas amizades e na família. Não tenho como falar pelos que leram a sinopse, mas, para mim, a história é intrigante e completamente imprevisível. Lá pela página 80 eu ainda não tinha ideia do que viria, nem ao menos conseguia enumerar algumas possibilidades. O livro é cheio de citações que tocam o leitor, mas não do tipo “bonitinhas”. Não. São verdades crudelíssimas sobre o comportamento humano, nem sempre admitidas. Há os que consideram boa parte desse livro como autobiográfica, pois a história do narrador assemelha-se consideravelmente com a do autor, seus livros, sua cidade natal, seu estilo de vida e o período em que lecionou em Urbana, onde, de fato, conheceu um veterano de guerra.A escrita mantém um padrão elevadíssimo e faz a leitura fluir muito bem. O autor vai e volta no tempo com destreza, dentro do mesmo capítulo e, muitas vezes, no mesmo parágrafo. Gostei do que li, mas devo admitir que não é meu “tipo” de livro. É sério demais – mas não me entendam mal, não que eu não goste de estórias sérias, pois gosto, não seria esse o problema – mas aqui é tudo muito cru, duro, sem floreios, sem cor, meio deprimente. É sério, mas não emociona. É sentimental, mas não comove. Não a ponto de ser meu-tipo-favorito-de-livro, de me encantar. Talvez seja daqui a uns 15 ou 20 anos, mas não hoje. Porém, não posso negar que se trata de um excelente autor e um digno livro.
—Caroline Gurgel
This was an interesting book from a couple of perspectives. This book is part historical fiction and part a story of an individual's (2 actually) way of dealing with tragedy and terrible mistakes. I felt that the author succeeded in making his subject's feelings, struggles and ultimate resolution empathetic, horrifying and realistic, but did not succeed in doing so for the narrator. Whether or not this was intentional on the author's part I do not know, but it made the narrator seem somewhat obtuse or dishonest, or simply not a fully developed character; an interesting read nonetheless.
—Dgoll
this book has some excellent reflections about writing and being an artist--the conflict between wanting success/appreciation for your work and doing it "art for art's sake" style.I like the many references to Hemingway like when he says something like there are two tragedies in life, one is of not getting what you want and the other is getting it. Some of the main themes are regret, loss and the emptiness of life.Because I haven't read much literature on the Vietnam war I enjoyed reading this book, particularly because it offers a unique perspective--the narrator is a young Spanish literature graduate who has the opportunity to study at the Univ. of Illinois Chambagne-Urbana and leave behind his frustrated starving-bohemian lifestyle, which is where he meets Rodney Falk, Vietnam veteran and participant of the Tiger Force batallion and this is where it starts...*read for the Modern Time Books Spanish reading group - May 2008*
—pa'tí m
