Review: The Dream of Heroes

The Dream of Heroes by Adolfo Bioy Casares
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Unless I'm wrong
I but obey
The urge of a song:
I'm - bound - away!

(Robert Frost – Away!)

How did I come about reading this book? Well, you might say it was the urge of a song. A few years back Raul mentioned a CD of Tango songs performed by a singer with a husky voice - as if she had just finished smoking a whole pack of cigarettes, to put it in his words.

I got me a copy of it, 'Encaje' by Adriana Varela. I liked it very much. One song in particular got my attention - Milonga de Gauna. Not speaking Spanish myself I could only make out something about Emilio Gauna who died in a fight, on one carnival night in Palermo.

At one point I tried searching the internet for this Gauna guy, thinking this song might have something to do with a historical figure. Turns out he is the protagonist of a book by Adolfo Bioy Casares - El sueño de los héroes (the song was probably written for a movie by the same name).

Well obviously when my curiosity had built up I decided to read the book. Since it was not translated into Hebrew I had to do with the English version, which has long been out of print. Finally, I purchased a used copy (former property of Boston Public Library) from a used books site on the web.

The book starts with a description of a drinking journey during three nights of the 1927 carnival. An event which seems to have some great significance for the protagonist. For us readers the significance is less clear. It goes on as a pretty typical love story of two young people of the lower class, a few shrewd remarks by the author, but all the same quite minor. The ending is an attempt by the hero to re-live the past with another drinking journey, which, as might be expected leads to a different, more horrific view of the past, and finishes at a bitter end.

Personally I enjoyed it.

P.S.

You can enjoy a somewhat different performance of the song on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/OT53trAjWVQ


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