Ernesto Sabato
L'angelo dell'abisso

THE REVIEW

Talking to a friend, one of the few passionate readers, I discovered that L'angelo dell'abisso is the conclusion of a literary journey unknown to me, which I personally refuse to investigate.

The continuous reference to previous events, already used characters, and its "presence" in the third person were a challenge to decipher.

The professor, that is HIM, the figure I found most realistic, even in his kind retreat.

The narration about Che’s fate was and is a theft used without artifice; Che's diaries in Bolivia and other details I had already read, and I amused myself looking for them among the books I own. Obviously, the choice of a poorly educated character is apt and aware of the narrated event, Che’s clandestine war in Bolivia.

(At my home, besides various Guevara posters, I believe I have everything about our Ernesto Guevara de la Serna).

Another pleasant character, science, the connection between the two brought me back to Castaneda writing about Don Juan, or it is a period for me where sensation and reality often come face to face.

Science is lived as magic, the meeting of mediums would introduce a discussion on the "non-real," a parallel universe that accompanies us everywhere.

In this peculiarity, the deceased act as guides, to each their own Virgil, and the rationale to close the narrative with a work where the characters used are one with the author.

My choice was innocent. I had the physical pleasure of exploring another moment of South American writing, and (I borrow this from a critique made by others) the sense of the prophetic.

For this last statement allow me to add a brief note. We readers always arrive in a period subsequent to the writer, so sometimes we let ourselves be carried away by the facts.