Delirium: Summary and book reviews of Delirium by Laura Restrepo, plus links to an excerpt from Delirium and a biography of Laura Restrepo.

Internationally acclaimed for the virtuosity and power of her fiction, Laura Restrepo has created in Delirium a passionate, lyrical, devastating tale of eros and insanity. Aguilar, an unemployed literature professor who has resorted to selling dog food for a living, returns home from a short trip to discover that his wife, Agustina, has gone mad. He doesn’t know what has happened during his absence, and in his search for answers, he gradually unearths profound and shadowy secrets about her past. On one level, Delirium reads like a detective story, as the reader pieces together information to discover the roots of Agustina’s madness. But it is also a remarkably nuanced novel whose currents run much deeper, delving into the minds of four characters: Aguilar, a husband passionately in love with his wife and determined to rescue her from insanity: Agustina, a beautiful woman from an upper-class Colombian family who is caught in the throes of madness; Midas, a drug-trafficker and money-launderer, who is Agustina’s former lover; and Nicolás, Agustina’s grandfather. Through the mixing of these distinct voices, Laura Restrepo creates a searing portrait of a society battered by war and corruption as well as an intimate look at the daily lives of people struggling to stay sane in an unstable country. Delirium already has been awarded the 2004 Premio Alfaguara, the 2006 Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger in France for best translated fiction. It is an ambitious and deeply affecting masterwork by one of Latin America’s most important contemporary voices.

BookBrowse

At the start it can be difficult to distinguish who is narrating the various segments of the story, as they chop and change frequently without introduction. This gives the novel an intangible quality that threatens to be hard work, but quite quickly the reader learns to recognize the individual voices, and the threat of the ephemeral gives way to solidly told streams of narrative that reveal, if not the whole, at least enough to see and understand the cause of Agustina's breakdown.  (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Full Review (985 words).

Media Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle - Timothy Peters Agustina is a deeply felt, richly imagined character in this complex novel, but the overbearing weight of symbolic purpose makes her presence more didactic than entertaining (if "entertaining" can even be applied to a novel this serious). Still, Delirium is beautifully written and told.   New York Times - Terrence Rafferty [B]oth sweeter than you'd expect and less nourishing than you'd hope.   The New Yorker Restrepo writes with a sinister lyricism and a dry, leavening wit, detailing the ways in which money, power, and corruption have scourged the fragile Agustina and her city.   The Philadelphia Inquirer Saying that Laura Restrepo's writing is beautiful is kind of like saying that the Eiffel Tower is in Europe. Every word in Delirium is perfectly chosen, painfully honest, and brutally effective. Restrepo chooses her words like a poet, with infinite care. Even without her superb writing, though, Restrepo's novel would be excellent, her story intriguing and engrossing.   The San Diego Union-Tribune Delirium is a rich literary journey that delivers lush rewards. Laura Restrepo has created a diamond-hard vision that ultimately yields a layered, subtle, intelligent yet audacious sense of life."   The Washington Post Laura Restrepo's Delirium is a book-and-a-half: stunning, dense, complex, mind-blowing. This novel goes far above politics, right up into high art.   Library Journal The story, which takes place in Bógota, Colombia, in the 1980s, is tinged with hints of the charged political atmosphere of the time and explores issues surrounding class and money, including Aguilar's rejection of both.   Kirkus Reviews Restrepo's unflinching portrayal of Agustina's - and, by implication, Colombia's - reluctance to confront her demons has genuine power, and many of this sometimes ungainly novel's big scenes are hard to shake off...Delirium is one of her better books.   Publishers Weekly It has all the tension of a great detective story, and Wimmer's translation captures every tormented bit of Aguilar's desperation.   Booklist - Donna Seaman Restrepo's shrewd, darkly erotic, and biting psychopolitical drama nets Colombia's magic and sorrows, and maps the damage wrought as delirium seizes individuals, a family, and a nation.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by Austinlaw
Delirium: Layers of Imagination
Born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1950, Laura Restrepo knew and experienced life in Latin America. Using her experience and knowledge Restrepo wrote her book Delirium, in 2004 Restrepo won the Premio Alfaguara de Novela for her amazing insight into...   Read More

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