From archive (archive)
Subject: CENTAUR IN THE GARDEN by Moacyr Scliar
From: ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (Evelyn C. Leeper)
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Date: 6 Jul 87 21:13:29 GMT




		  THE CENTAUR IN THE GARDEN by Moacyr Scliar
		       Translated by Margaret A. Neves
		   Available Press, 1984, (price unknown).
		      A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		       Copyright 1987 Evelyn C. Leeper

     There are several things that will get me interested in a book.  Jewish
fantasy is one.  A Latin American author is another.  A remaindered fantasy
is a third.  (Okay, so I'm cheap!)  So a remaindered novel by a Latin
American author about a Jewish centaur is a sure bet to be picked up by me.

     Unlike most of the Latin American authors I have read, Scliar is
Brazilian; hence his works first appeared in Portuguese and his literary
roots are not planted in quite the same soil as the great Spanish-speaking
South American fantasists (Borges, Garcia Marquez, etc.)  Perhaps because of
this, or perhaps for some other reason, THE CENTAUR IN THE GARDEN is more
realistic than the works of most of the other well-known fantasists of that
continent.

     Told in a combination of first person and first person speaking in
third person, THE CENTAUR IN THE GARDEN tells of the life of Guedali, born
of Jewish parents who immigrated to South America from Russia.  Guedali is
doubly an outcast--in addition to his Jewishness, he is a centaur.  This
presents some problems from the very beginning (most mohels are not
experienced in dealing with centaurs), and he spends much of his childhood
hidden from the outside world.  Eventually he must make his own way in the
world, seek love, try for acceptance.

     The story is told quite straightforwardly.  There is no explanation of
why Guedali is a centaur; he just is.  Much of what is magical in this book
is not explained, and in that regard it *is* similar to the other authors I
have mentioned.  It may be a Hispanic trait to accept the mystical more
readily than other cultures do.  Certainly the Catholicism of Iberia and
Latin America tends more toward the mystical than that of other regions, and
though Scliar is Jewish, he was educated in part in a Catholic school.  For
those who want a literate view of the outsider from a different perspective
than one usually sees, this book is definitely recommended.

					Evelyn C. Leeper
					(201) 957-2070
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