Jorge Mario Varlotta Levrero (23 January 1940 – 30 August 2004), better known as Mario Levrero, was a Uruguayan author. He authored nearly 20 novels as well as writing articles, columns, comic books and crosswords. His work is said to be influenced by

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

and

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

. Throughout his life he shunned publicity and was difficult with interviewers. Regardless, he became a cult figure in Uruguay and Argentina. His writing was often branded as science fiction or

genre fiction In the book-trade, genre fiction, also known as formula fiction, or commercial fiction,Girolimon, Mars"Types of Genres: A Literary Guide" Southern New Hampshire University, 11 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2024. encompasses fictional ...

, a categorisation he strongly rejected. Critics have commented on the both sinister and humorous nature of his work.

Biography

Levrero was born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

in 1940 to an Italian-Uruguayan family. He stopped attending school at age 14 due to a heart murmur and instead spent his time in bed, reading and listening to tango music. Homenaje a Mario Levrero

Having never finished school, he claimed that attending a tango club was his university. In his twenties, he ran a secondhand bookshop with a friend and was briefly a member of the

Communist Party of Uruguay The Communist Party of Uruguay (, PCU) is a communist party in Uruguay, founded on 21 September 1920 by members of the Socialist Party who had endorsed the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks. The current secretary-general of the PCU is Juan ...

's youth wing. His first short stories were published in science fiction magazines in Buenos Aires. In 1966, Levrero wrote his first novel ''La ciudad'' (''The City'')''.'' He claimed the book was his attempt to "translate Kafka into Uruguayan". Published in 1970, the novel became part of what he described as an "involuntary trilogy" along with ''París'' (''Paris'') (1980) and ''El lugar'' (''The Place'') (1982). By the 1980s, Levrero was gaining more mainstream recognition after receiving an award for his novella ''Desplazamientos'' (''Displacements'')''.'' Levrero received a

Guggenheim Grant Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated dist ...

in 2000 to finish work on a project he had begun in 1984 that he called ''La novela luminosa'' (''The Luminous Novel''). Intended to be an account of a transcendental experience, the posthumously published work ended up as a composite of a diary detailing failed attempts at writing the novel and unedited chapters of the incomplete novel. It is widely regarded as his masterpiece. Levrero died in Montevideo in 2004. Levrero's work has inspired Latin American writers such as Rodolfo Fogwill,

César Aira César Aira (Argentine Spanish: ; born 23 February 1949 in Coronel Pringles, Buenos Aires Province) is an Argentine writer and translator, and an exponent of contemporary Argentine literature. Aira has published over a hundred short books of st ...

and

Alejandro Zambra Alejandro Andrés Zambra Infantas (Santiago, Chile, born September 24, 1975) is a Chilean poet, short-story writer and novelist. He has been recognized for his talent as a young Latin American writer, chosen in 2007 as one of the " Bogotá39" (the ...

Work

Novels

* ''La ciudad'', 1970 * ''Diario de un canalla/Burdeos'', 1972 * ''París'', 1980 * ''El lugar'', 1982 * ''Fauna/Desplazamientos'', 1987 * ''La Banda del Ciempiés'', 1989 * ''El alma de Gardel'', 1996 * ''El discurso vacío'', 1996 * ''Dejen todo en mis manos'', 1998 * ''La novela luminosa'', 2005 * ''Trilogía involuntaria'' (includes ''La ciudad'', ''París'', and ''El lugar''), 2008 * ''Nick Carter se divierte mientras el lector es asesinado y yo agonizo y otras novelas'', 2012 * ''La Banda del Ciempiés'', 2015

Short story collections

* ''La máquina de pensar en Gladys'', 1970 (“The Thinking-About-Gladys Machine”. 2024) * ''Todo el tiempo'', 1982 * ''Aguas salobres'', 1983 * ''Los muertos'', 1986 * ''Espacios libres'', 1987 * ''El portero y el otro'', 1992 * ''Ya que estamos'', 2001 * ''Los carros de fuego'', 2003 * ''Cuentos completos'', 2019

Comic books

* ''Santo Varón/I'', with artwork by Lizán, 1986 * ''Los profesionales'', with artwork by Lizán, 1988 * ''Historietas reunidas de Jorge Varlotta'', 2016

Other writings

* ''Manual de parapsicología'', 1978 * ''Caza de conejos'', 1986 (reissued in 2012) * ''Irrupciones I'', 2001 * ''Irrupciones II'', 2001

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levrero, Mario 1940 births 2004 deaths Uruguayan science fiction writers Uruguayan short story writers