Paperweight: a forbidden book for the susceptible and two other readings for the week | LIGHTS

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“Kill me if you can”

Author: Javier Ponce Gambirazio

Graphic novel

Pages: 188

Publisher: Witness 13

It all starts with the crazy story of two bankers who, due to a curse or something like that, end up turned into two cheap dolls. From there, everything that is related in “Kill me if you can” is one extravagance after another. Murders, capricious transformations, the religious coexisting with the profane, toxic love affairs and a succession of events that would cause frank rejection if it weren’t for the fact that they are quite funny in their nonchalance.

Described as a fotonovela, comic book and graphic novel (or “all three and none at the same time”, as noted on the back cover), Ponce’s book initially uses two raw materials: random old photos from which he invents stories , and several dolls with which he represents his most crazy situations. The grace of these images is what inspires the eight irreverent stories that, although presented separately, are actually concatenated thanks to characters that break in, vanish and reappear every few pages, in a mosaic that has a bit of a madhouse, of troop, dysfunctional family and even exclusive club.

“Kill me if you can” ironizes even the most sensitive issues (racism, homosexuality, feminism, etc.) and in some cases it goes too far, that is to say, to the point of seeming a somewhat forced satire in its cynical and reactionary eagerness. Beyond those slips, which are a price to pay for the act of shooting at close range, it is a refreshing reading in the midst of the contemporary aridity generated by political correctness.

“The Club of Psychopaths”

Author: John Katzenbach

Novel

Pages: 630

Publisher: B Editions

In 2002, the American John Katzenbach published his most successful novel, “The Psychoanalyst”, which recounted with great suspense the dilemma of a psychoanalyst besieged by a psychopath who pushed him to suicide or the death of a family member if he did. did not reveal his identity.

Nearly two decades later, and with several other books published in the interim, the author returns with another ambitious fiction, at least from its length. “The Psychopaths Club” is a long-winded novel in which Katzenbach resumes his fascination with the psychic alterations of the characters, which reach their extremes from subtle alterations, as a study of the mechanisms of manipulation of minds. more twisted than one can imagine.

In this case, it focuses on a group of five murderers who are looking for their victims on the Deep Web (the darkest side of the Internet), but who run into a daring teenage couple who will not be intimidated by their threats. Thus, with each side shielded in the anonymity of cyberspace, Katzenbach gradually reveals the true face of the protagonists, and patiently loosens his skein of tensions, plot twists and brutal moments.

“The National Library of Peru”

Author: Marcos Garfias

Rehearsal

Pages: 196

Editorial: BNP

The National Library of Peru is not just any library. To begin with, it is special because it was born in 1821, that is, with the very independence of our country. A work that arose to represent the aspirations of freedom and development of the founders of the republic, but grounded in its culture.

But it is also special because of its own trajectory, so novel, or tragic and hopeful fiction at the same time. Because in its two centuries of life there have been several key moments: its creation in the midst of the independence war; its looting by Chilean troops in 1883, with the subsequent reconstruction led by Ricardo Palma; or the fire suffered in 1943, from which he rose again thanks to the selfless work of another of his heroes, Jorge Basadre.

It is that story, rich in vicissitudes and characters, that the author narrates in this book. And he does it not with an encyclopedic tone, but by peeking at specific passages. The set is therefore as detailed as moving.

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