Hispanic Heritage Month Book Review- Sudden Death

Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue should be read by a particular audience. That would be tennis enthusiasts, art enthusiasts, and history enthusiasts. The story takes place in Europe, Mexico, and New York. The plot is not linear. The writing is stylistically complex. There are chapters portraying the tennis match that took place in the 16th century between the Italian painter Carravaggio and Spanish poet Quevedo. There are chapters depicting exchanges between historical figures, such as Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Jean Rombaud. There are other kings, popes, and dukes who come in and out of the short chapters. There are chapters that give us today's New York City. All of the historical chapters are punctuated by the tennis chapters. Of course, the tennis match is symbolic of the changing world of that century, but it applies to today's world changes too. 

This novel, while very entertaining to me, might not appeal to the type of reader that needs a clear direction in the story-telling. There are also fictional historical details, such as Rombaud collecting the hair of Anne Boleyn after slicing off her head and taking her hair back to France to make tennis balls with it! Enrigue slides between history and fiction smoothly. And Enrigue even writes in the novel, "the function of a novel is precisely... to replace the void with an imaginary archive."

The language is sometimes heavy to wade through, ususally during the historical episodes, and other times the language is breezy and even downright vulgar, but hilarious. There are even pages where the author's voice speaks directly to the reader. This is why I say that this novel is made for a particular audience. It won't appeal to everyone. But from the original Spanish, it has been masterfully translated by Natasha Wimmer. 

At the age of 27, Enrigue was awarded the prestigious Joaquín Mortiz Prize for his first novel, La muerte de un instalador (Death of an Installation Artist). In 2012, it was selected as one of the key novels of the Mexican 20th century.

His 2013 novel, Hypothermia, offers an unflinching gaze towards 21st-century life and

the immigrant experience. Click on the book cover to see a book review. You can find these books on our library eSource World Cat. 

Enrigue was a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library and a Fellow at the Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies. He has taught at  New York University, Princeton, the University of Maryland, and Columbia. Sudden Death was awarded the prestigious Herralde Prize in Spain and the Elena Poniatowska International Novel Award in Mexico. 

If you enjoy the writng of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, you will probably enjoy Enrigue's story-telling too. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with the discovery of this esteemed Mexican writer.