By Mario Bellatin
Translated from the Spanish by David Shook
Featuring three different autobiographies, The Large Glass challenges the absurd and hubristic project of the autobiography itself. Mario Bellatin’s The Large Glass deconstructs the very form it embraces, revealing the artifice of the autobiographical genre, while cleverly celebrating the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves.
Publication Date: February 16, 2016
Paperback: 9781939419491
Description
In The Large Glass, celebrated Mexican innovator Mario Bellatin now examines his most complicated subject; himself. Featuring three different autobiographies, The Large Glass challenges the absurd and hubristic project of the autobiography itself — how can any writer account for himself in a way that is dignified yet honest? Intimate yet public? Like the Duchamp sculpture from which it takes its name, Mario Bellatin’s The Large Glass deconstructs the very form it embraces, revealing the artifice of the autobiographical genre, while cleverly celebrating the importance of the stories we tell about ourselves.
Biographical Note
Mario Bellatin (born in Mexico, 1960) has already gained a status as one of the greatest living Mexican writers. Bellatin, who has been called “controversial,” “a cult writer,” and an “eccentric public figure,” is the author of dozens of intricate, compelling, and absolutely unique novels that have won numerous international literary awards, including the José Donoso Ibero-American Literature Prize, Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, Premio Nacional de Literatura Mazatlán, Barbara Gittings Literature Award, Antonin Artaud Award, and the José María Arguedas Prize. Bellatin's works have been translated into 21 languages. Previous books published in English include Beauty Salon, The Large Glass, Shiki Nagaoka: A Nose for Fiction, The Transparent Bird's Gaze, and Jacob the Mutant. He lives in Mexico City.
David Shook's many translations include work by Mario Bellatin, Tedi López Mills, and Víctor Terán. Their collection of poetry, Our Obsidian Tongues, was long-listed for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. They live in Los Angeles.