Quick Book Review – Álvaro Enrigue’s Sudden Death

Deeply researched. Every part of my brain was activated. Enrigue gives an ambitious historical retelling that speaks to larger political issues (e.g. sexuality, colonization, the Catholic church, sports, art making) while never losing sight of the clever structure and plot — focused on a single, epic, quasi-historical real tennis match. AND he kept it all as tight as possible.

Constant unique and quotable lines. Just one: “The first recorded tennis match in human history took place in hell and was a doubles match. It was played by four demons, using the soul of a French Seminarist by the name of Pierre.”

Enrigue broke the fourth wall in a way that felt in-tone with the rest of the book, and also in-step with the values of the narrator. He did so to 1) educate on the editorial decision making and 2) to describe a specific research grant through the New York Public Library that helped the author complete the book.

I am still sitting in bliss after the narratives converged. Like at one point, there is a change to sentence-by-sentence narrative switches that was truly a transcendent literary experience. No notes; perfect book for me.

(This refers to the edition translated by Natasha Wimmer. This was originally published on https://substack.com/@lumpyplume/)