Haroldo Conti's oeuvre consists of four novels, all of which won important literary prizes, and three collections of short stories. Only his first novel has been translated into English. Born in 1925, Conti was kidnapped in May of 1976 (that is, a mere two months after the infamous military junta assumed power) and was never heard from again. His name has been added to the list of "desaparecidos". Outside of Argentina, Conti may not be as well known as some of his contemporaries, like Borges, Cortázar, Bioy Casares, Sabato, Puig, Saer, or Piglia, but within a few years he became one of the nation's most venerated authors. Being his first novel, _Southeaster_ is an excellent introduction to Conti's world and style.
Published in 1962 (the same year as Cortázar's _Cronopios and Famas_ and Bioy's _El lado de la sombra_, one year after Sabato's _On Heroes and Tombs_, two years before _Responso_, Saer's first novel), _Southeaster_ is not concerned with plot or with character development as much it is with setting. The action takes place in the Paraná delta, where Boga, the protagonist, fishes for a living. The river itself is a character, often anthropomorphized. The narrator, for instance, says that the river is annoyed by a certain attitude human beings may have towards it. Briefly stated, _Southeaster_ is an exploration of the relationship between a man and a river. This is a complex relationship to say the least. The man takes sustenance from the river, but the river is not kind; in a way, the river must be fought, and one must fight it with dignity.
My comments may already have led many readers to think about Hemingway, and as a matter of fact, Conti's work has been compared to that of the author of _The Old Man and the Sea_. One must not forget, however, that the River Plate region was also the home of the Uruguayan-born Horacio Quiroga (_Stories of Love, Madness, and Death_, 1917), who also wrote about man's struggle with nature. To English readers, Quiroga might best be described as a mixture of Kipling, Poe, and Jack London. He is in many ways the precursor of the Conti one encounters in _Southeaster_. (He is also, incidentally, the author of the most shocking short story I have ever read, "The Decapitated Chicken".) Conti's novel, in turn, prefigures the work of Juan José Saer, who also set several of his novels and short stories in a region bathed by rivers. Saer is also known to produce exhaustive description, as in _El limonero real_ (1974, unavailable in English), where the act of getting up from bed and putting on clothes may take up over twenty pages of the text.
I indicated above that _Southeaster_ does not have much plot. This does not mean that there is no action. As in many novellas, in _Southeaster_ the concept of plot gives way to what I call, for want of a better term, dérive. The concept is Guy Debord's, for whom dérive means an unplanned journey, such as an aimless stroll through a city. In a dérive, in other words, there no established end, but simply the walker's fancy, taking him or her to unexpected places. (In Spanish, "a la deriva," which is also the title of a Quiroga story, means "adrift".) An example of dérive as opposed to plot in American literature might be Don DeLillo's _Cosmopolis_ (2003). In _Southeaster_, we simply follow Boga in his wanderings through the river area. The narrative is appropriately adrift. If this novel were to be made into a film, the best filmmaker I can think of for the task would be Lisandro Alonso, director of _La libertad_ (2001), _Los muertos_ (2004), and _Jauja_ (2014), among others.
_Southeaster_ is an excellent novel, and its style, which is wonderfully rendered into English by Jon Lindsay Miles, carries the reader like a river's current. To those who are new to the author and able to read Spanish, however, I would recommend Conti's second novel, _Alrededor de la jaula_ (literally, "around the cage"), which has more character development and interaction, more of a human element. The story of a boy, Milo, and his older guardian, Silvestre, who work at an amusement park, _Alrededor de la jaula_ is one of the most poignant stories I have ever read. It was made into an equally beautiful film titled _Crecer de golpe_ (Sergio Renán, 1977), or "growing up suddenly". Hopefully, this novel will become available in English soon.
I will continue to read Conti chronologically, so next on my list is his third novel, _En vida_.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!
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