Books on GIF #1 — 'The Seven Madmen' by Roberto Arlt

Hello!

Welcome to the first installment of Books on GIF, a review and discussion of random books as told mostly through GIFs. We'll cover fiction, nonfiction and the occasional graphic novel.

I just finished 'The Seven Madmen' by Roberto Arlt, an Argentine novelist.

It's a novel of male angst. Protagonist Erdosain is sad and thinks life is hopeless in a 'Fight Club' meets Meursault kind of way where in order for a man to feel he actually exists he must

He steals from his job, his wife leaves him and he mopes around until he falls in with The Astrologer, a man bent on forming a secret society to overthrow the Argentine government and replace it with a utopia where he and his wacko elect are in charge.

The Astrologer tells Erdosain that society is falling apart because the lies that once kept people in line, like God and religion, have fallen away. They need to be replaced with new lies - lies that will give people hope again. The secret society will provide them.

They hatch a plot that involves brothels, metal flowers, extortion and murder.

The book is beautifully written with lots of little sentence gems:

But reading through to the end felt a bit like:

'The Seven Madman' (Los siete locos) was originally published in 1929. The English translation was published in England in 1948. The latest edition was published by The New York Review of Books. 

What's next?
I'm choosing between the following books to tackle next: 'Beauty is a Wound' by Eka Kurinawan, 'The Meursault Investigation' by Kamel Daoud, or 'My Brilliant Friend' by Elena Ferrante. Which do you guys want to hear about?

Send thoughts, comments and feedback to booksongif@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!