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Title	:	The Lost Steps
Author	:	Alejo Carpentier
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 296 pages
Published	:	February 13th 2001 by Univ Of Minnesota Press (first published 1953)
Categories	:	Fiction. European Literature. Spanish Literature. Cultural. Latin American

The Lost Steps

Alejo Carpentier

Paperback | Pages: 296 pages

Rating: 3.94 | 2438 Users | 198 Reviews

Interpretation Supposing Books The Lost Steps

The Lost Steps is a colourful allegoric tale of an attempted escape from the routine existence on the treadmill of modern civilization. The main hero sees himself as Sisyphus futilely rolling the huge boulder of his fruitless responsibilities from day to day and he desperately wishes to flee this fate…

…I asked myself whether, in bygone days, men had longed for bygone days as I, this summer morning, longed for certain ways of life that man had lost forever.

So at the first possibility he embarks on the journey fabulously echoing the legendary wanderings of Ulysses…

With its cargo of bellowing bulls, coops of chickens, pigs running about the deck under the hammock of the Capuchin and getting tangled up in his rosary of seeds, the song of the Negress cooks, the laughter of the Greek diamond-hunter, the prostitute in her mourning nightgown bathing in the prow, the guitar-players making music for the sailors to dance, this ship of ours made me think of Bosch’s Ship of Fools.

And he boldly travels through the symbioses of cultures, concoction of customs, beliefs and superstitions… And there are many parallels with Homer's Odyssey: Ruth is Penelope, Mouche – Circe, Rosario – Nausicaä and even the one-eyed dog is called Polyphemus.

But dates were still losing figures. In headlong flight the years emptied, ran backward, were erased, restoring calendars, moons, changing centuries numbered in three figures to those of single numbers. The gleam of the Grail has disappeared, the nails have fallen from the Cross, the moneychangers have returned to the temple, the Star of Bethlehem has faded, and it is the year 0, when the Angel of the Annunciation returned to heaven.

This journey through space is also a journey through time – the protagonist travels as if he goes through the epochs until he arrives to the fountainhead of humankind, pristine garden of Genesis. And he wants to stay in this primordial settlement of lotus-eaters for good and begins to compose threnody of Ulysses descending to the land of the dead… But the destiny of Ulysses is to return so the civilization tries to claim him back… The modern times don’t suit ancient heroes – exposed to contemporary civilization they wither.

Describe Books As The Lost Steps

Original Title:	Los pasos perdidos
ISBN:	0816638071 (ISBN13: 9780816638079)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger for Roman (1956)

Rating About Books The Lost Steps

Ratings: 3.94 From 2438 Users | 198 Reviews

Notice About Books The Lost Steps

These were the days for the accumulation of humus, the rotting and decay of the fallen leaves, in keeping with the law decreeing that all generation shall take place in the neighborhood of excretion, that organs of generation shall be intertwined with those of urination, and that all that is born shall come into the world enveloped in mucus, serum, and blood--just as out of manure comes the purity of the asparagus and the green of mint. p. 229This was my first exposure to Carpentier and I was

The Lost Steps [1953/1989] ★★★★1/2 we let ourselves succumb to the world of wonder, eager for still greater portents. There arose beside the hearth, conjured up by Montsalvatje, the medicine men who healed the wounds with the magic incantation of Bogotá, the Amazon Queen, Cicanocohora, the amphibious men who slept at night in the bottoms of the lakes, and those whose sole nourishment was the scent of flowers [Carpentier/de Onis, 1954/89: 144].Los Pasos Perdidos or The Lost Steps was translated

I personally did not enjoy The Lost Steps. For me, it was a very hard book to follow and fully understand. Carpentier's unique writing style is something to be respected, however, I wouldn't say I have a preference for it. His writing is filled with incessant descriptions of the Venezuelan landscape and culture that I truly believe didn't help me in understanding any important theme within the work. I did enjoy the protagonists search for identity which I was able to relate to. I also liked the

The Lost Steps is a colourful allegoric tale of an attempted escape from the routine existence on the treadmill of modern civilization.The main hero sees himself as Sisyphus futilely rolling the huge boulder of his fruitless responsibilities from day to day and he desperately wishes to flee this fateI asked myself whether, in bygone days, men had longed for bygone days as I, this summer morning, longed for certain ways of life that man had lost forever.So at the first possibility he embarks on

Los Pasos Perdidos, while clearly an important work as evidenced by almost every review on this page was very difficult for me to get through. While I appreciate Carpentier's extraordinary talent as an author, I can't say I enjoyed the novel. Descriptions that, in my opinion, could have been made in a paragraph or two were drawn out over pages and pages, and I often found myself losing focus before reaching the end of a passage. I also found fault with virtually all of Carpentier's characters.

Carpentier is one of the most extraordinary writers I've ever encountered, the equal of Borges, Faulkner, or Lowry. His prose is savage and elegant, the worlds he creates as convincing as they are fantastic. He needs to be Big News, a Household Word, he should enjoy a reputation commensurate with his genius.