The Mutations, Jorge Comensal
The Mutations, Jorge Comensal
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The Mutations

Author: Jorge Comensal, Charlotte Whittle

Narrator: Timothy Andrés Pabon

Unabridged: 5 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/12/2019


Synopsis

A modern-day Flaubert takes us on a comic tour through a deeply neurotic Mexico CityRamón Martinez is a militant atheist, successful lawyer, and conventional family man. But all of that changes when his privileged life disintegrates after cancer of the tongue deprives him of the source of his power and livelihood: speech.Jorge Comensal’s The Mutations is a comedy tracing the metastasis of Ramón’s cancer through his body and through the lives of his family members, colleagues, and doctors, dissecting the experience of illness and mapping the relationships both strengthened and frayed in its wake. Mateo and Paulina, his teenage children, struggle with the temptations of masturbation and binge-eating, respectively. Ramón’s melancholic oncologist is haunted by the memory of a young patient whom he was unable to save. His selfish pathologist believes Ramón’s tumor holds the key to a major scientific breakthrough. And then Elodia, Ramón’s pious maid, brings him a foul-mouthed parrot as a birthday gift, and this filthy bird becomes Ramón's companion, confidant, and unlikely double. Paying homage to forebears such as Sontag, Didion, Flaubert, and Tolstoy, and filled with a rough-hewn poetry of regret, rage, and, finally, resignation, The Mutations offers up a profound and funny cross section of modern Mexico, as well as a bold treatment of an unspeakable yet universal reality.

About Jorge Comensal

Jorge Comensal was born in Mexico City in 1987. He was the recipient of scholarships from the Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas and the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, and has been published in such periodicals as Letras Libres, Este País, and VICE. The Mutations is his first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lark

Finally Teresa was experiencing...one of those unlikely moments that saved her life from absurdity. This is a hard novel to pay attention to, to the level it demands to be paid attention to, and yet it rewards your attention absolutely. On a sentence level it's beautiful. On a story level it's fragme......more

This is a really dense book that is packed with lots of topics that are difficult to face and some theoretical concepts. It is a more cerebral read that is a bit confusing at times, but really good once you get the big picture. After reading it, I had a lot to think about and to say. There is a full......more

Goodreads review by Eylül

Lütfen asalım bayrakları, yeni bir Alejandro Zambramız var! Tek kitapla bunu ilan etmekten çekinirim normalde ama gerçekten aynı lezzet, aynı kara mizah, aynı zenginlik! Kaldı ki bizzat Zambra şunları demişken, ben ilan etmişim etmemişim ne fark eder? "Mutasyonlar muhteşem bir roman, trajik olduğu k......more

Pek sevdiğim Alejandro Zambra, Mutasyonlar için şöyle diyor : ‘Okuduktan sonra Jorge Comensal’ın okuyacağım başka romanları da olsa keşke diyeceksiniz; ama bu ilk romanı olduğundan sıradaki muhteşem kitabı tamamlanana kadar sabırla bekleyeceğiz artık.’ Hakkında bu yorumu okuduğum bir kitaba büyük bir......more

Goodreads review by julieta

Empecé pensando que quizás el tono no me fascinaba, algo ceremonioso, o demasiado solemne. Lo pensé al principio, me parecía un poco plano, pero la verdad es que fue tomando forma. Tiene muchos elementos, empezando por la enfermedad, el cáncer, para ser precisos, y se va hacia distintas cosas, hacia......more


Quotes

"Timothy Pabon's smooth and arresting narration offers an intimate look at the lives of several people living in Mexico City who are afflicted by cancer.… A short must-listen." —AudioFile Magazine