kilburnadam's review
4.0
Dance with Snakes is a novel by Horacio Castellanos Moya that tells the story of Eduardo Sosa, an unemployed young man who takes on the identity of a homeless man living in a beat-up yellow Chevrolet. Sosa discovers that the car is home to four venomous snakes, and with the snakes as his accomplices, he unleashes a reign of terror on the city. The novel explores themes of societal marginalization, blurred lines between good and evil and the consequences of power and identity. It is marked by its intense violence, dark humor, and macabre tone. The narrative structure, with its unexpected twists and shifting perspectives, makes for an engaging read. The story serves as a metaphor for the political and social climate of the time of its writing, and it is thought-provoking and disturbing.
piacostello's review
4.0
this book is so weird and bizarre and was sold to me by a bookkeeper who i still presume to be a wizard. also my mom stopped reading it because sexual violence but she’s a lame o anyways
loldesh's review against another edition
2.0
Büyülü Gerçekçilik ile işte bu yüzden anlaşamıyoruz. Gayet keyifli seyreden hikaye birden tepetaklak oluyor; neymiş otururken bacakları sandalyeye karışmış, halı dile gelmiş halaya kalkmış, mayonez Müge Anlı fanıymış falan filan. Bunda da son bölüm tadımı fena halde kaçırdı, dört puandan ikiye düşecek kadar üstelik.
Yazım tarzı, konusu, akıcılığı dört son bölüm aka final bir puan.
Yani bize gelişi iki oluyor mu? Benim matematikten yana biraz sıkıntım var. Matematik bir, büyülü gerçekçilik iki gibi düşünün djkdmfmsmfmzmmfmdmfmz özr dlrm.
Yazım tarzı, konusu, akıcılığı dört son bölüm aka final bir puan.
Yani bize gelişi iki oluyor mu? Benim matematikten yana biraz sıkıntım var. Matematik bir, büyülü gerçekçilik iki gibi düşünün djkdmfmsmfmzmmfmdmfmz özr dlrm.
cristinanovak's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
livvybeannn's review
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
theclassickid's review against another edition
3.0
No suelo leer en español, pero no puede dejar de saborear la jerga Salvadoreña con la que Castellanos Moya satura sus libros. Este libro en particular es un poco diferente a lo que había leído anteriormente (El Asco) de el. El "baile" con las serpientes es un eufemismo que nos muestra Castellanos Moya hasta el final del libro. Un final un poco anticlimático.
"Baile Con Serpientes" es la trayectoria de un carácter sin rumbo ni anhelos, igual cómo el personaje de "El Asco." Pero en este libro, para el personaje principal no hay consecuencias en lo mínimo. Es una historia ligera, en lo que cabe, pero también satírica. Si no conoces la historia del país que Castellanos Moya nunca nombra en el libro, es un poco difícil ver como acompaña la satírica esta trayectoria.
"Baile Con Serpientes" es la trayectoria de un carácter sin rumbo ni anhelos, igual cómo el personaje de "El Asco." Pero en este libro, para el personaje principal no hay consecuencias en lo mínimo. Es una historia ligera, en lo que cabe, pero también satírica. Si no conoces la historia del país que Castellanos Moya nunca nombra en el libro, es un poco difícil ver como acompaña la satírica esta trayectoria.
giovannigf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
piccoline's review against another edition
5.0
Another winner from Moya. Keep these books coming, translators!
This one is much less in debt to Bernhard, quite stylistically distinct from _Senselessness_ and _She-Devil in the Mirror_. It's also more surreal, but it moves at a breakneck pace still fueled by outrage at the Way Things Are.
The translation reads well, seems smooth.
Funny, horrifying, unpredictable, provocatively perverse. What's not to like?
This one is much less in debt to Bernhard, quite stylistically distinct from _Senselessness_ and _She-Devil in the Mirror_. It's also more surreal, but it moves at a breakneck pace still fueled by outrage at the Way Things Are.
The translation reads well, seems smooth.
Funny, horrifying, unpredictable, provocatively perverse. What's not to like?
lepasseportlitteraire's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
[Français plus bas]
Today’s book got me rolling my eyes so hard I think I actually saw my brain.
It started as an easy detective story: I wanted an easy reading as it was my first time reading in spanish (at least I can say I got something positive out of it). However, the book is full of misogynic descriptions of women. The women are either simple appearances with no role whatsoever, or the victims of murders. Not only they are constantly sexualised, but the context makes it even worse. We begin our journey through the inappropriate oversexualisation of women with a sixteen year-old who “at sixteen years old she was already a beautiful young woman”, we then proceed to a policeman whose sister dies and the author feels the necessity to tell us that among all of the character’s sisters “she was the most beautiful one, and the one he prefered” (as if the fact that she was beautiful made her death worse?), and then we finish at the lowest point of it all. He describes the corpse of a woman (yes, the corpse) and feels that the most important detail to share with the reader is that “the short skirt let you see her perfect forms”. Wow.
There is a woman in the book who has à role, à journalist investigating the same case investigated by the police. However, even the only woman with an actual role in the book, is introduced by one of the policemen describing her as this woman using her beauty and her womanhood to get the information she needs for her articles. She is described as à very cliché sexy woman able to seduce all men for her own purposes.
Do not even get me started on the cheap allegory of the three snakes who are of course female, and they are sensual, and mysterious, and sexy … Are we talking about snakes? From the start of the book I thought to myself “there better not be a sex scene between these snake and the protagonist”. Well, of course there is. Of course he let himself be tempted by the snake-women.
Well, at this point I think you can guess my opinion about this book.
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Le livre d'aujourd'hui m'a fait rouler les yeux si fort que je crois avoir vu mon cerveau.
Au départ, c'était un simple polar, c'est pourquoi je l'avais choisie : Je voulais une lecture facile car c'était la première fois que je lisais en espagnol (au moins je peux dire que j'en ai tiré quelque chose de positif). Cependant, le livre est plein de descriptions misogynes des femmes. Les femmes qui figurent dans ce livre sont soit de simples apparences sans aucun rôle, soit des victimes de meurtres. Et qu'est-ce qui ne va pas dans ces descriptions ? Non seulement elles sont constamment sexualisées, mais elles le sont aussi dans des contextes qui rendent la situation encore pire. Nous commençons notre voyage à travers la sexualisation inappropriée et excessive des femmes avec une jeune fille de seize ans qui "à seize ans, était déjà une belle jeune femme", nous passons ensuite à un policier dont la soeur meurt et l'auteur ressent la nécessité de nous dire que parmi toutes les soeurs du personnage "elle était la plus belle, et celle qu'il préférait" (comme si le fait qu'elle soit belle rendait sa mort plus grave?), puis nous terminons au point le plus bas de tout cela. Il décrit le cadavre d'une femme (oui, le cadavre) et estime que le détail le plus important à partager avec le lecteur est que "la jupe courte laissait voir ses formes parfaites". Ouah !
Il y a une femme dans le livre qui a un rôle à jouer quand même, une journaliste enquêtant sur la même affaire que celle suivie par la police. Cependant, même la seule femme ayant un rôle réel dans le livre, est présentée par un des policiers qui la décrit comme cette femme utilisant sa beauté et sa féminité pour obtenir les informations dont elle a besoin pour ses articles. Elle est décrite comme une femme sexy très cliché, capable de séduire tous les hommes pour ses propres fins.
Et on doit parler de l’allégorie bon marché des trois serpents qui sont bien sûr des femelles, et qui sont décrites dès le début comme sensuelles, mystérieuses et sexy ... Parlons-nous toujours de serpents ? Dès le début du livre, je me suis dit "il vaut mieux qu'il n'y ait pas de scène de sexe entre ces serpents et le protagoniste". Bien sûr qu'il y en a une. Bien sûr, il s'est laissé “tenter” par ces femmes-serpents.
Eh bien, à ce stade, je pense que vous pouvez deviner mon opinion sur ce livre.