A review by glenncolerussell
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories by Luis Sepúlveda

Luis Sepúlveda, (October 4, 1949 – April 16, 2020)

Luis Sepúlveda, a sensitive man, a beautiful man, a writer and journalist from Chile who died of COVID-19 this spring.

The Old Man Who Read Love Stories is one of Luis Sepúlveda's most beloved books, a timeless classic that speaks powerfully to all of us in our worldwide community.

Similar to Hermann Hesse's Sidhartha and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Luis Sepúlveda's short tale possesses a deeply moving, universal, mythic quality that will touch a reader's heart. I know, I know, sounds like cliché but in this case it's true.

Turning to the novella itself, we read how old Antonio José Bolívar Proaño would like nothing more than to be left alone in his hut, standing at his high table, reading his love stories. But, alas, life has a way of intruding.

One day when the old man is among the townspeople, Shuar Indians bring along a dead fair-haired gringo. The fat major immediately claims the Shuar killed him, sliced the white man's neck with a machete. But Antonio José Bolívar Proaño knows otherwise - he points out the telling details, the scent of piss, the claw marks of a female ocelot.

Ah, a killer on the loose!

Thus begins the tale. But not a word more about the unfolding journey into the jungle. Rather, I'll switch to one of the most charming parts of Luis Sepúlveda's delightful tale:

We read the way in which Antonio José Bolívar Proaño came to read love stories, pouring over books hour after hour, day after day, assisted by a magnifying glass. And then the old man hit on one novel where he found what he was really after, a love story containing love everywhere, where the characters "suffered and mingled love and pain so beautifully that his magnifying glass was awash with tears." Antonio José Bolívar Proaño read and reread the novel hundreds of times.

You may ask: What's the title of that very special novel? Answer: The Rosary by the British author Florence Louisa Barclay, 1862-1921. The Rosary is available via Project Gutenberg. Link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3659/3659-h/3659-h.htm

I purposely kept my review brief. You will have to experience the magic of The Old Man Who Read Love Stories for yourself.