E. luminata/

In the preface of this, her first book (published in 1983), Chilean writer Eltit confesses that her works are difficult to read, which must have made translating E. Luminata a daunting task. Christ rises to the challenge, deservedly winning the 1997 Kayden National Translation Award for rendering this work into English. Eltit's experimental novel consists of a series of scenes that include interrogation sessions and events occurring in a public park after dark that one would more likely expect to find in a modern dance performance than in a novel. Eltit interrupts these scenes with analyses that shatter any thoughts that the reader may have been forming regarding what was just read. For its innovative form, remarkable craftsmanship, and the issues raised in its content‘the personal and societal effects of dictatorship‘this important work is highly recommended for public and academic libraries.‘Carolyn Ellis Gonzalez, U.S. Army Knowledge Management Network, San Antonio, Tex. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

It's easy to understand why this challenging postmodernist collage, first published in 1983 by a prizewinning Chilean writer (Sacred Cow, 1995, etc.), is only now reaching us in English translation. In an enigmatic gathering of hundreds of short scenes and discursive passages, Eltit evokes the image of an eponymous woman whose forthright appearance in a dark city street during a strictly enforced curfew embodies both the human resistance to political repression and a feisty artistic response to efforts to darken (i.e., silence) free speech. Numerous verbal repetitions, puns (ingeniously rendered in English), and syntactical derangements seem designed to impose an insubordinate ""meaning"" onto the officially approved blackness that is, transparently, the Pinochet regime's crackdown on individual liberties. This first novel's sophisticated imagery and distinctive construction make it a rarefied, and quite frequently very compelling, intellectual adventure that demands, and will doubtless reward, several re-readings. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.