Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican author living in the United States. She is the author of the book of essays Sidewalks and the novel Faces in the Crowd, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Luiselli’s 2015 novel The Story of My Teeth was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Best Translated Book Award, and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Fiction, and she was awarded the Premio Metropolis Azul in Montreal, Quebec. Luiselli’s books have been translated into more than 20 languages, with her work appearing in publications including, The New York Times, Granta, McSweeney’s, and The New Yorker. Her book, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. Luiselli’s 2020 novel, Lost Children Archive won the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
In 2014, Luiselli was the recipient of the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” award. In 2019, she won a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a MacArthur “Genius Grant.” In 2020, the Vilcek Foundation awarded her a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature and the Folio Prize.
(Wikipedia)
Luiselli’s Haunted Times and Places
This is a novel that is both in transit and in translation.
- Luiselli, Valeria. Faces in the Crowd. Trans. Christina MacSweeney. Minneapolis: Coffee House, 2014.
Luiselli Videos
Valeria Luiselli:
Faces in the Crowd – Valeria Lusielli translated fiction Book Review:
A Lecture on Valeria Luiselli’s Faces in the Crowd:
- Eldelin, Emma. “Subway Space and Transit Aesthetics in Valeria Luiselli’s Faces in the Crowd.” Literary Geographies 7.2 (2021): 214-234.
- Pape, Maria. “El pasaje como modus operandi: Perspectivas simultáneas y recíprocamente excluyentes en Los ingrávidos de Valeria Luiselli.” Revista chilena de literatura 90 (September 2015): 171-195.
- Raynor, Cecily. “Place-Making in the Solitude of the City: Valeria Luiselli’s Los ingrávidos.” Urban Spaces in Contemporary Latin American Literature. Ed. José Eduardo González and Timothy Robbins. Cham: Palgrave, 2019. 137-151.
- Reber, Nichole. “‘Writing Yourself into the World’: A Conversation with Valeria Luiselli.” World Literature Today 90.1 (January 2016): 12-15.
One of the many echoes between the story of the woman narrator in the novel and that of Gilberto Owen comes when each of them has a martini in New York. The woman meets a “trustafarian” she calls “Baldy” at an art event. She goes back to his apartment, a loft in Brooklyn, and when he disappears she invites her friend Dakota to come hang out, eat, have a bath, and watch DVDs. When Baldy returns, apparently unfazed at the new arrival, “He offered us a martini; we accepted on condition we could finish watching the whole DVD” (74). Owen, meanwhile, goes to a book launch in Manhattan hosted by his ex-wife: “the butler offers me a martini” (92). For both characters, the martini, a classic cocktail and symbol of sophistication, made of gin and (in its driest form) the faintest suggestion of Vermouth, is ambivalent: it is taken as a gesture of generosity, but also as a sign that they are out of place. They do and do not belong at the same time; they are there, but only insubstantially. On the subway on the way home, the woman sees Owen “for the last time. [. . .] Something had broken. The ghost, it was obvious, was me” (75).
Luiselli Questions
- Who are this book’s narrators, and what are the overlaps (or differences) between them?
- How do the narrators (or their situations) change over time?
- In what ways does the novel play with truth and fiction, history and invention?
- What draws the woman narrator to Gilberto Owen?
- What is the role of the “minor” characters that populate the book?
- What do either narrator say about the process of writing?
- What does the novel have to say about time and/or temporality?
- What does the novel have to say about place and/or space?
- What does the novel have to say about ghosts and/or death?
- How do you understand what happens on the novel’s final few pages?
The following questions are taken from your blog posts…
On Narrators
Did you find the narrator reliable and if not which timeline seemed to be the most accurate?
Do we like the Narrator as a character in the book? do you think Valeria Luiselli has experienced these things herself ? (lol)
Since the perspectives and storyline are complex and ambiguous, whose perspective do you think the novel is from, and whose is most accurate and reliable about true facts of their lives?
How does the anonymity of the narrator contribute to the idea of fictionality and fact featured in the novel?
Do you think the narrators would to be go back to their past lives and leave their current life?
How does the fragmented narrative style and the shifting perspectives between the young mother and Gilberto Owen change your view of this book?
On Names
What reason do you think the female protagonist chose not to include the names of herself and her family in her writing? What is your interpretation of the narration(s)?
Why do you think the author didn’t give names to the woman, her husband, the baby and the boy? Why keep them nameless?
On Confusion
If any, what part of the book did you find the most confusing or hardest to understand?
What did you think this story was REALLY about?
Was the book a little confusing for you all too? Did you find a way to make it easier to decipher between the changes in narration?
On the Book’s Structure
The protagonist’s narrative shifts between past and present, blurring the boundaries of time. How did this non-linear structure affect your reading experience? As well, in what ways did “Faces in the Crowd” challenge your perceptions of literature and storytelling?
What would this book be if stripped of its unique, fragmented structure?
Other
What do you think the game of hide-and-seek symbolized?
Did you also think Owen was the husband at the end? Did the husband actually go to Philadelphia or stay at home? Which parts of the story did you think the young woman was making up?
Why do you think the son asked so many questions?
What do we, as readers think of the idea of ‘multiple deaths’ conveyed in the novel? Does it have any philosophical meaning to it or is it just a strange idea?
How was this novel similar to the other novels we have read in the course?
Are Owen’s glimpses of her on the subway truly happening or conjured by her fascination with him?
Since the novel includes events from Mexico City and New York City, do we think the different settings also were intentional to highlight the vastly different lives the woman has lived?
The mother’s struggle with motherhood in relation to identity and creativity shows how big of an influence gender roles have on our life and on our perception of fulfilment. Where else do you see gender roles at play in this book, perhaps in relation to Owen?
Do you think her story/life in New York was real or no? And do you think this decisions changes at all what her goal was?
It is mentioned that White (the narrator’s boss) constantly sees his dead wife at a tree outside his house, I’m curious to know what the importance of mentioning that was? It wasn’t expanded on further, yet it seemed like an important event. Was the author trying to convey an important message?
What do you think Luiselli was trying to convey through this novel? Do you feel she did that successfully?
What does it mean to read something vertically and horizontally? How are they different from one another?
How did you like this book? Was it easy for you to follow?
“Note: The NY subway was constructed in 1904, the year of Owen’s birth” page 36. What was the significance of noting this?
The mother’s struggle with motherhood in relation to identity and creativity shows how big of an influence gender roles have on our life and on our perception of fulfilment. Where else do you see gender roles at play in this book, perhaps in relation to Owen?
Can you recommend me a book? I like the idea of reading a book about the struggles of writing – only one that’s not as confusing as this one.
Do you think the “I” in the article is happier as a mother or before becoming a mother.
Do you think the coincidence of what Owen wanted to write, and the life of the narrator is just luck? Or do you think there is a twisting of truth to perhaps make the story more cohesive?
Do you enjoy consuming rlly tough to understand media or do you like to read more straight forward types of media?
