Book Review: The Invention of Morel

I use wikipedia a lot. Whether searching for books or just exploring various topics such as Foucault's philosophy, its my tool for gaining a background understanding on a topic. Of course it helps that everything has to be read carefully and further investigated before trusting whatever source was used. Still its a nice place for references.

With all that said, I have to admit that when it comes to genres of fiction my favorite has to be magical realism. The most common authors in this genre have to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende (House of Spirits, as recently she seems to have sold out for airport pop fiction), and Salman Rushdie (Satanic Verses). A name that many may not have heard about is Adolfo Bioy Casares. His most famous work is a short novella titled The Invention of Morel.

The story deals with a condemned man who has escaped his imprisonment and while on the run from the law has learned of an island that is cursed with a pest. He chooses to go to the island anyway as if he doesn't die, then at least no one else will follow him there out of fear. Once he reaches the island he finds out that there is more at work than just a pest. He discovers that a scientist invented a machine that records people and projects their images. The machine works on tide and wind power and thus the recordings are played over and over. The man also discovers that once you have been recorded, you will die and your essence will have been transferred to the film. So what does he do when he learns of this and falls in love with one of the early victims? He adds himself to the mix.

An excellent novel if you can get your hands on it.