The Private Lives of Trees - Alejandro Zambra

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The Private Lives of Trees

by
Alejandro Zambra

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Title:	The Private Lives of Trees
Author:	Alejandro Zambra
Genre:	Novel
Written:	2007 (Eng. 2010)
Length:	94 pages
Original in:	Spanish
Availability:	The Private Lives of Trees - US
	La vida privada de los árboles - US
	The Private Lives of Trees - UK
	The Private Lives of Trees - Canada
	The Private Lives of Trees - India
	La vie privée des arbres - France
	La vida privada de los árboles - España

Spanish title: La vida privada de los árboles
Translated by Megan McDowell

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Our Assessment:

B+ : very nicely done

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries
Source	Rating	Date	Reviewer
El País	.	20/10/2007	Lluís Satorras

From the Reviews:

"Lo que hace verdaderamente meritoria la novela es la finura con que se imbrican vida y literatura y cómo a pesar de la austeridad del lenguaje, las peripecias emotivas, galantes o dramáticas, de esos personajes emocionan al lector, que percibe ásperamente la fragilidad de la vida y los sentimientos." - Lluís Satorras, El País

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

The Private Lives of Trees is, like Zambra's Bonsai, a miniature of sorts. A bonsai tree actually figures in this novel, too: the protagonist Julián, a thirty-year-old professor of literature is also a writer, and for a time he was very preoccupied with a rather sorry little bonsai -- to the extent that:

instead of being content with the stories that destiny put at his disposal, Julián remained fixated on his bonsai.

       Zambra does better -- and more -- with the stories at his disposal -- even if he never forgets about the bonsai either.
       In the time when The Private Lives of Trees is set, Julián has more to deal with and focus on. He is a step-father now, and as the story opens is putting his barely eight-year-old stepdaughter, Daniela to bed with a bedtime story (an ongoing one, featuring trees). His wife, Daniela's mother, Verónica, isn't home yet, and it's an absence that grows increasingly noticeable, as Julián tries not to think too much about what might be delaying her, but can't help himself.
       The story is centered around her absence and her anticipated return, too, the omniscient narrator/author letting it be known that:

When she returns, the novel will end. But as long as she is not back, the book will continue. The book continues until she returns, or until Julián is sure she won't return.

       This is no simple case of a woman staying out late: it is her absence and the uncertainty surrounding it that allow for this fiction. Until there is certainty -- she has returned, or she definitely won't return -- Julián (and the novel) can continue in this Schrödinger-cat-like limbo.
       The novel is unevenly divided into two parts, 'Greenhouse' and 'Winter', the former many times longer than the latter. 'Greenhouse' is set in the long night during which Julián waits (though he is not primarily or at least just waiting). Daniela must be entertained, at the beginning and later on (she wakes during the night), but Zambra also introduces much else here, going over how Julián met and conquered Verónica, for example, as well as both his and her previous relationships. Zambra has an easy, pleasant style and way about him, in how he lets these stories unfold and how he weaves them together.
       Eventually, Julián reflects not just on the past but spins out his thoughts of the present situation and projects them on the future, imagining Daniela in later stages of her life, at twenty, twenty-five, thirty ..... Among other things he imagines her eventually reading his novel.
       Zambra captures this looking-ahead particularly nicely:

He wants to catch sight of a future that can exist without the present; he accommodates the facts willfully, with love, in a way that protects the future from the present

The Private Lives of Trees is small novel, in the best sense(s). Most of what is described is simple, mundane, everyday, and there are few dramatic events. Yet despite this, and despite being less than a hundred pages long, it is a surprisingly full-bodied and resonant work.
Zambra's stories are of the everyday, and he captures the ambiguity and uncertainty of our day-to-day lives particularly well, employing a very agreeable, almost understated style and approach. The Private Lives of Trees offer no pat resolutions and answers, but it's still surprisingly satisfying, with lives and certain crossroads very well conveyed.

- M.A.Orthofer, 21 April 2010

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Links:

The Private Lives of Trees:

Open Letter publicity page
Anagrama publicity page
Editions Rivages publicity page

Reviews:

Other books by Alejandro Zambra under review:

Other books of interest under review:

See Index of Latin and South American literature
Other books from Open Letter under review

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About the Author:

Chilean author Alejandro Zambra was born in 1975.

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