- Hardcover: 308 pages
- Publisher: St Martins Pr (April 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312150598
- ISBN-13: 978-0312150594
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,203,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Alberto Fuguet's newly translated novel Bad Vibes introduces this popular young Chilean writer to English-language readers. Written in the engaging and intelligent voice of Matias, an alienated, rich, teenage kid, Bad Vibes is frequently described as a South American Catcher in the Rye. Fuguet's story is set in 1980, a politically-charged era of Chilean history, when many in the country struggled against the country's dictatorship, including 17-year-old Matias. Meanwhile, Matias is also breaking up under the strain of an adolescence in a collapsing family, of cutting classes and snorting cocaine, and of the pursuit of love, sex, and meaning.
From Library Journal
Bad Vibes (Malo Onda) is Chilean author Fuguet's first work to appear in English. It is narrated by 17-year-old Matias, who returns from a class holiday in Rio with a massive identity crisis. Caught between childhood and adulthood with no positive role models except for the "Great Alejandro Paz of Chile," an intellectual bartender at the local disco, Matias is worried about life under a dictatorship, a father on his second adolescence, anomie, acne, sex, drugs, alcohol, and the secret of his Jewish ancestry in an anti-Semitic culture. At once a self-indulged, spoiled teenager and a seriously reflective youth seeking some moral and ethical basis from which to begin his adult years, Matias seems destined for self-destruction but miraculously dredges up enough optimism to face the future. This bleakly humorous novel, set to an American top-40 soundtrack from the 1970s and 1980s, is highly recommended for both academic and public libraries.?Rebecca A. Stuhr-Rommereim, Grinnell Coll. Libs., Ia.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Choice,
By
This review is from: Bad Vibes (Hardcover)
Whenever I travel to other countries I like to take a novel that helps acquaint me with the people and culture of the country. Although my voyage to Chile was motivated by Isabel Allende's "My Invented Country, A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile" I was determine to find another Chilean writer to take on the trip with me. I searched the internet for a few days trying to finalize my selection. I was excited to find a copy of "Bad Vibes" at my local library. The reviews that I read seemed promising. "Like Catcher and the Rye", some reviews touted. "A contemporary Chilean coming of age story", was touted by other reviews. I found the characters dull and the story slow. After one hundred pages, I couldn't invest any more time with Matias and his group of drugged up self absorbed friends. Perhaps this is exactly what life was like for the privileged class of Chile during the 1980s but the real challenge for Fuguet is how to reveal that story to the reader (i.e. non-Chilean reader) in a manner that is engaging and enjoyable - neither came through in the novel. In contrast, my visit to Chile was wonderful. The country is rich in history and culture. Thanks to very knowledgeable tour guides and local people, I was able to get a feel for the country that I wasn't able to obtain through the novel. While Allende is still my favorite Chilean author, I remain open to new experiences with literature from this country. Unfortunately for me, "Bad Vibes" was a bad choice.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews) 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cool, contemporary and realistic view of South America,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Vibes (Hardcover)
I lived in Chile two years ago and the book everybody was reading was Alberto Fuguet's MALA ONDA or Bad Vibes. I'm so excited i's finally coming out in English. It's a very cool, contemporary politcal story told by this rich kid who hates disco music, dances during the curfew, hangs out with surfers, snorts his dad's coke and reads american books and magazines. Bad Vibes is a fresh hurrican to come out of the typical magical realistic Southamerican landscape. This book is hip, real, funny and emotionally compelling. It's quite american and, on the other hand, it's so chilean. It's wierd how a dictatorship can affect a teenager's view. Matías Vicuña (the narrator) is still a teenage though, no matter what he sees. He just has to cope. I really recommend it.Ralph Anderson, Tucson, AZ 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh.,
By Lisa Pozzi "Mama, Wife, Biz Owner" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Vibes (Hardcover)
I read this book years ago and recently saw the film "Y tu mama tambien", which made me come back to Bad Vibes. I recommend them both. Mala Onda represents the new voice of Chilean writers, and of kids all over the world growing up amidst drugs, malls, boredom, etc. This book certainly tells a different story of Pinochet than all the history books I've read on the seventies and eighties in Chile. When will more of Fuguet's novels be translated into English? 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Matias reveals the complexity of himself and of Santiago.,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Bad Vibes (Hardcover)
Matias Vicuna's last name is no accident. He lives in Santiago, Chile, not far from the habitat of the animal whose fur caused a scandal for the Nixons because it was not simple cloth. This is a story that is more than the whole whole cloth - it has the feeling of direct connection from experience through the keyboard and into prose. The story covers the week before the 1980 plebiscite endorsing a new Constitution for Chile, one that to some extent made Pinochet the legitimate ruler. The plebiscite appeared to change nothing, but in the life of young Matias, everything changes that week. The story is more than it seems, and so is Matias. He has been compared in other revues to Holden Caulfield, but to this reader, Matias surpasses J.D. Salinger's character. He is better read, and less sheltered, despite his privileged existence in the economic stratosphere of his country. The challenges he confronts as a young man in a changing country are analogous to Holden's, but more complex. The sex, drugs, and rock and roll add an extreme diminsion to his detailed ruminations about teen-aged obsessions, so that Matias confronts his family and its history in a context of greater personal risk than did Holden Caulfield and at a time of greater political risk as well. This novel could be a harbinger of coming of age in 21st century North America, and if so, its author would probably not be surprised. His character looks to the Village Voice and the US music scene for inspiration, but Fuguet is very clever. His inspiration is to be found in the last name of his character, in the Andes, and in a way of life, or a way to make sense of life, that is as warm, soft, and beautiful as the skin of the animal for whom his character is named. As for the nature of the animal itself, the novel makes no demands,no pretensions, but the inward journey of Matias Vicuna is a metaphor for getting the reader inside the skin of the beast. It is a fast-moving, intense story told as a kind of diary, but its meanings linger and transform after the race through the pages, the parties, the girls, the songs, the drugs, the drinks, the relatives, and the politics. "Bad Vibes" is a book to remember.
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