In Spite of the Dark Silence

"He was named Jorge, like me, and for this his life hurts me twice." So writes Jorge Volpi in this highly original novel that presents a biographical perspective on the tragic life of the poet and chemist Jorge Cuesta. Cuesta was one of the founders of Los Contemporáneos, an influential twentieth-century literary movement. The poetic voice of Cuesta's verses can be heard throughout, offering insights into the creative and destructive forces and impulses in his work that eventually led to a mental ward—and a shocking suicide at thirty-eight. The fictional "Jorge," as narrator, embarks on an obsessive quest to understand the life of the long-dead poet, with the distance between subject and researcher blurring as he finds himself struggling to understand his own life. It is a brave search for anyone willing to gaze into the mirror of mortality "in spite of the dark silence."

Jorge Volpi Escalante is one of the founders of the "Crack Movement" (Generacion del crack) in Mexico and author of several well-known novels, including In Search of Klingsor and Season of Ash. He has been awarded the Spanish literary prize, Premio Biblioteca Breve, and the French Deux-Oceans-Grinzane-Cavour prize. A pesar del oscuro silencio (In Spite of the Dark Silence) is his first novel.
Olivia Maciel is professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Loyola University-Chicago and is also on the faculty of the Honors College at the University, of Illinois-Chicago. Her works include Surrealismo on la poesia de Xavier Villaurratia, Octavio Faz, y Luis Cornada. Mexico (1926-1963) and Shadow in Silver/Sombra en plata (Swan Isle Press).