Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well, this weeks book was “Money to Burn” by Ricardo Piglia, and let me tell you I really enjoyed this one. For starters I didn’t know what to expect from the book because I had never heard of it, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this book. The book itself felt to me a little different than other novels and books we have read throughout the semester, but in a good way, i felt like it was a serious plot but it did not feel (at least to me) like a particularly heavy book, specially when comparing it to other readings for this course. I found the style of writing to be good, not overly complicated and not super simple, another really good thing is that I found the book to be very engaging, I found myself trying to read more and more of it as time went by and I just kept wanting to know what would happen next in the story.
I think that my favorite part about the book and what made it so great for me was the plot, the story of the robbery and the whole crime aspect was super intriguing, but when paired with the characters and their backgrounds and developments, it truly felt like I was engaged in a way that i do not think I have been with any other book for this class. When I found out that the story was based on true events I was surprised and immediately after finishing I went down a rabbit hole trying to find more information about it.
The book itself felt very well rounded to me and thought the depiction of crime was very interesting, since I didn’t think it necessarily idealized it but it also did not portray it in a judging manner, I think if someone were to ask me what I found the most fascinating I would say it is Piglia’s ability to humanize criminals in a proper way, It truly felt to me like a new perspective that we do not get to see often. Overall I think this has been one of my favorite books we have read so far and do not really have any complaints .
My question for the class is, Would you have rather seen a different perspective of the events in the book and if so, who’s?
Ximena, glad to know you enjoyed it! What parts of the robbery were intriguing to you? What about the narrative made it feel like the crime was not being portrayed “ in a judging manner,” ?
Thanks for your comment!
– Tesi