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Fulgentius

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Aira holds a fun-house mirror up to the genre of historical fiction in this novel about an aging Roman general on what may be his last campaign into the provinces.

By profession I am a soldier, a general in the glorious Roman army. As a playwright, I think of myself as a sublime amateur.

In Cesar Aira's new novel, Fulgentius, a sixty-seven-year-old imperial Roman general—"Rome's most illustrious and experienced"—is sent to pacify the remote province of Pannonia.He is a thoughtful, introspective person, a saturnine intellectual who greatly enjoys being on the march away from his loving family, and the sometimes deadly intrigues of Rome. Fulgentius is also a playwright (though of exactly one play) and in every city he pacifies, he stages a grand production of his farcical tragedy (written at the tender age of twelve) about a man who becomes a famous general only to be murdered "at the hands of shadowy foreigners." Curiously, what he had imagined as a child turns out to be the story of his life, almost. As the playwright-turned-general broods obsessively about his only work, the magnificent Lupine Legion—"a city in movement" of 6,000 men, an invincible corps of seasoned fighters wearing their signature wolfskin caps—kills, burns, pillages, and loots their way to victory. But what does victory mean?

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 30, 2023
      Aira (The Divorce) departs from his frequent setting of contemporary Argentina for a playful and fantastical jaunt into ancient history. Fulgentius, an aging general in the Roman legion charged with pacifying the region of Pannonia, also happens to be a playwright, having authored a tragedy at the age of 12 about a conquering general such as himself, which turned out to have anticipated the course of his life. Though he considers himself but “a sublime amateur,” his thoughts of conquest and the deadening cycles of taxation, rations, and reserves are increasingly overtaken by grandiose meditations on his career as a writer and his designs on his comely young assistant, Lacterius. Soon Fulgentius resolves to stage his opus in each new territory that falls to his armies, casting his actors from the ranks of his own soldiers and captives, musing on the double life of the artist even as he lays siege to enemy strongholds (“Nothing was lost, nothing was useless, since everything could pass into art”). As Fulgentius loses sight of the ramifications of his behavior, Aira springs plenty of coy jabs at the life of the mind and never skimps on details of the rapacious battalions. This is a coup.

    • Library Journal

      April 13, 2023

      When sexagenarian imperial Roman general Fulgentius was a lad, he wrote an autobiographical tragedy that was quickly forgotten--or so he thought. Fast forward 55 years, and he is on yet another military expedition, this time to subdue the rebellious inhabitants of the distant Roman province Pannonia in present-day Eastern Europe. During his campaign to wreak widespread destruction, he coerces both members of his 6,000-legion troupe and captives to stage his resurrected play, which always accompanies him on his missions. Fulgentius seems to place a higher priority on the quality of these productions than with wiping out the enemy. On the return trip, he engages in conversations about aesthetic values with the counterfeiter Maximus, who was taken prisoner and then inexplicably disappears. Fulgentius seemingly undergoes a change as he reflects on what is his true calling, the pen or the sword. Aira fans will find this historical setting a surprise, as the prolific Argentine author usually sets his novellas closer to home in time and place. VERDICT Aira creates a verisimilar scenario despite its unlikelihood that's not quite as rambling as his other works. Readers familiar with his style will feel at home with the philosophical digressions that form the nucleus of the text, but the ending nevertheless disappoints.--Lawrence Olszewski

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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