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Title	:	The Lost Steps
Author	:	Alejo Carpentier
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 296 pages
Published	:	February 13th 2001 by Univ Of Minnesota Press (first published 1953)
Categories	:	Fiction. European Literature. Spanish Literature. Cultural. Latin American

The Lost Steps

Alejo Carpentier

Paperback | Pages: 296 pages

Rating: 3.94 | 2438 Users | 198 Reviews

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The Lost Steps is a colourful allegoric tale of an attempted escape from the routine existence on the treadmill of modern civilization.
The main hero sees himself as Sisyphus futilely rolling the huge boulder of his fruitless responsibilities from day to day and he desperately wishes to flee this fate…

…I asked myself whether, in bygone days, men had longed for bygone days as I, this summer morning, longed for certain ways of life that man had lost forever.

So at the first possibility he embarks on the journey fabulously echoing the legendary wanderings of Ulysses…

With its cargo of bellowing bulls, coops of chickens, pigs running about the deck under the hammock of the Capuchin and getting tangled up in his rosary of seeds, the song of the Negress cooks, the laughter of the Greek diamond-hunter, the prostitute in her mourning nightgown bathing in the prow, the guitar-players making music for the sailors to dance, this ship of ours made me think of Bosch’s Ship of Fools.

And he boldly travels through the symbioses of cultures, concoction of customs, beliefs and superstitions… And there are many parallels with Homer's Odyssey: Ruth is Penelope, Mouche – Circe, Rosario – Nausicaä and even the one-eyed dog is called Polyphemus.

But dates were still losing figures. In headlong flight the years emptied, ran backward, were erased, restoring calendars, moons, changing centuries numbered in three figures to those of single numbers. The gleam of the Grail has disappeared, the nails have fallen from the Cross, the moneychangers have returned to the temple, the Star of Bethlehem has faded, and it is the year 0, when the Angel of the Annunciation returned to heaven.

This journey through space is also a journey through time – the protagonist travels as if he goes through the epochs until he arrives to the fountainhead of humankind, pristine garden of Genesis. And he wants to stay in this primordial settlement of lotus-eaters for good and begins to compose threnody of Ulysses descending to the land of the dead…
But the destiny of Ulysses is to return so the civilization tries to claim him back…
The modern times don’t suit ancient heroes – exposed to contemporary civilization they wither.

Describe Books To The Lost Steps

Original Title:	Los pasos perdidos
ISBN:	0816638071 (ISBN13: 9780816638079)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger for Roman (1956)

Rating Of Books The Lost Steps

Ratings: 3.94 From 2438 Users | 198 Reviews

Comment On Of Books The Lost Steps

The language is poetic with lots of historical, literary and musical allusions (no wonder, the author was a Cuban teacher of music and cultural history). The principal narrator here is a guy married to a stage actress who accepts a commission to go to a jungle somewhere in South America and get a primitive musical instrument. He goes there with his mistress, and ditches the mistress later for an exotic jungle woman. Lots of introspective musings about the modern and primitive life, with the

The Lost Steps is a beautifully crafted book filled with religious and classical symbolism that reaffirms the statement, "Focus on the journey, not the destination," said by Greg Anderson. It is full of vivid descriptions about Latin American land and lifestyle and deals with the struggle of a lost protagonist in searching for his identity and home. The book is very artistic and well-written. However, I did not enjoy this book. I think from a writer's point of view, this is a masterpiece.

Really good stuff!!!

Is it possible to have an authentic experience of a foreign culture? Carpentier answers this question in the negative, and I am beginning to think he might be right. It's especially true of vacation sites these days, which increasingly resemble Disneyfied recreations of foreign cultures. But Carpentier suggests that even total immersion into a foreign culture doesn't make you a native -- you can't leave home even if you try.This isn't a perfect book - the characters tend to be a little stiffly

About halfway through this novel I came to the conclusion that the narrator (the main character) is one of those people you would have met in New York City during the 1980's and would have regaled you with their adventures into the primitive wilderness sometime during the 1960's and of which they've been spending the past 4-5 years re-acclimating themselves to 'The Modern World' for whatever excuse.Ok, that is a very specific generalization I'm making, but it fits the stereotype of all those

The Lost Steps is a work that makes you appreciate the journey; not only the manner in which Carpentier presents the journey of the protagonist from bustling metropolis to foundling jungle village, but also his intimate approach and truly unique style inevitably tangles the reader in a journey of his or her own.quotes: "wearing the same old frock coats with new sweat added to old" 4"author's right on time, imposing the measure of motion and emotion on future men"14"amorous anarchy"19"how hard it

The narrator's voice began to grate on me halfway through. That said, this novel is full of descriptive wizardry.