Review by Booklist Review
Castillo dramatizes a version of himself that is both vain and wryly self-aware in a tale that takes place over a single New Year's Eve. The narrator, also named Castillo, having said not a word to another human in nearly a year, receives an invitation to a house party from a former professor who promises that Castillo's college crush, Maria, as well as some friends, will be there. As Castillo slowly makes his way to the suburbs of Philadelphia on public transport, he muses about his life as a lazy, confident, and sometimes creatively fraudulent student; his reasoning behind his recent resignation as an overstretched adjunct professor; his former use of amphetamines and related concerning episode with his heart; and his new stringent exercise regime and ascetic existence. His academic floundering and overstated self-assurance bring to mind the poet in Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (2011), as Castillo's pretentious persona is similarly jaded yet endearingly idealistic. Castillo's hypnotic, funny, and wonderfully surprising novel, an exemplary example of autofiction, wraps up the reader and takes them on a fascinating journey.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Castillo (Salmon) skewers various forms of malarkey in this sharp tale of a cerebral man's quest for self-improvement. The novel opens on December 31 in the wake of a "minor health scare" for truculent narrator Sebastian Castillo, an adjunct writing teacher. Sebastian now takes a vow of silence and devotes his life to a spartan regime, leaving his apartment only to "perform an activity known as health exercises." He receives an invitation to a New Year's Eve party from his former philosophy and literature teacher, Professor Aleister, who now translates a neglected Spanish author named Sebastián Castillo (unlike the narrator, the author's name contains an accent). Sebastian agrees to break his monkish routine in hopes of running into former classmate Maria, his "never-to-be beloved" crush, at the party. When he arrives, though, he is disappointed not to see Maria, and troubled by what Aleister has to say. As Sebastian and the professor hand down erudite and sardonic judgments on the comparative value of philosophy ("nonsense") and literature ("delicious nonsense"), the engrossing narrative explores questions about how one should lead, or change, one's life. Fans of Thomas Bernhard will find much to love. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A lonely academic visits his mentor's house on New Year's Eve. Sureness of tone goes a long way in Castillo's novel, which begins like autofiction and arrives at an unexpected destination. When the novel opens, the narrator--who shares a name and some qualities with the author, albeit subtly altered--is alone at home on New Year's Eve. He received an invitation from Aleister, an old professor and provocateur, inviting him to a gathering at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs. The possibility that Maria, an old classmate whose marriage recently ended, will be there is enough to get the narrator to venture out of the house, and eventually, he makes the circumstances clearer and the stakes become higher. He's been in the midst of a self-imposed vow of silence after an ill-advised classroom lecture about leprechauns went terribly wrong. Castillo takes on the challenging task of balancing the tension between the narrator's inner life, which includes thoughts like "I found their blitheness untoward," and the more obscure and awkward actions in which he engages. When the narrator arrives at Aleister's house, things do not go the way he expects; he learns that Aleister has been keeping secrets from him and is contemplating suicide. Castillo weaves in some jarring and even comic details, such as the fact that Aleister's book collection includesDeleuze for Dummies. That combination of highbrow references and deadpan comedy clicks resonantly throughout the book, and admirers of Thomas Bernhard's work will find plenty to savor here. The gulf between the narrator's intellectual ideals and lived reality--including awkwardly "liking" a sexy photo of Maria on social media--gives this short novel plenty of energy. Castillo navigates an emotionally fraught narrative with empathy and dry humor. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
