A sinisterly funny modernday Through the Looking Glass that begins withcyanide poisoning and ends in strawberry ice cream.My story the story of how I became a n... » 

A sinisterly funny modernday Through the Looking Glass that begins withcyanide poisoning and ends in strawberry ice cream.My story the story of how I became a nun began very early in my life Ihad just turned six. The beginning is marked by a vivid memory which I canreconstruct down to the last detail. Before there is nothing and aftereverything is an extension of the same vivid memory continuous and unbrokenincluding the intervals of sleep up to the point where I took the veil . Sostarts Cesar Airas astounding autobiographical novel. Intense and perfectthis invented narrative of childhood experience bristles with dramatic humor ateach stage of growing up a first ice cream school reading gamesfriendship. The novel begins in Airas hometown Coronel Pringles. As selfawareness grows the story rushes forward in a torrent of anecdotes whichtransform a world of uneventful happiness into something else the anecdotebecomes adventure and adventure fable and then legend. Between memory andoblivion reality and fiction Cesar Airas How I Became a Nun retainschildhoods main treasures the reality of fable and the delirium of invention.A few days after his fiftieth birthday Aira noticed the thin rim of the moonvisible despite the rising sun. When his wife explained the phenomenon to himhe was shocked that for fifty years he had known nothing about something soobvious so visible. This epiphany led him to write How I Became a Nun. Witha subtle and melancholic sense of humor he reflects on his failures on themeaning of life and the importance of literature. «