Review: Empty Words

Empty Words is such a unique concept – write not for a story, but to simply help improve your handwriting- and well, something great came out. 

Empty Words is a nice, light, relaxing read… of nothing really, but also everything. Empty Words is like having a nice chat with friends around the bonfire. Every reader will find some little piece of this book to relate and self-reflect to in a big way. Empty Words is a book you didn’t know you needed. 

There is this recurring mini storyline involving the author’s dog- how he gives him freedom by open a hole in the fence, how the dog goes missing, almost loses an eye, and how a stray cat turns up to torment the dog. There is so much self-reflection in this continued topic he keeps finding himself thinking about while doing these writing exercises.  

An eccentric novelist begins to keep a notebook of handwriting exercises, hoping that if he’s able to improve his penmanship, his personal character will also improve. What begins as a mere physical exercise becomes involuntarily colored by humorous reflections and tender anecdotes about living, writing, and the sense – or nonsense – of existence. 

About The Author

Mario Levrero was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1940 and died there in 2004. Levrero was a photographer, bookseller, comics script writer, humorist, crossword author, creator of brain games. In his later years, he directed a literary workshop. Empty Words is his first novel translated and published in English.

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Article originally Published in the October/November 2019 Issue “Read Global”

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