Mad ToyRoberto Arlt, celebrated in Argentina for his tragicomic, punch-in-the-jaw writing during the 1920s and 1930s, was a forerunner of Latin American “boom” and “postboom” novelists such as Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende. Mad Toy, acclaimed by many as Arlt’s best novel, is set against the chaotic background of Buenos Aires in the early twentieth century. Set in the badlands of adolescence, where acts of theft and betrayal become metaphors for creativity, Mad Toy is equal parts pulp fiction, realism, detective story, expressionist drama, and creative memoir. An immigrant son of a German father and an Italian mother, Arlt as a youth was a school dropout, poor and often hungry. In Mad Toy, he incorporates his personal experience into the lives of his characters. Published in 1926 as El juguete rabioso, the novel follows the adventures of Silvio Astier, a poverty-stricken and frustrated youth who is drawn to gangs and a life of petty crime. As Silvio struggles to bridge the gap between exuberant imagination and the sordid reality around him, he becomes fascinated with weapons, explosives, vandalism, and thievery, despite a desperate desire to rise above his origins. Flavored with a dash of romance, a hint of allegory, and a healthy dose of irony, the novel’s language varies from the cultured idiom of the narrator to the dialects and street slang of the novel’s many colorful characters. Mad Toy has appeared in numerous Spanish editions and has been adapted for the stage and for film. It is the second of Arlt’s novels to be translated into English. |
Contents
The Band of Thieves | 21 |
Works and Days | 55 |
Mad Toy | 85 |
Judas Iscariot | 115 |
The Neighborhood Poet | 153 |
Notes | 159 |
Works Cited | 169 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aguafuertes porteñas Andalusian Argentine Arlt's arms asked Astier Bacará beautiful Buenos Aires butcher cannon Captain Márquez cave centavos clothes corner Dardo Rocha dark Dío Fetente dirty Don Gaetano Don Miguel Doña María door Drodman ears El juguete rabioso Enrique Enrique's eyes face flag of Nicaragua Frau gonna hair hands head iron Irzubeta Jorge Luis Borges Juan Juan Carlos Onetti Judas Iscariot juguete rabioso kilo laugh light lips looked Lucio lunfardo Mad Toy maid Mamá Maximito Naidath night pain paper patio pesos remember Rengo Ricardo Güiraldes Roberto Arlt Rocambole Rubio Señor Souza serial novels Silvio slang slowly smile Spanish stopped street Studs Lonigan suddenly sure sweet talking tell there's things thought took translation turned vendors voice walked wall What's woman words writer young
Popular passages
Page 10 - In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.
Page 9 - Translation from one language into another.. . is like looking at Flemish tapestries on the wrong side; for though the figures are visible, they are full of threads that make them indistinct, and they do not show with the smoothness and brightness of the right side;
Page 9 - a man may employ himself in ways worse and less profitable to himself.