The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: A Day in the Life

Review\n“[A] posthumous autobiographical masterpiece…. [P]rofoundly moving. A meditation on both the accumulation and ephemerality of time, Piglia’s final work is a brilliant addition to world literature.”
― Publishers Weekly, Starred Review\n“Filled with literary aperçus and fragments of history: an elegant, affecting close to a masterwork.” ― Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review\n“Much of the fascinating material is to be found in his brief appreciations and observations, such as notes on authors and his reading, but the life-story―of someone who has dedicated himself entirely to literature―also comes across, and it is thoroughly engaging, over all three volumes of this larger work…. An impressive self-accounting of a great reader and writer.”
-- M. A. Orthofer ― The Complete Review\n“This is the third and final volume of a fascinating hybrid work…. [T]hese ‘Diaries’ could be described somewhat inadequately as a combination of autobiographical fiction, diaristic chronicle, literary and philosophical rumination, and record of ‘the times.’”
-- John Wilson ― First Things\n“These notes on the end of his life are beautiful, and avoid the heart-wrenching, or the at times strained experience of reading about impending death, and cap what is an utterly remarkable work of literature spread out over an entire lifetime…. The diaries of Piglia do not require a thorough understanding of his oeuvre, or even the history of Latin American fiction, let alone anything so difficult as the ideas of Kant or Nietzsche mentioned. Instead, the diaries require an interest and love of reading, and how we read and write, and how language exists in art separate from society. In this way, his exploration of his life becomes an exploration of all the lives he may have lived, and how one reckons with the enigma of a life constructed through language.”
―Teddy Burnette, Full Stop -- Teddy Burnette ― Full Stop\nSixty years in the making and the capstone of a monumental literary career, The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: A Day in the Life is the final volume of the autobiographical trilogy from the author who is considered Borges’ heir and the vanguard of the Post-Boom generation of Latin American literature.
How could we define a perfect day? Maybe it would be better to say: how could I narrate a perfect day?
Is that why I write a diary? To capture―or reread―one of those days of unexpected happiness?
The final installment of Ricardo Piglia’s lifelong compilation of journals completes the seemingly impossible project of documenting the entire life of a writer. A Day in the Life picks up the thread of Piglia’s life in the 1980s until his death from ALS in 2017. Emilio Renzi, Piglia’s literary alter ego, navigates the tumultuous ups and downs of a post-Peronist Argentina filled with political unrest, economic instability, and a burgeoning literary scene ready to make its mark on the rest of the world and escape the shadows of legendary authors Jorge Luis Borges and Roberto Arlt.
Renzi’s peripatetic, drinking, philandering ways don’t abate as he grows older, and we’re exposed to the intrinsic insecurities that continually plague him even as fate tips in his favor and he goes on to win international literary prizes and becomes professor emeritus of Princeton University. His literary success is marred only by the disappointments and tragedies of his personal life as he deals with the death of friends and family, failed relationships, and the constant pecuniary struggles of a writer trying to live solely on his ability to produce art. The final sections of this ambitious project intimately trace the deterioration of Piglia’s body after his diagnosis: My right hand is heavy and uncooperative but I can still write. When I can no longer. . . . The crowning achievement of a prolific, internationally acclaimed author, this third volume cements Ricardo Piglia’s position as one of the most influential Latin American authors of the last century.
Praise for The Di