El Túnel

This is a catchy book, written as a type of confession. The storyline is good, the characters are very intriguing and complex, but I don't fully like this book. Mostly because of Sábato's writing which is very ordinary, the lack of vocabulary and esthetic is overwhelming, and he just can't help beating about the bush. Despite that, I overall liked the book, I thought the idea was great and the main character was so annoying and complex it made you have no pity for him (I don't know if that was good or bad, really). I presume it wasn't his fault, though, he had some sort of mental disease, and that's quite clear. It's always fun to read stories about crazy people, that I can't deny. Anyway, apart from the story and the characters, the thing I liked the most was (you know me, details...) the metaphore of the title (although I would have liked to figure that out by myself). A man, so lonely, an outsider, he was almost completely isolated from the world, and he had been that way during his entire life, he had been walking through a tunnel as long as he lived, alone, and then he sees this woman, she was not in a parallel tunnel which crossed with his at some point, no, he had seen her through a tiny window in his tunnel (that's the painting!), that's all, and all the time he was thinking it was more, that they were meant to be, that she was special and that they were the only ones who understood each other, when actually, it wasn't like that. And finally, when he ends up in jail, the imaginary tunnel, spiritual if wanted, becomes also physical. His isolation is complete. I thought that was incredible, very inspirational and deep. I thought the depth of the characters was unbelievable, they were so unique, Castel was one of a kind, I can't understand how a man can exist in such loneliness, no man is an island, and that's a fact. Human beings are social creatures by nature. Maria was some woman, I can't fully understand her, she was either extremely submissive or a sadomasoquist! No human being can submit himself to so much suffering, and she did. The characters are almost non-human. It was a very good book.