Chromos

Chromos is the second novel of Spanish-born American writer Felipe Alfau (1902–1999), written in 1948 and published in 1990.

First edition

Composition and publication

Alfau described how he wrote the novel: "In the office between one document and another, I would write a paragraph or two. I then pasted together the whole book, as in a collage."[1] He completed it in 1948, but not published until 1990[2] when Dalkey Archive Press released the first edition.[3]

Reception and legacy

The novel was nominated for a National Book Award[3] in 1990.[2]

Chromos had an influence on the works of fellow Spanish-American writer Eduardo Lago, whose Llámame Brooklyn shares stylistic, structural, and thematic similarities with Alfau's novel, such as a novel-within-a-novel.[4]

References

1. Galasso 2010, p. 44.
2. Villeneuve 2013, p. 1.
3. Galasso 2010, p. 43.
4. Galasso 2010, pp. 43–44.

Works cited

• Galasso, Regina (2010). "The Lifeline of Chromos: Translation and Felipe Alfau" (PDF). TranscUlturAl. 1 (3): 43–55. doi:10.21992/T97H0M.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Villeneuve, Philippe (2013). Confabulation, Collaboration, and Chromolithography: Memory as Construct in the Works of Felipe Alfau (Ph.D.). University of Ottawa. hdl:10393/24408.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

• Scott, Joseph B. (2005). Thundering out of the shadow: modernism and identity in the novels of Felipe Alfau (Master of Arts). University of Missouri–Columbia. hdl:10355/4277.