Tomáh Errázurih

"Tomáh Errázurih" (Random House Mondadori, Santiago, Chile, 1997) (ISBN 956-258-057-1) is a highly idiosyncratic, experimental Spanish language novel written by the American writer and filmmaker Gonzalo Lira.

Structurally, the novel is not particularly noteworthy, merely another coming-of-age story, albeit well told. Formally, however, the novel is a landmark of Latin American naturalism.

Taking advantage of the phonetic nature of Spanish spelling, Lira corrupted the orthography and grammar of his first-person narrator in order to capture how the character Tomás Errázuriz (an upper class Chilean youth) actually speaks. The rationale, according to author interviews at the time of publication, is that written Spanish, alone among modern languages, can in fact accurately capture and reproduce the phonetic sounds of its speakers. Since Spanish speakers vary wildly in their accents and pronunciations, not only regionally but also in terms of class, age and sex, Lira proposed that "Tomáh Errázurih" was an assay of a possible new approach to naturalist realism in fiction.

Though cautiously well-received at the time of its publication, Lira’s commercially successful English-language novels have paradoxically turned "Tomáh Errázurih" into an obscure book that few have read. However, a critical reevaluation seems to be taking place.