Decir que Facs̕mil es una novela ser̕a tan aventurado como decir que no lo es. Quiz̀s sea mejor decir solamente que es un libro de Alejandro Zambra, porque el estilo y los temas que lo han convertido en una voz imprescindible de la literatura latinoamericana se despliegan, aqu̕, de manera radical y extrema. A partir de la estructura de la Prueba de Aptitud Verbal, aplicada en Chile desde 1967 hasta 2002 a los postulantes a las universidades, el autor crea una obra donde los relatos conviven con fragmentos l̕ricos y ejercicios de lenguaje que m̀s bien constituyen problemas ̌ticos: la necesidad de mentir para validarse ante los dem̀s; la voluntad de establecer v̕nculos a pesar de la desconfianza en el amor y en la familia; la dificultad de desplazarse por un campo minado de secretos; la desoladora convicci̤n de que, m̀s que aprender a pensar, fuimos entrenados para obedecer y repetir. Facs̕mil se pasea por temas que nos interpelan como sociedad la desigualdad, la memoria, la educaci̤n y muestra a un autor que sigue arriesgando y proyectando una obra que se distingue por su precisi̤n, contundencia y, sobre todo, por esa tonalidad ͠nica en la que se conjugan la rabia, el humor y la delicadeza. To say that Facsimile is a novel would be as risky as saying that it is not. Perhaps it is better to just say that it is a book by Alejandro Zambra, because the style and themes that have made him an essential voice in Latin American literature are deployed here in a radical and extreme way. Based on the structure of the Verbal Aptitude Test, applied in Chile from 1967 to 2002 to university applicants, the author creates a work where the stories coexist with lyrical fragments and language exercises that rather constitute ethical problems: the need to lie to validate yourself before others; the will to establish bonds despite distrust in love and family; the difficulty of navigating a minefield of secrets; the devastating conviction that, rather than learning to think, we were trained to obey and repeat. Facsimile walks through themes that challenge us as a society - inequality, memory, education - and shows an author who continues to risk and project a work that is distinguished by its precision, forcefulness and, above all, by that unique tonality in the one that combines anger, humor and delicacy.
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