The Unfinished Song of Francisco Urondo: When Poetry is Not Enough is a comprehensive, well-written, documented, and carefully developed study of the literary work and life of Francisco Urondo, an Argentine poet, intellectual, activist, cultural promoter, revolutionary, and clandestine guerilla member who died in 1976 fighting for a cause in which he believed, against the oppressive Argentine Military Junta.
This methodical but never mechanistic work shows how life events, cultural milieu, political movements, and world circumstances interacted and impacted Urondo’s temperament to produce his poetic voice, his prose, and his theatrical works. By studying the man, we get closer to his poetry. With his poetry, the author makes a compelling case for understanding the man.
Francisco Urondo’s life, work, and praxis were varied, agonizing at times, and always marked by imperatives. This book fills a significant lacuna in the scholarship on the work of this worthy, yet neglected and under-studied, writer. Readers of this book will come away with not only a deepened understanding of the man and his writings but also of a key period in recent Argentine political, social, and intellectual history.
