The Armies (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Evelio Rosero (Author), Anne McLean (Translator)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: September 15, 2009

An elderly retired teacher is caught up in drug wars which slowly destroy his small town.

Ismail, the profesor, is a retired teacher in a small Colombian town where he passes the days pretending to pick oranges while spying on his neighbor Geraldina as she lies naked in the shade of a ceiba tree on a red floral quilt. The garden burns with sunlight; the macaws laugh sweetly. Otilia, Ismail's wife, is ashamed of his peeping and suggests that he pay a visit to Father Albornoz. Instead, Ismail wanders the town visiting old friends, plagued by a tangle of secret memories: Where have I existed these years? I answer myself: up on the wall, peering over. When the armies slowly arrive, the profesor's reveries are gradually taken over by a living hell. His wife disappears and he must find her. We learn that not only gentle, grassy hillsides surround San José but landmines and coca fields. The reader is soon engulfed by the violence of Rosero's narrative that is touched not only with a deep sadness, but an extraordinary tenderness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A disturbing allegory of life during wartime, in which little appears to happen while at the same time entire lives and worlds collapse. This is an important and powerful book.” (The Times [London] )

“Evelio Rosero has dipped his pen in blood and written an epic in 215 pages. If anyone has wondered if there is life in the Colombian novel after magical realism, this is the evidence of the extraordinary power of that country's literature.” (Linda Grant - The Independent )

“The Armies is written in a compressed, lean style, which addresses the difficulty of the material with uncompromising clarity. It is a fragile tone, but Anne McLean's translation does full justice to it.” (Times Literary Supplement )

“The best literary rendering of the Colombian conflict to reach American readers since Márquez…Nightmarish, surreal, yet true to life.” (Megan Doll - Time Out New York )

“A brutal but beautiful novel about life in Colombia ... has won the Independent foreign fiction prize [UK].” (Alison Flood - The Guardian )

“It is an extraordinary, devastating book, spare and gripping, by turns painful and cruel…. Rosero is unflinching.” (Ben Ehrenreich - The Nation )

“A scathing indictment of the current political situation in Colombia.” (Roberta Gordenstein - World Literature Today )

About the Author

Evelio Rosero, born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1958, is the author of several books of fiction—novels and short stories—plays, and poetry. For his body of work he was awarded Colombia’s National Literature Prize by the Ministry of Culture. The Armies won the prestigious Tusquets International Prize and has been longlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

Anne McLean has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize twice, as well as the Premio Valle Inclán. She has translated the works of Javier Cercas, Julio Cortázar, Carmen Martín Gaite, Ignacio Padilla, and Evelio Rosero.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: New Directions; 1 edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811218643
• ISBN-13: 978-0811218641
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "It is extraordinary, we seem besieged by an army that is invisible.", July 13, 2010

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Armies (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

(4.5 stars) Within this short, allegorical book, Evelio Rosero creates a microcosm of Colombian rural life in the fictional community of San Jose, where no one knows who will attack them next--the army, the paramilitaries, the guerrillas, or the drug lords. Though the residents are peaceful small farmers with no interest in the country's politics, every militant faction vying for power in Colombia somehow believes that these residents constitute an imminent threat. The four militant groups each want to dominate and control the area to prevent any other group from controlling it, and they are willing to massacre innocent men, women, and even babies to achieve their bloody but elusive goals.

In the hands of Colombian author Rosero, every character in the novel becomes a sort of Everyman, an ordinary person living his own life, just like the ordinary people in any other country. Because Rosero also creates intriguing, quirky personalities for his characters, they are livelier than most other generic, "Everyman" characters, and they therefore generate sympathy and understanding of their individual problems while they also represent broader, more elevated themes. As the village comes under fire from bloodthirsty enemies as undifferentiated to the residents as they are to the reader, the author's universal themes of good vs. evil, power vs. subservience, and human kindness vs. barbarism become allegorically obvious.

Ismael Pasos, a seventy-year-old retired teacher, lives with his wife Otilia, also a teacher, on a small farm, the highlight of his life being his daily climb of a ladder to watch his neighbor's young wife, Geraldina, sunbathing nude. Now elderly, Ismael and Otilia are about to visit Hortensia Galindo on the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of her husband, captured by some unknown militant group and now "disappeared." Within days, his neighbor, the "Brazilian," his son, and their 12-year-old female cook, have also been taken. Nothing is being done to find the missing.

As circumstances become progressively worse and the atrocities become ever more brutal, Ismael becomes less lucid. The final scenes challenge the reader to see any hope for a peaceful life for these villagers, any hope for the future, any hope that beauty and kindness and love can possibly exist within such a culture. Though some readers may become frustrated at not knowing exactly which factions are perpetrating the various acts of violence, others will find that not knowing the answers puts them into the shoes of the villagers more directly. Some may also feel that the characterization of Ismael becomes vague and hard to follow when he begins to lose his hold on reality, while others will feel it makes him even more human and damaged by events. The novel leaves many questions regarding the future of this area, but it leaves no question at all about the courage of the author to raise these issues in print while they are continuing. Mary Whipple

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sad and Gripping Novel, January 29, 2010

By 

Paul Berauer - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Armies (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

"The Armies" follows the life of elderly former school teacher Ismael and his wife Otilia and their life in a small remote Colombia village. The village is constantly under threat from both rebels and paramilitary forces, who attack the town and military garrison frequently. However, life for the couple seems relatively peaceful, with Ismael continuing his habits of picking oranges and observing his sunbathing neighbor's wife.

However, this life is shattered once Otilia disappears during an attack on the village, and soon life in the town crumbles, as Ismael struggles to find out what exactly happened to his wife.