Customer Reviews

At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels Through Paraguay

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

As an American resident of Paraguay for over a year, I found At The Tomb a compelling, essential read. A bit over the top, but probably the only truly comprehensive history of Paraguay in any language, and chock full of insights into what makes this place tick - or not. That said, the reader must bear in mind that Mr. Gimlette is not a professional historian and tends to take liberties with facts that would never pass an academic review. The most questionable example is his assertion that of a total population of 1.3M at the beginning of the War with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in 1864,only 221,079 survived when it ended in 1870 - an impossibly high number even for that horrific war - a number with origins more in Paraguayan national myth than solid research. In most aspects though, Gimlette does a remarkabel job of revealing the layers of historical and cultural paradox that produced Paraguay. Having lived over 20 of my 48 years outside the US in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Paraguay is undoubtedly the most bizarre place I have ever been to and many thanks to John for helping me to understand it.

One of the most fascinating books on one of the most fascinating
countries in South America.John Gimlette has tremendous knowledge
of his subject. He conveys his impressions as a traveller,he gives historical background and he is sarcastic and funny.This book is a pleasure to read, it is captivating.
It might not be " politically correct" at times, but describing
a brutal dictator who devastated his country in " politically correct" terms, I'd like to know what they are...
Having been to Paraguay, it re-awakend an interest in that country again.I have adopted Paraguay as my special subject and
pursue it with a passion. I stop short only on Guarani as a
language, but even that language fascinates me.
John Gimlette must be congratulated on this book, as an avid traveller and reader of travel books, this book is outstanding.
It is almost a measure as to how travel books should be written,
but then, we all have our special tastes and likes.

John Gimlette's book is a good book that wanders between social travelogue and anecdotal history. He moves very easily through a very insular segment of Paraguayan society [mostly upper-class and foreign ex pats]. His writing, while tending toward florid prose, is spot on for his subject. The narrative keeps you on your toes as it And he has a critical eye for the absurdities of the situations he finds himself in. It is travel writing focused on some of the people of a place, rather than the place itself.

It all makes for an extremely entertaining read. I found myself laughing out loud several times. He has a wonderful knack for illustrative storytelling. He can make you feel like you know someone with a few sentences. His accounts of the Mennonites and other separatist "foreign" groups in Paraguay are hilarious. And he obviously moves comfortably within the other world that is Asuncion's upper class. But I also wished that he had applied his wit to the regular mestizo Paraguayans who make up the vast majority of the populous.

I have lived off and on in rural Central Paraguay for 10 years and I for one would have loved to read something that includes their experiences and history. But Gimlette remains exclusively focused on the upper echelons of Paraguayan society and the ex pat pretenders to such status. He seems to view ordinary Paraguayans as the inscrutable heirs of the strange savages his countrymen encountered centuries ago. Maybe he doesn't speak Guarani, but I've yet to encounter a Paraguayan who wouldn't turn themselves inside out to try to share their stories with a foreigner, even if they have to do it in Spanish.

Because of its narrow focus, his book neglects to tell the reader anything about the Paraguay they will see and hear if they ever ventured there. We read nothing about chipa sold from baskets carried atop the sellers head [with no hands!], or the never ending parade of mobile vendors selling everything from chewing gun to tools and medicine aboard the buses. He doesn't talk about how you can walk up to any strangers house and sit down to tea; Or about the local buses with adolescent boys and bulky cargo riding on the roofs. There's nothing about the brutal honesty of the Paraguayan people, or how welcoming they are to strangers. There are hundreds of such experiences and images missing from this book. And I for one, wish that I could have seen them through Gimlette's eyes. But it seems that for him, like for his wealthy friends, the "common" Paraguayan is not worth notice, just another part of the surroundings, nameless, and story-less. It's that blindness that keeps this book from being superb.

Although it doesn't present a complete picture of Paraguay, this book does an excellent job of presenting one aspect of Paraguayan society and part of it's distant history. The narrator's voice is entertaining and throughly English. The book's main weakness as a travelogue is in its inability to show us more of Paraguay than the author's upper-class friends.

All in all, this is a very interesting book. I have learned more about my country's history from this book than I did in all my years in Paraguayan schools. It is a must read for all Paraguayans and everyone in general, why for everyone in general? Well, it has many historical facts about Americans, Germans, Australians, Italians, English, Indians, Jesuits, South Americans, the Nazis, etc. and their relationship to Paraguay. It has been wonderfully researched and is full of awesome facts and numbers. I can only recommend this book; it also has lots of old pictures and funny passages. The book is not perfect, it contains lots of misspelled Spanish and Guarani words and proper names, something that doesn't belong to any book. What I personally dislike the most is the fact that the author gave the book the weirdest title. I have never met anyone that has ever heard of those inflatable pigs, it was probably some kind of Pokemon/Tamaguchi wave that lasted for a few days, and he dedicated the book's title to it... What I also didn't like are some of his generalizations and comments about him being home sick or missing the UK when he couldn't find a real English Bar in Paraguay.

With its interesting cultures, landscapes, and history, Paraguay is an engagingly eccentric and unexpectedly fascinating land. It's full of the descendants of strange groups of utopia-obsessed immigrants, who usually simply got stuck in forbidding locations and maintain weak cultural connections to their homelands. Meanwhile Paraguay remains the most indigenous nation in the Americas, and even uses the mother tongue of its original Indian inhabitants as the official language. Unfortunately, John Gimlette tries way too hard to get that charm across in this book. His writing style is overflowing with annoying non-sequiturs and forced eccentricity that leads to some chuckles and a few unexpected insights, but fails to draw the reader's interest toward all Paraguay has to offer. Gimlette is so concerned with writing in a supposedly eccentric style, that he pretty much passes over the normal in favor of the mildly charming or offbeat. Thus the book jumps around annoyingly and haphazardly among disconnected snippets of so-called "interesting" history, people, and locations. Therefore I doubt that this book gives a truly representative account of a land that is surely fascinating for many different reasons, from the strange to the mundane. [~doomsdayer520~]

That Paraguay is a place of mystery, intrigue, and sheer madness goes without saying, and Gimlette's monumental achievement of combining Paraguayan history with colorful gossip pays admirable homage to it. The problem is that it is not the Paraguay that you are likely to find should you go there. Gimlette's Paraguay is filled with Austalian Utopians, Texas ranchers, Germans, Italians, Englishmen, and the occasional Mennonite, but an inexplicable lack of mestizo Paraguayans. In fact, he seems callously aloof from the Paraguayan Everyman. I don't recall a single passage that illuminated the reader on the struggles of living in the third world. He ignores the Chacarita, Asuncion's largest shantytown that gets flooded every year. He doesn't mention the chipa vendors that haunt every single street in the country. He is fond of his social equals and populates his book with the characters that make Paraguayan history so unbelievable, but he misses the heart of the country. Not one mention of Cerro Porteno or Olimpia and only one mention of Chilavert. Shame on you Mr. Gimlette. You are a card carrying Englishman if I'm not mistaken. Quite a bit of hits but a disturbing miss on the most important aspects of the country.

I read this book in less then a weekend. As a first generation Paraguayan American, I learned more about Paraguay that weekend then in the last 27 years. My family is hooked; they have each ordered their own copy. I love the fact that he even included some Guarani words in the book, I did find plenty of misspellings though. Gimlette does great in sucking you in but his choice of words are a little biting. My only complaint is language, and since Gimlette has a problem biting his tongue, some may get the wrong impression about Paraguay. He should have tried harder to be a little more politically correct. You have to read this book with an open mind. We can recall history, but the storyteller can leave a lasting impression. I would like that impression to be positive. So on historical content, he gets an A+. But as far as I'm concerned, Gimlette needs to watch his words, they cut like a knife. His version of Paraguay is a little too over exaggerated. Oh, and PS, if anyone ever gets a chance to visit, GO!!!! Paraguay is beautiful!

Perhaps it was the author's choice not to try to master Guarani (though he may be surprised to learn that moat Paraguayans can handle Castellano), but 99% of his conversations were with expatriots and the upper crust of Asuncion. Without spending time sipping terere with campesinos he never had a chance to find out what the Paraguayan character was all about. He just misses the whole point of the country. His blow-by-blow accounts of the Chaco and Triple Alliance Wars were fascinating, but why did he completely ignore the devestating Civil War of the late 1940's and the rise of the Febristas. He also takes little note of the amazing explosion of media and personal freedoms, the obvious defanging of the military, and the advance of women's rights that have taken place since Rodriguez siezed power. His painting of all of Paraguay's leadership and citizenry is wholly cynical. It makes for good reading but is singularly unfair to a country that is trying its best.

Generations of pain and suffering come to life in Gimlette's book. How could such bad leadership plague a single nation across not just decades but centuries? This book doesn't provide an answer, but it does tell a morality tale of how bad government breeds bad government and how once expectations are set low, they tend to stay there. I hope the current flux of politics in Paraguay produces a leader who breaks the cycle. If ever a nation needed saving, this one does.
A great read.

At the tomb of the inflatable pig by John Gimlette.
For a person who grew up in Paraguay and lived there from 1940 to 1961 this is a fascinating book. The author did excellent histrorical research which provides the reader with an indepth understanding of the country and the Paraguayan people. For a person who has lived there and was close to nature and it's people it can be quite painful. The authors platant dislike for Germans and the prior president Stroessner, for whom he has not a single good word to say, does distract somewhat from an other wise well written book. The current situation in Paraguay can best be called a mess, people are leaving by the thousands with major destination being Europe in particular Spain, fewer come to the United States which makes it difficult for Paraguayans to obtain an entry visa.
On a nother point, the author finds little fault with the British who where the main advisor to the maniac Francisco Solano Lopez who managed to destroy the country. The period after this cataclismic war was one disaster after another and the country made very little progress for the next 80 years until Stroessner came to power. Yes it is a pitty that his regim then degenerated into a dictator ship, however there are many now who wished that some one like him could bring the country back under controll and establish law and order.