Customer Reviews

The Long Night Of White Chickens (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've worked in Guatemala as a human rights observer as well as with many Guatemalan asylum seekers in the United States.

This book, in evoking what Guatemala is like, with its beauty and cruelty and silence, is the best I've encountered. Sometimes a fictional narrative can explain the truth of a situation better than any recitation of historical facts. This is one of those rare books.

While you could obviously read Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemala Nunca Mas Report (REHMI, which got the Archbishop killed in 1998), the Historical Clarification Commission Report, or Fear as a Way of Life by Linda Green, Goldman's book probably explains best the complexity of Guatemala.

I don't want to diminish the great literary quality of the book, but what impacted me the most was how Goldman had put into words my most complex feelings about my time in Guatemala, the amazing draw and beauty, and this sense of silent horror penetrating the entire place.

This was one of the books I assigned as "summer reading" to myself, a year ago. I am so glad I did it. Francisco Goldman juxtaposes magical realism, humor, human tragedy and sexuality into one amazing epic of a novel. I was first introduced to him when I read "Half and Half," a book filled with accounts of bicultural and biracial writers, recalling their experiences growing up in two factioned worlds in society. For Goldman, it was the Jewish world of his father, and the Guatemalan world of his mother. He transposes his experiences loosely, in the perspective of Rogerio, the main character and (sometimes) narrator of "The Long Night of White Chickens."

Rogerio is biracial/bicultural young man, plagued by illness, as a young boy, and living between the middle class world of his Jewish father, and the village life of his Guatemalan mother. It is through a remarkable twist of fate that he comes to know Flor, the beautiful heroine of the book, who is his nanny/companion, throughout his childhood and into adulthood. Flor haunts many people with her memory, after a horrendous tragedy that leaves all she touched stricken by sadness.

This book is really hard to describe, but hopefully my little review encourages you to check it out!!!!

Although there have been many complaints about the author's writing, I had no trouble following this book. This guy writes like Guatemalans talk (he has no discernible train of thought, jumps from subject to subject and goes on way too long)and his narrator is annoyingly shallow and self-involved and feels way to sorry for himself, so it was like going out on any given occasion and hearing a typical sob story from a guy who's had too much to drink... I felt right at home! He got all the expressions and all the scenery right.. the description of street kids sniffing glue while looking in store windows made me laugh and cry, because it's so familiar and sad. But I must admit that the most fun I had with this book was passing it around to my family and friends and then figuring out who the characters really were (and if you're Guatemalan, you can). Fijate vos, I really enjoyed this one...

Goldman tells his story in non-linear and chaotic time in order to convey how chaotic and frightening life in Guatemala was during the brutal military regimes of the early 1980s. I found myself having trouble keeping track (is this the present or a flashback?), but it didn't matter. His writing is witty and poetic, his characters are unique. His observations of class, culture, North American paternalism and murderous politcal oppression in Central America are tough and accurate.

A lot of people have criticized this book for being too long-winded and off topic, but I disagree. Long Night of White Chickens tells the story as you would get to know someone so that by the end of the book you feel you really know Flor de Mayo. In real life, when you meet someone you don't learn everything about the person write away; it can take years for a strong relationship to develop. Throughout the book, Goldman introduces tantalizing tidbits about Flor's life and you slowly begin to understand who she is while at the same time realizing how complicated a character she actually is and that you could never know everything about her- just like a real person. At the same time, the book has an exciting plot and a thought-provoking ending.

The Long Night of White Chickens is a rich stew of interwoven memories and perceptions. It works from both the inside out and the outside in to create its characters, and at the same time paints an unforgettable picture of Guatemala. All this, plus a sort of mystery plot!

The first half, or so, of this book is quite exciting and compelling. Unfortunately, Goldman doesn't know when to stop and the novel gets awfully long winded, digressing into subject totally irrelevant to the subject matter. A good editor would have helped.

Whilst this book was worth reading, talk about stringing out a story. Normally a book takes me a week maximum to read...this took me MONTHS. It was starting to feel like a part of my anatomy.

the sporatic time construction in the story line causes the reader to have to wade through the same scene over and over again, some times even described with the exact same wording. The book would not have suffered from a quick reread by a tough editor before being sent to the presses. Worth reading, the man obviously has talent and I'm going to assume the repetition and crazy time sequence was done to simulate latin american lifestyle but boy, was i ready to get to that last page.

I enjoyed this book, although I must admit that after hearing the author on BBC radio I was predisposed to liking his books. I was not disappointed when I read this.

This book is not for anyone interested in linear narrative or a whodunit? detective story. The facts concerning the mystery of Flor de Mayo are given slowly and at times vaguely. Mr. Goldman is superb in his descriptions of place, and much of his imagery will stay with you after you have read the last page. Throughout the novel Flor often feels like a ghost, though this very well could have been the author's intent. The characters are vivid and the reader can feel himself becoming entangled in the knot of their relationships to the extent that he wonders if he will ever be able to untie it.

If you enjoy moral uncertainty, then this is a book for you. This novel is also illuminating on how Latin Americans perceive their nothern neighbors and vice versa. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys William Faulkner or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.