Customer Reviews

Leaving Tabasco: A Novel

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I started to read this book at 9 pm one evening and it kept me reading till I finished it at 4 am. At first it seems a folksy tale but its depth becomes apparent when you realize the price a person, especially a young girl with few opportunities except those of her own making, has to pay to live in what is suffocating comfort. The sense of claustrophobia continually grows until an explosion is inevitable. But that too comes with a terrible price. A very powerful book that was easy to read, in an unusually good translation that moves with fluency and grace. As I said, I couldn't put it down.

The challenge in this book is certainly not the easy movement of the narrative (quite something in a translated work) but in facing the impact of a "primal scene" on a young girl's consciousness. Unable to confront the reality of what she sees, she plunges into hallucinations (that we might be tempted to anesthetize as 'magic realism') in order to conceal from herself the impact of her experience--disorders in nature intended to prevent (at least subjectively) the re-occurrence of the disturbing sight. Strong stuff. Not for those with a werak stomach!

This book offers more of the same, from the stereotypal chilli pepper on the cover. It will be a pleasant reading for many, but if you are looking for some truly good and groundbreaking fiction, Latin American or otherwise, you should look elsewhere. The characters are trite, the plot predictable, the ending complacent and bland. Perhaps it may seem surprising that more than a few Latin American readers, myself included, are sick of being portrayed as Boullosa, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel and many more writers (both men and women) do. Surprising, but true: if magic realism was, about half a century ago, a very lively and fresh way to look at ourselves (and to tackle the problems of our own varied and contradictory heritages), now there is nothing left of that freshness, the "exotic" locales are just a way to lure bored European and American readers, and the many, many imitators of Garcia Marquez and Carpentier are to them as, say, any "Dungeons and Dragons" hack is to the anonymous poet who wrote "Beowulf".

This beatiful novel is a must read for any native Latinamerican living away from home and who dreams of going back one day-and not knowing if he/she can do it. The story is very panamerican-this could be anywhere in L.A., not just Tabasco, MX. The story reminded me of 100 Years of Solitude, although it is not as complex and elaborated, and is much simpler in language and style. A great quick read from one of Mexico's best contemporary writers. (If you know Spanish, read the Spanish version, titled 30 An~os).