The President--post I

I am not sure that I even need to say this but...here it is nonetheless...I find this book much easier to read than Facundo. So now that I have said that I can get to the other stuff.

Where to start? I find it interesting that this book pays much more attention to women. For a start, unlike its predecessor it actually has female characters, the lady rendered earless by Facundo notwithstanding. This automatically makes it a less macho affair and indeed, it shows the men's vulnerabilities as well as the women's. An example is Rodas, whose conscience won't allow him to forget the brutal murder of the Zany carried out by his friend Vasquez. Indeed Rodas seems quite traumatized by the event and I think the psychological realism, the consequences of the brutality of the regime, the toll it takes even on those working for the government makes it more than merely the bloodbath that Facundo is. In fairness, Sarmineto did not exactly set out to give the innermost thoughts of his characters and, of course, the field of psychology has changed quite a bit from his time to that of Asturias. One thing I have noticed, however, is that we do not get, at least up to this point, access to the title character's thoughts, as indeed was the case with Facundo.

There are, of course, other similarities to Sarmiento's book--the emphasis on violence and brutality; the mention of wild beasts (tigers included); the use of dramatic language and vivid imagery (though this somehow works much better here than in Facundo). Perhaps I shall say more on this on another occasion.

I also wanted to briefly mention some of the modernist elements of the novel. Its emphasis on time is interesting. A lot seems to happen at times when the clock is striking the hour. In addition, the novel is divided into periods of a few days at a time but the actions shifts fairly seemlessly to the more distant past (as in the description of Camila's trip to the coast) and back again. The presence of little bits of verse, as well as some of the play with language strikes me as almost Joycean (ex. "Curveofacurveinacurveofacurvecurveofacurveinacurveof Lot's wife. (Did she invent lotteries?)" p.20 or the whole "logical, illogical, relogical" banter between Dona Venjamon and her husband p. 54).

I am looking forward to reading the rest...even though it still is a difficult read because of all the suffering depicted. I found the description of Camila's old nurse when Nina Fedina goes to the general's house especially touching...as well as Fedina's clinging to the baby...

It is also ironic that while the authorities are searching for the colonel's killer and accusing and interrogating and torturing innocent people, the real killer is dead already (shot by the police) and nobody knows about it...at least that's what we think at this point in the novel.