Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Brickmakers

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Brickmakers by Selva Almada

5 reviews

intoblossom's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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yourbookishbff's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Brickmakers is a gritty retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in rural Argentina that circles the deaths of two opposing brickmakers' sons - Marciano Miranda and Pájaro Tamai. It examines the circumstances of their families' feud, cycling the reader through a refracted, episodic retelling of the lives and losses that drove them to their deaths in the dust beneath a Ferris wheel. This is a tight narrative (under 200 pages) that leans heavily on character dialogue, but despite its short page count, its non-linear timeline makes it a challenging story to navigate at times. We see not only Marciano and Pájaro's memories, but also those of their parents, and it's this choice to linger between a more limited third-person narration (which would be expected of death-bed flashbacks) and an omniscient third-person narration that creates additional narrative complexity. I can appreciate that it calls back to its theatrical inspiration (there are so many moments that feel like they are meant to be seen on the stage), though it did pull me out of the story occasionally.

Most unsettling in this retelling is the complete absence of one of our love interests until the final 40-50 pages. We suspect from the start that the inciting incident is related to a potential love affair between Pájaro and Marciano's younger brother, Ángelito, but Ángelito is only tangentially present in a handful of scenes and is only shown through the perspectives of Marciano or Pájaro. In reading other reviews, I would note that readers should not expect an on-page queer romance between these two - their romance is largely off-page, aside from a few frenetic encounters - and is not centered in the narrative. In decentering the romance, Almada emphasizes that the real crux of the story is the generational trauma of toxic masculinity and patriarchal traditions that nurture homophobia, physical and sexual abuse, addiction and more.

This is a tough story to read, and the lack of chapter headings in the English translation of the e-book added to the numerous challenges of the narrative, but it's a story that is richer for its complexity, and I look forward to reading more from Almada.

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