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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Got bored at work so I sorted my to-read list by Shortest and grabbed something on the library app. This was pretty refreshing, easy to read and interestingly translated. Maybe a little misogynistic, but also just generally misanthropic. Gross and fun.
3.5 this is a Novella, translated from Spanish, that takes place in an almost-apocalyptic Mexican city. The main character “fixes” people’s problems and there are a whole host of weird nicknames and grimy characters.
Not as poetic and obscure as Signs Preceeding the End of the World, but the novella still has some strangeness to it that I am now guessing is a trademark of Herrera's writing. The story again has a myth-like quality that elavates the text and renders it timeless. At the same time its very much rooted in a gritty, violent reality where bodies are battered, bruised, invaded and dragged around in an empty city ravaged by an unknown pandemic (for something written over a decade ago the closed pharmacies and "no masks" signs are too real). This sense of human existence barely going beyond carrying these aching and wanting bodies around and hurling them at each other is only amplified by the fact that almost no one has a name, but a moniker: The Redeemer, the Mennonite, the Dolphin, the Three Times Blonde. When Baby Girl's body is returned to her family her friend calls them out: "You know she didn't like to be called that. She had a name." Her plea is recognized, but the name is never given. Although the story ends with a resolution, the cycle does not. The Redeemer receives another call and the transmigration of bodies continues.
Signs Preceding is better, but this is of nearly equal quality and feels like it's from the same universe.
Herrera’s inventive writing is definitely a favorite of mine, even if this story has less going for it than Signs Preceding the End of the World. While it lacks the depth of the other, it’s dark, fun, and fast-paced, and full of Herrera’s stylized language.
I read [b:The Transmigration of Bodies|31117054|The Transmigration of Bodies|Yuri Herrera|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468456473s/31117054.jpg|23419168] just after Daniel Defoe’s [b:A Journal of the Plague Year|46730|A Journal of the Plague Year|Daniel Defoe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388365957s/46730.jpg|12755437] and I think reading them close together enhanced my enjoyment of Herrera’s dystopian plague story. As told, the plague unleashed in the book was believable and frightening, but picturing some aspects of the real plague made it even more realistic. What made the book fascinating was the retelling of Romeo and Juliet (Baby Girl) in this setting. You are not hit over the head with another story centering around romance, but focused on the gangster families, so it is an obvious but still “sneaky” approach to some aspects (but not all) of the Shakespeare play. It’s a short page turner and worth every minute. The brutality of modern Mexico is brilliantly portrayed and the focus on two mobster families lets the reader know that it is just one look into the country, and not a portrayal of the whole picture of the country.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Preferred Signs Preceding the End of the World however I still quite enjoyed reading this novella. The story was quite eerie to the COVID-19 pandemic since the backdrop of the story was a plague. Elements of the story brought out certain feelings and images associated to the pandemic that would have not been invoked if I read it before COVID-19. This is not to say that Herrera did not do a great job describing it. Herrera prose is very poetic and definitely at times I need to reread to understand what he is getting at. This is not necessarily a negative though it did sometimes left me confused with the story and not grasping firmly what he meant. This is what you get when dealing with translated fiction, there will be elements lost and aspects where I won't understand.
Yuri Herrera is rightly considered one of greatest contemporary writers in Mexico writing at this present moment and I wholeheartedly agree with this. What he can write in 100 or so pages is extraordinarily beautiful and poetic whilst weaving in the social issues Mexico is facing. I highly recommend people read Signs Preceding the End of the World first but do not skip reading his other works. After writing this, I'm picking up Kingdom Cons next.
Yuri Herrera is rightly considered one of greatest contemporary writers in Mexico writing at this present moment and I wholeheartedly agree with this. What he can write in 100 or so pages is extraordinarily beautiful and poetic whilst weaving in the social issues Mexico is facing. I highly recommend people read Signs Preceding the End of the World first but do not skip reading his other works. After writing this, I'm picking up Kingdom Cons next.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated