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A review by jayshay
Singing from the Well by Reinaldo Arenas
4.0
Up until well over half way reading this book I was bitching and complaining, reading offending parts of the book to my wife. I felt like an adult following a child around as he played his own very private game. SftW was all fantastical, nothing grounded the story, there wasn't a plot, I didn't know what the hell was going on, characters were constantly dying and then coming back in the next paragraph, everyone seemed insane, is Celistino even real?
But..... right after or on page 130 (of 206) something clicked for me. Maybe I just released my realist fiction expectations. It's a novel from a young child's perspective, there is little or no setting, and for the life of me I'm not even totally clear what the point of the damn book is! (Though it is interesting that the novel was originally titled Celestino antes del alba and how the book ends. And that the name derives from "of the sky, heavenly", sort of an angel.) Maybe it is just the particular brutality of this childhood, there is a reason why everyone is dying all the time. I still think the trope of Celestino writing on all the trees and the grandfather cutting them down was just that, a writers trope -- too transparently 'meaningful' to have any power for me. But the cumulative effect of the barrage of a child's fantastical imagining finally did have its effect on me. By the end I was touched -- so the book worked for me. For anyone looking for a education about Cuba, look elsewhere, but if you want up close, very upclose, childhood hell (A Season in Hell) this is your book.
But..... right after or on page 130 (of 206) something clicked for me. Maybe I just released my realist fiction expectations. It's a novel from a young child's perspective, there is little or no setting, and for the life of me I'm not even totally clear what the point of the damn book is! (Though it is interesting that the novel was originally titled Celestino antes del alba and how the book ends. And that the name derives from "of the sky, heavenly", sort of an angel.) Maybe it is just the particular brutality of this childhood, there is a reason why everyone is dying all the time. I still think the trope of Celestino writing on all the trees and the grandfather cutting them down was just that, a writers trope -- too transparently 'meaningful' to have any power for me. But the cumulative effect of the barrage of a child's fantastical imagining finally did have its effect on me. By the end I was touched -- so the book worked for me. For anyone looking for a education about Cuba, look elsewhere, but if you want up close, very upclose, childhood hell (A Season in Hell) this is your book.