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arirang 's review for:
The Sound of Things Falling
by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Beautifully written and a revealing window into Colombia's recent history.
So why only three stars? Well the author has chosen to use a rather clumsy framing device for the novel in an attempt to appear more literary.
So for example the crucial back-story that occupies 100 pages in the middle of the book is preceded by a beautifully written description of how the narrator comes to discover the tale that follows:
"There, resting beneath the hammock like a pet, was the wicker box: there on the paper were the lives of Elaine Fritts and Ricardo Laverde, letters they wrote to each others, letters they'd written to other people. The air was perfectly still. I settled into the hammock that Maya Fritts had used the night before and there, with my head on a cushion with a white, embroidered cover, I took out the first folder and set it on my stomach, and from the folder took out the first letter. It was a piece of greenish, almost see-through paper. "Dear Grandpa and Grandma" it opened - and then the first line, independent and on it's own, leaning on the paragraph that followed like a suicidal person, on a cornice".
So far so good - except the next 100 pages are then told by the traditional and rather out-dated omniscient third-person narrator, who is aware of information (e.g. what characters are thinking) that he couldn't possibly have gleaned from 20 year old letters.
My other issue is that he also tries to add in a thriller element to a tale that doesn't need it. The book builds around 2/3rd of the way through to a revelation that is obvious from page 1. The narrator's friend is a pilot, in Colombia, at the time of the drug wars, has spent time in prison and is eventually killed by a hitman - it's not really a surprise to find out what he did!
So why only three stars? Well the author has chosen to use a rather clumsy framing device for the novel in an attempt to appear more literary.
So for example the crucial back-story that occupies 100 pages in the middle of the book is preceded by a beautifully written description of how the narrator comes to discover the tale that follows:
"There, resting beneath the hammock like a pet, was the wicker box: there on the paper were the lives of Elaine Fritts and Ricardo Laverde, letters they wrote to each others, letters they'd written to other people. The air was perfectly still. I settled into the hammock that Maya Fritts had used the night before and there, with my head on a cushion with a white, embroidered cover, I took out the first folder and set it on my stomach, and from the folder took out the first letter. It was a piece of greenish, almost see-through paper. "Dear Grandpa and Grandma" it opened - and then the first line, independent and on it's own, leaning on the paragraph that followed like a suicidal person, on a cornice".
So far so good - except the next 100 pages are then told by the traditional and rather out-dated omniscient third-person narrator, who is aware of information (e.g. what characters are thinking) that he couldn't possibly have gleaned from 20 year old letters.
My other issue is that he also tries to add in a thriller element to a tale that doesn't need it. The book builds around 2/3rd of the way through to a revelation that is obvious from page 1. The narrator's friend is a pilot, in Colombia, at the time of the drug wars, has spent time in prison and is eventually killed by a hitman - it's not really a surprise to find out what he did!