Héctor Abad Faciolince

I have finished Oblivion by Hector Obad and appreciated the writing, but the last quarter or more of the book went on and on as a tribute to his father who was assassinated by para-military right-wing thugs in Colombia in 1997. His dad was a professor of public health at the University of Antioquia in Medellin and was shot in the chest as he was going to a wake for a friend similarly killed. He sounded like a great man, with admirable aims, but one who spent his life Don Quixote-style ignoring warnings and trouble around him as he pursued his laudable goals. The writer is not easy on the reader with very long sentences and few breaks. It took me a long time to finish it - I started it in Santa Fe de Antioquia and read on the plane home. I would like to see what the writer does with a subject not so close to his heart but there's no denying the beauty of his prose.… (mehr)