Tomás GonzálezRezensionen

What a waste of time. Gonzalez, at least in this book, had zero (or even less than zero) interest in telling you anything about his characters, much less developing them. He had a story to tell and nothing would get in the way. Every five chapters or so he would insert a single sentence meant, I presume, to be ominous about how the protagonist would die before long. Writing was okay, nothing remarkable (appears to be an excellent translation). Just a great disappointment; I had liked The Storm but this was just a waste of my time.

3.5*

26-year old twins Mario and Jose help their father run a beach holiday complex on the Colombian coast. Their feelings towards him are conflicted. They have a faint, grudging admiration for the life he has built for himself. But what they feel is primarily anger at his casual arrogance, his overriding pride, his belittling of his sons and his ex-wife, who has descended into mental illness partly as a result of his philandering (or, at least, that’s what Mario and Jose seem to think). One morning, against all good sense and despite ominous weather warnings, the three men set out on a fishing trip. As the wind and waves gather around them, pent up emotions surface and bubble over.

Tomás González is one of Colombia’s leading contemporary novelists. Thanks to Andrea Rosenberg, English-speaking readers can now appreciate this finely-crafted novella. True, the Lear-like pathetic fallacy – a storm as a backdrop to a fiery family portrait – borders on the obvious. But the character studies are convincing and insightful. I also liked the quirky narration which alternates between a “real-time” diary of the fateful fishing trip and multiple first-person accounts from the point of view of the people who follow the events from the safety of the Caribbean coast : the estranged wife, the father’s new partner, children playing on the beach, guests at the holiday complex. All this plays out against a lovingly-drawn natural setting, with the awe-inspiring beauty – and violence – of the ocean recalling Romantic notions of the Sublime.

"I slept almost four hours straight, dreamlessly, until I was awakened at seven by the knot of grief in my belly at the death of my son Jacobo, which we’d scheduled for seven that night, Portland time, ten o’clock in New York."

By the time the first very short chapter (there are 33 of them and the first is the shortest) closes with this sentence, we know that the narrator, David, is in New York and not in Portland and we know that most of the family is there with him while Jacobo and his brother Pablo are making their way to Portland. So why is Jacobo scheduled to die, why is it happening away from home and why is the family not with him?

Instead of relying on alternating chapters, Tomás González uses alternating paragraphs in most of his chapters to jump around the timeline. The here and now is a small Colombian village, La Mesa de Juan Díaz, in 2018. But that time shares the spotlight with New York in 1999 on the day his son died and we get glimpses of other times in David's life.

In 2018, David is a widower, living alone and employing a local family to help him after having lost his wife Sara 2 years earlier and now slowly starting to loose his eyesight. He still gets visitors and his sons and friends call often but he is nevertheless alone. In 1999, he was a successful painter, with a loving wife, 3 sons and a circle of friends.

Unable to paint anymore due to the damage to his eyes, the old man takes to writing and starts a memoir. What we read is a mix between the memoir and his current thoughts, without separators and without indication of which part belongs to what. It feels a bit disjointed at first but when the rhythm settles, it starts feeling like the thought of a man in his later years - now he thinks about his housekeeper, now he is back in time with his dead wife.

It is a story of grief and loss - the grief of losing a child, the grief of losing a wife, the grief of losing your eyesight when you had made beauty and the visual arts your life. David's voice is melancholic and as he is telling the story of the life he lived, he is able to see and appreciate the things he could have done better. But under it all runs the inevitable - Jacobo always dies, Sara can never come back and even the doctors are surprised with the rapid loss of his eyesight. And yet, it never feels hopeless and part of it is David's attitude to life and its surprises, all the way to that last sentence which he cannot even write himself anymore and needs someone else to write and yet it summarizes his life: "Wunderful!" (creative spelling fully intended - read the novella/short novel to learn why).½

3.5*

26-year old twins Mario and Jose help their father run a beach holiday complex on the Colombian coast. Their feelings towards him are conflicted. They have a faint, grudging admiration for the life he has built for himself. But what they feel is primarily anger at his casual arrogance, his overriding pride, his belittling of his sons and his ex-wife, who has descended into mental illness partly as a result of his philandering (or, at least, that’s what Mario and Jose seem to think). One morning, against all good sense and despite ominous weather warnings, the three men set out on a fishing trip. As the wind and waves gather around them, pent up emotions surface and bubble over.

Tomás González is one of Colombia’s leading contemporary novelists. Thanks to Andrea Rosenberg, English-speaking readers can now appreciate this finely-crafted novella. True, the Lear-like pathetic fallacy – a storm as a backdrop to a fiery family portrait – borders on the obvious. But the character studies are convincing and insightful. I also liked the quirky narration which alternates between a “real-time” diary of the fateful fishing trip and multiple first-person accounts from the point of view of the people who follow the events from the safety of the Caribbean coast : the estranged wife, the father’s new partner, children playing on the beach, guests at the holiday complex. All this plays out against a lovingly-drawn natural setting, with the awe-inspiring beauty – and violence – of the ocean recalling Romantic notions of the Sublime.

I grabbed this book from the library shelves because of its small format (I love tiny books! Plus, French flaps!), then was pleased to see it was from Pushkin Press, which I've been meaning to read more from. Then was delighted to see it was from a Columbian author, as I've been struggling to find a second book by a South American author for book bingo. So into the check-out pile it went.

It was kind of mesmerizing, kind of familiar, a tiny bit underwhelming in points, but also fascinating. It was often to difficult to decide if I was rooting for the characters or not. The book is mostly from J.'s point of view, and while we are given opportunities to empathize with Elena, we never really understand her. Which is not really a criticism, it is appropriate for this book.

Based on a true story, J. and Elena abandon a city life of parties and fast-paced living to buy a small property in a remote location. There's culture shock, cash flow problems, and a mounting series of misunderstandings and misjudgments that seem impossible to dig back out of. J. is almost always too optimistic, and Elena too bitter. It slowly unravels, and you know it is all going to end in tragedy, but to what extent? and how?

An absorbing little book that will make you reexamine any impulse you've ever had about running away to the country.

Raúl, un misántropo que vive refugiado en su finca, ha encontrado su felicidad con Julia y a la vez el infierno. Tendrá que olvidarla y afrontar sin ella la vejez y la soledad de sus últimos días. El idilio roto, el duelo, la sobrevivencia en medio de una naturaleza deslumbrante y feroz: el santo y seña del universo literario de Tomás González.

This short, small book is an odd one. I'm still not quite sure what I think of it. From the blurbs, I expected some wilderness survival tale, except that I knew this one would not end well.

No, it wasn't really wilderness survival Elena and J. decides to take up life by the sea, to simplify their lives. This is no remote isolation. There is a village, stores, amenities although a bit on the primitive side.

Elena is rather nasty and unlikable from the start, a bossy, angry prickly person who causes others to dislike her. J. seems a bit more likable if naive, but also certainly a drunk. And that is the happy part! He was an idealistic fool who ended up heavily on the fool side as he lost his ideals. This story does show the weak underbelly of the main characters.

I had two guesses of what would happen in the end, either a strong possibility in my mind. While my specific guesses were wrong, the general outcome was as I expected. Still, being told by the author this isn't a happily-ever-after story does not detract.

I would not want to read this book if I were depressed because it would make me want to just stay in bed and mope. Still, it is an interesting character study, and the atmosphere is nicely done. It was translated by Frank Wynne, and like all good translations, made me barely aware I was not reading the language the author used.

The story was apparently based on a true story, and that part does make me sad – that people can waste their lives on pipe dreams.

I was given a finished copy of this book for review.½

This is a grim little book that is published for the first time in English. It was so grim that I had trouble finishing it- and like I said, it’s a very small book. It’s not that the writing is bad- far from it- but the plot is one of bad luck and bad decisions and the characters are not likeable whatsoever.

In the 1970s, J. and his wife Elena decide to give up on their careers and go and live off the land- with investments to sustain them, of course. They have bought a small estate, or finca, sight unseen and taken a loan on it. They figure on planting trees, selling coconuts and mangoes, running cattle, and having a few chickens. These two are woefully unprepared for this sort of life. Nothing is as they imagine in their rosy dreams; the house is a falling apart shack, the cattle die or get stolen as fast as they reproduce, and they can produce no income. J. can best be described as a fool who trusts – both people and fate- too easily; Elena is sullen, resentful, nasty to people, and a poster child for white privilege. It’s obvious things won’t go well; in fact, the narrator lets us know that very early in the tale. Yet as unpleasant as it all is, I couldn’t stop reading. The writing *is* good, and the story is like watching a slow motion auto accident- you just can’t look away.

Fueron complicados los momentos por los que tuvo que pasar David, el protagonista de esta historia. Pero creo que más que difícil fue un acto de mucho valor haber decidido contar su historia y aquellos momentos o más bien días u horas agobiantes de espera tras la decisión que tomaría Jacobo frente al estado de sufrimiento que estaba viviendo. Jacobo era su hijo, el mayor de los tres, en orden irían Jacobo, Pablo y Arturo. Pablo se encargó de su hermano Jacobo cundo quedo parapléjico después de un accidente automovilístico que además lo dejaría con dolores insoportables que lo llevarían a tomar, como ya mencione, la decisión más importante de su vida. Sara, la esposa de David y por ende madre de los muchachos también sufriría este agobiante proceso pero ella moriría unos años después.
Después de haber llegado y sobretodo “superado” lo que vivió en Norte América David empieza su narración desde la mesa, lugar en Colombia donde viviría mucho después y con ayuda de Ángela, la muchacha que le ayudaba en la casa, se atrevería a escribir esos momentos agobiantes por los que paso, hablarnos de su trabajo y demás cosas que lo acompañaron toda su vida.
Es posible darse cuenta que frente a la situación tan difícil que vivía David y su familia, siempre prevalecía el apoyo y la unión entre ellos mismos y sus amigos quienes, como decía David habían acogido a sus hijos como si fueran de ellos, de quien les hablo es de Debrah y James que siempre estuvieron atentos y ofreciéndoles ese cariño y apoyo que tanto necesitaban, aunque en algunas ocasiones David decía que los abrazos o las muestras de cariño al estilo Norte Americano de ellos no le agradaba tanto, pero en esta situación por la que pasaban no estaban mal. También es importante mostrar la prevalencia y el cariño de venus, la novia de Jacobo y Ámbar, la novia de Arturo que estuvieron atentas ante cualquier acontecimiento que pasara en la familia.
La tristeza, la soledad y el dolor fueron visibles en esta historia pero creo que lo más importante que debo resaltar es la amistad y la unión que prevalecen en cualquier situación, donde Debrah, James, Sara, Pablo, Arturo, Michael (amigo de Jacobo) Cristóbal (el gato) Preet (taxista) y Ángela en el ahora, hicieron parte de esta importante y resaltable compañía, aunque unos mas que otros.
Para terminar quiero resaltar un factor importante de la historia. A pesar de los momentos difíciles que se pueden vivir en la vida hay que prevalecer y superarlos, aunque bien se sabe, en algún momento todos nos dirigimos a una inevitable verdad cuando empieza la vejez, tal vez demasiado trágico para mí, un joven de 18 años.
La soledad.

(Escrita por el colombiano Tomás González)
Una conmovedora novela sobre la vida y la muerte. Un relato en medio del horror de la pérdida de un ser querido y la belleza de la pintura, del arte. Sin duda, un relato que invita a la reflexión sobre la escencia de la vida , las amistades y la familia. Narrada desde dos lugares diferentes:desde La Mesa actual y el Nueva York del siglo pasado, el narrador hace un recorrido de más de 10 años de su vida contando la muerte de su hijo quien después de un accidente que lo deja cuadraplejico decide aplciarse la eutanasia.

un libro para leer en una noche tranquila y degustarlo letra por letra. permite hundirse en el más profundo dolor de David hasta salir con él a flote entre sus pinturas.

Desde el principio se enuncia lo que va a pasar. No hay emocion.