Anamaria Vere
Que felicidad tener otro libro de Pedro Badrán! Este tiene todas las cosas que tanto amo en la obra de este escritor. El ritmo de su lenguaje; los sonidos, sabores y olores de los lugares descritos, que el libro va soltando con cada página que paso; y, como siempre, las increíbles listas que siempre he adorado y que parecen más poesía que prosa. Que delicia de lectura! Gracias, Pedro.
I read this book three times in 24 hours. The first reading frustrated me and the book seemed to me to be an unsuccessful work. Three stars. But it nagged at me, so I read it again. During my second reading, I began to understand how the words had been woven together into sentences and I glimpsed their secret meaning, just beyond. Four stars. Upon completing my third reading, I realized this little book contains the whole world. Five stars. Of course, the book didn't change at all from one reading to the next. But I did. Reading is such a gift.
Life got in the way and it took me a long time to finish this book, but I am really glad I came back to it and read until the end. As the title states, this book is a love story, but not in the traditional sense. Although the author is emphatic about the romantic love he feels for his wife, the love he focuses on is the one shared by his immediate family: his mother, his farther, his brother and himself.
The author begins at the end, reassuring us that the story has a happy ending and that he is going to start there and work his way back. He begins with a day in the present, and working his way backwards chronologically, he picks out days relevant to his family's history and shares them with us, thus giving us glimpses at his family's life and at the same time allowing us to feel the deep love that binds them together.
Everything he narrates is true, but reconstructed through the art of fiction. In this manner, he shares with us not only intimate details about his family's life, but also defining moments in the history of Colombia. This blending of fact and fiction allows his writing to achieve an urgency and immediacy that are difficult to find in straight, historical accounts. His chapter, for example, describing the day the M-19 took over the Palace of Justice, grabbed me from the first word and did not let me go until the last.
For me, the weakest part of the book occurs when the book moves far enough back in time that the author is no longer the narrative voice, as he has not been born yet in the chronology of the book. From that point on, the narrative voice moves between a few different characters and I felt it lost some of its coherence and urgency as a result. Happily, the author narrator returns at the end and provides a satisfying finale.
I definitely enjoyed reading this book and am looking forward to reading more of Ricardo Silva Romero's books.
The best books transport us. This book is a time machine. It will catapult back through time to time to when you fell in love for the first time. You will remember the thrill of holding hands on the bus and first kisses and so many other things that you had perhaps forgotten you lived. I haven't smiled so much reading a book in a very long time.
