Tula Station
David Toscana, Patricia J. Duncan (Translator)
I think if I knew more about the political landscape of Mexico, I’d know more about this book, and understand it more deeply. But what little I know was not important in loving the story, which was complicated and cool -- three narratives and an overarching narrative frame, and a story about rewriting history, storytelling, personal responsibility, tragedy, selfishness, and how sad and not at all uplifting attempts at redemption can be.
This was a little slippery, with somewhat unlikable characters you liked – particularly the memoirist who makes up the bulk of the story, who you forgive for his faults and lies and untruths for being such an amazing author.
I don’t know if I kept expecting magical realism to creep in because that’s what Latin American literature always does, doesn’t it! Huh? or because Toscana is such a lyrical writer with a sense of the everyday strange and surreal. Maybe a little bit of both.
(Thanks to Beth, for evangelizing Toscana)
I think if I knew more about the political landscape of Mexico, I’d know more about this book, and understand it more deeply. But what little I know was not important in loving the story, which was complicated and cool -- three narratives and an overarching narrative frame, and a story about rewriting history, storytelling, personal responsibility, tragedy, selfishness, and how sad and not at all uplifting attempts at redemption can be.
This was a little slippery, with somewhat unlikable characters you liked – particularly the memoirist who makes up the bulk of the story, who you forgive for his faults and lies and untruths for being such an amazing author.
I don’t know if I kept expecting magical realism to creep in because that’s what Latin American literature always does, doesn’t it! Huh? or because Toscana is such a lyrical writer with a sense of the everyday strange and surreal. Maybe a little bit of both.
(Thanks to Beth, for evangelizing Toscana)
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