Daniel Alarcón

At Night We Walk in Circles
By Daniel Alarcon

Perhaps a bit of historical perspective would be in order. For nearly three decades (1960's, 1970's, and 1980's) guerilla warfare was rampant in Latin America. The strategies for these movements were to destabilize governments and provoke a counter- reaction by the military. In general that strategy was successful; however in the process numerous atrocities were committed on both sides.

In the midst of this conflict, in Daniel Alarcon's fictional show more South American nation, a theatrical company, called Dicembre was formed. It was theater for the people and "a time when theater was improvised in response to terrifying headlines, when a line of dialogue delivered with a chilling sense of dread did not even require acting." It was revolutionary theater.

Fast forward twenty years and times have changed dramatically. The story of At Night We Walk in Circles has entered the 21st century and the aftermath of war. "No one cared about human rights anymore, not at home or abroad. They cared about growth." Dicembre's lead actor and playwright Henry Nunez and his friend, and fellow actor, Patalarga, plan a revival of Henry's most famous play to coincide with the fifteenth anniversary of its debut. The play is titled The Idiot President. Both men are now in their 40's and Henry is divorced and his age is showing. "These late middle years offended his vanity. He was looking forward to being old, when he would no longer be tormented by memories of youth." Perhaps one last hurrah might be attained performing for the people out in the provinces.

Originally, back in 1986, Patalarga's wife Diana, was the third actor in the troupe, but she is not up for gallivanting about the provinces for weeks on end acting in this dated, farcical play. Instead she wants to have a baby. A young conservatory theater student named Nelson is hired on to play Diana's role of the president's son. The play consists of the president (Henry) and his son (Nelson) and the servant (Patalarga). The premise of the play is that every citizen of the country is afforded the privilege of attending to the president for one day. And at the end of that day the servant is sacrificed, his life is taken.

Nelson is somewhat unmoored. It was long assumed that he would join his older brother, Francisco, in the United States. But Nelson's father died unexpectedly and he is now responsible for his widowed mother. And most significantly he is having an affair with his former girlfriend who is currently living with another man. Nelson cannot decide if he truly loves her. So Nelson thinks why not work on my craft under the tutelage of the celebrated, egomaniacal, revolutionary playwright, Henry Nunez. It would also give him the opportunity to sort his life out because "in the provinces time, we all knew, was a very relative concept. Such is the languorous nature of small town life. Thought slows, the need for conversation vanishes. You are prone to introspection. . ."

Not yet mentioned, though significant, is the novel's structure. All of this information is being slowly revealed by an unnamed narrator who cryptically alludes to Nelson's eventual, and possibly, dire fate. I don't believe you would call him an "unreliable narrator", yet we ultimately discover his connection to the characters and the story and this helps to explain away occasional gaps and speculation as the novel has unfolded.

While Dicembre puts on performances out in the countryside Alarcon shines with his vivid descriptions of the South American provinces and its compelling characters. It is also during these series of performances that aspects of Henry's and Nelson's lives emerge as somewhat of a soap opera. The true love of Henry's life was not the ex-wife who bore him a treasured daughter. It was his cellmate, Rogelio, from the notorious Collectors Prison where Henry was incarcerated for terrorist activities. Rogelio dies, along with 343 other inmates when the prison was assaulted by the army. It also comes to light that Nelson does, in fact, truly love his girlfriend Ixta and wants her back. He acknowledges this fact, before he finds out that she is pregnant.

The troupe, quite coincidentally, finds its way to the home town of Henry's deceased lover Rogelio. It is at this point that the novel amps up to a frantic pace. There is a theatrical ruse, an unanticipated death and a murder. What ultimately happens to Nelson I will leave for you to discover. I will give you this one hint which is hidden deep within the text, "That's what I wanted. To enter the world of the play, and escape my life."

I have read all of Daniel Alarcon's books, but I believe At Night We Walk in Circles to be his finest effort to date. I love his descriptions, whether atmospheric "Night had brought with it a blanket of wet, heavy fog, and the streetlights above flowered in hazy yellow bursts." Or, observational "Midday streets are very different from early morning streets--different in character, different in sound. There are more people, but they're less harried somehow; they're the late risers, the men and women escaping from work, not racing toward it." And the interesting aspects of South American life revealed. I loved the fact, I assume it is a fact, that bus company officials video tape passengers prior to treacherous mountain trips. If there is an accident, resulting in death, these video tapes are sent to the deceased 's family. If no accident occurs, then those tapes are merely taped over. Another, interesting item is that prison cells, in certain South American countries, have to be purchased. If you don't have funds to purchase a cell while you are in prison you are condemned to roam the grounds with no shelter.

There is so much in this book to intellectually consider, aside from the entertaining storyline. There are a myriad of important concepts sprinkled throughout the novel. Not the least of which is personal identity and one's varied roles in life. One could even go deeper and explore Latin palindromes or mirror metaphors. But ultimately there is the novel's "crowning jewel" which is the surrealistic, indeterminate conclusion. I defy anyone, be it Harold Bloom or Michael Silverblatt not to re-read the final page. show less

While I was reading At Night We Walk In Circles, I caught my ten year old staring at the book cover. “What?” I asked. “That's a weird title,” he said. “Why is it weird?” I asked. He said he didn't know, that it just was. I brushed it off. The next day, while I was reading, my wife interrupted me: “At Night We Walk In Circles—that's an odd title.” “What's so odd about it?” I demanded. She had no answer, but then turned the unanswerable question around on me. “What's show more the relevance of the title?” she asked. I responded I didn't know yet, but that I was sure I would by the end of the book.

Well, I reached the end; and truthfully, I have no idea what the title means. Likely I'm missing something obvious, but it doesn't matter. I wasn't as bugged by the title as they were.

At Night We Walk In Circles is a wonderfully written story that took me down roads I hadn't expected. As the blurb says, this is a novel about Nelson, a young actor, who lands a role in the revival of the controversial play, The Idiot President. The summary promises suspense and antics, but really, what can you expect from a book about a play? But Alarcón has here written a novel that really entertains. The story is fresh. The language is crisp. At no point during the story did I find myself losing interest.

For much of the novel, I thought I was looking at a truly groundbreaking novel, a prize winner that brought to mind other contemporary novels such as Middlesex and The Orphan Master's Son. It comes close, but there are a couple elements that keep me from thinking this book will reach those heights. First, the story is plot and language focused. That's great, and it really moved the book, but I never got a great sense of who these characters were. Second, and perhaps more significant, was the narrative voice. It worked as well, but I couldn't help but wonder if the narrative choice could've been done differently. As our narrator becomes more prominent toward the end of the novel, I found my affection for the novel greatly diminishing. It was an interesting choice, possibly the right one, but it added some disconnect for me as a reader.

Do I recommend you read it? Absolutely, if for no other reason than you can share your ideas about the significance of the title. My family waits with bated breath. show less

Lost City Radio by Peruvian writer Daniel Alarcón is a haunting and tragic story set during the recent aftermath of a brutal civil war that tore apart an unnamed country in South America. Norma hosts a radio program called Lost City Radio. Each night she goes on the air and reads the names of people who went missing or were displaced by the war. The names are provided by her legions of loyal listeners from throughout the country who live in the hope that by having the names read on the show more radio they will be reunited with their missing loved ones. Occasionally reunions take place, and Norma’s producer stages these during the show for maximum dramatic effect. Norma has kept her own desperate and fading hope alive for ten years: the hope that her husband Rey, who went missing in the final days of the war, will return to her. However, she cannot safely utter his name on the air because, as an accused rebel collaborator, he is still officially wanted by the authorities, and this is a country where a vigilant and uneasy government is always watching and listening. Everything changes when a boy named Victor arrives at the station after a lengthy journey from his home—an obscure village in the forest—bearing a list of names for Norma to read, a list that includes Rey. Rey, a biologist with a fascination for medicinal plants, visited the forest often, and as Norma gains Victor’s trust the boy reveals things about Rey’s time in the forest that Norma never suspected and which change her perspective on the past she shared with him. Alarcón’s narrative cleverly reconstructs Rey’s past piece by piece as Norma learns more of his activities while in the forest and as she recalls the intimacy of their early courtship and eventual marriage. Alarcón evokes a tense post-war society where danger lurks around every corner and no one is truly safe. Lost City Radio is a suspenseful and powerful novel, one that builds to an explosive climax, and in the process depicts in frightening and agonizing detail the human cost of war. show less

A staple device of some of the best literary fiction I have read is the use of an Unreliable Narrator, whereby the story is told by someone with a significantly compromised point of view (e.g., Lolita, The Catcher in the Rye, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). In At Night We Walk in Circles, author Daniel Alarcón employs a comparably intriguing ploy: a narrator whose identity and importance to the plot is not revealed until very late in the novel. Indeed, in this case, some crucial details show more about the relationship between the storyteller and the main protagonist are saved until the last few pages of the tale, which leaves the reader in a position of not really knowing how much of the preceding narrative is to be believed.

Whether reliable or not, though, what a story it proves to be. Nelson, a young actor in an unnamed South American country (most likely Peru), has very little going on in life: his family relations are strained, the girlfriend he left but now realizes he loves has moved on with another man, and his professional career is going nowhere. When the chance arises to join a touring company that is reviving a controversial play popular during the revolution that took place 15 years before, he jumps at the opportunity. Along with Henry, the play’s author who spent time in prison for terrorism, and Patalarga, another founding member of the legendary Diciembre theater troupe, Nelson embarks on a trip that takes them to performances in a succession of small Andean villages. Although the tour is a success artistically, all three actors find that their personal lives begin to unravel during the journey. For Nelson, in fact, the surprising events that transpire in one of these towns will alter his life forever.

I enjoyed reading this book—the title of which echoes Henry’s observation that he saw men in prison walking in circles to create a sense of escape—quite a bit, although it was not without its flaws. Above all else, Alarcón has crafted an original and highly readable story that is propelled by its own momentum as it builds to an unexpected conclusion. Also, while not exactly qualifying as historical fiction, the novel does a superb job of capturing the feelings and emotions of a turbulent time in the country’s recent past. On the other hand, I found the author’s character development to be rather weak and sometimes distracting; in fact, the dearth of physical descriptions in the novel made it difficult to envision what many of the protagonists even looked like. On balance, At Night We Walk in Circles is a very solid effort by a talented young writer and one that I can recommend without hesitation. show less