Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Not Even the Deadby Juan Gómez Bárcena
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. An intriguing book, experimental in its way (something I generally do not enjoy), and quite well done. I kept running into positive reviews of this work so finally broke down and bought it. Barcena (born in Santander, Spain, in 1984) is apparently a highly regarded author in Spain. I have seen his work compared with that of Cormac McCarthy (I agree) and Joseph Conrad (maybe, but mostly not so much). The plot begins in 16th century Mexico when two “gentlemen” hire Juan de Toñanes—a retired and down-on-his-luck former conquistador—to find Juan the Indian, a highly charismatic, missionary-taught man said to be causing trouble for both the Spanish-run church and state. No one knows what Juan the Indian looks like, making the search that much more interesting. The book follows the search over hundreds of miles and hundreds of years. Along the way, there are conquistadors riding horses and migrants riding trains, long-suffering peasants waiting patiently for a better world, Mexican revolutionaries, and women searching for a better life who end up murdered in the desert. The journey ends—or perhaps begins—in the U.S., north of the Mexican border. I found the writing excellent (and the translation also seemed to be so) and overwhelming. Substantial description, stream-of-consciousness…a great deal of substance worthy of much thought regarding justice and hope and even the meaning of life. (You can find an excerpt on the website of the publisher, Three Percent.) ( ) no reviews | add a review
AwardsDistinctions
Not Even the Dead is the story of a pursuit that transcends territories and centuries; a hallucinatory journey from 1500s colonial Mexico to Trump's Border Wall The conquest of Mexico is over, and Juan de Toñanes is just one of the many inglorious soldiers eking a small existence on the land he helped conquer. When he receives one last mission, to hunt down a renegade Indian who calls himself the Padre and preaches a dangerous heresy, Juan realizes it may be his last chance to create the future he's always dreamed of. But as he moves deep into the unexplored northern territory, hot on the Padre's trail, Juan discovers the traces of a man who appears to be, in fact, a prophet destined to transform his own time, and possibly future to come. On his quest, Juan will encounter old conquistadors on horseback and migrants riding the roofs of the trains, rebellious Indians and peasants waiting patiently for a better world, Mexican revolutionaries brandishing their rifles and women murdered in the desert of Ciudad Juárez, all sharing the same landscape and the same hope: that the arrival of the Padre will bring ever elusive justice to the oppressed. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNone
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)863.7Literature Spanish and Portuguese Spanish fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |