Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey

This is a fascinating memoir about language, exile and personal identity. The way Dorfman tells it, he has spent most of his life wishing he was somewhere - or someone - else. And at the one time where he was completely comfortable in his skin and place - as a young, Allendista Chilean - he was uprooted and exiled once again by political upheaval.

Indeed, the book both starts and ends on the day that he 'ought to have died' - a series of coincidences and more-or-less chancy decisions meant that he was not inside the Presidential Palace when it was overrun, and that he was not subsequently arrested or 'disappeared'. Alternate chapters are headed "A chapter dealing with the discovery of death in {place and time}", all of which take place show more in September 1973 during and after the coup against Allende, and "A chapter dealing with the discovery of life and language in {place and time}", which describe the rest of his life up till that time, and a family history of revolution, activism, upheaval, and living in new languages (he was born in Argentina, to parents neither of whom grew up speaking Spanish).

This book is striking both for its poetic language and its honesty - Dorfman is writing about the events that influenced the way he decided to live - and the sort of person he decided to be, but he takes us through the twists and turns and never tries to make himself seem heroic. I found it moving and inspiring. show less