I bought this book, put it on my kindle, and then forgot about it. I don’t know why I bought it–I’m sure it was someone’s recommendation, or a list of new books somewhere. One day I found it again and started reading, having no idea what the book was about.
This book was enchanting.
Set in early 20th century Mexico, this is the meandering story of the Morales family and their adopted son Simonopio, who was found by old Nana Reja under a bridge, with a cleft palate, covered in bees. Simonopio can’t speak, but he has other gifts that no one else really understands–precise intuition, visions of the future, a sixth sense. Set in a small town of Linares, Simonopio and the Morales family protect their family and their heritage against the Mexican Revolution and the influenza of 1918, against the Agrarian Reform and against other, more banal and insidious evils.
The plot, as I said, is a little meandering, and the language is plainspoken. This is magical realism but not as “magical” magical realism as, say, Isabel Allende. I could see why someone might think it’s too slow-paced. But I loved it. I loved it.
The descriptions of the family, their love, their trials, their work on the land–it stuck. When I wasn’t reading the book, I found myself thinking about Francisco Morales and his orange trees, Simonopio and his bees, Beatriz and what it must have taken to see her family through the influenza. I don’t know why – the plot was nothing crazy or mind-blowing, the characters were well-depicted but nothing out of the ordinary–it’s not like I haven’t read other books with decent, well-depicted characters. But something about the landscape, and how the characters inhabit it, settled in my imagination. Something about the relationship between nature and man in this book was so…new? sacred? clean? I’m not sure, but this is a book that shifted the lens of how I see the world a little, and added some new hues.
If you’re into magical realism or stories about good families doing their best against the odds, try this one. I think you’ll like it.