Cbr16bingo Liberate (bingo)
This is a short but very powerful story that deals with women, their bodies and bodily autonomy. This is the kind of book that is difficult to review because saying too much spoils it for the next reader. Elena Knows was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. It was originally published in 2007, but the English translation by Frances Riddle came out in 2021. While set in Buenos Aires, the subject matter will resonate with readers the world over.
Elena is a 65-year-old widow living in Buenos Aires with her adult daughter Rita, who is 40-something. Elena Knows is told from Elena’s perspective and one of the first things we learn is that Elena is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Her day revolves around the medication that makes it possible for her to move. Elena’s mobility is severely curtailed by the disease, and her window of opportunity for moving around is small even after she medicates. Elena is permanently stooped, drools, and needs assistance for almost everything (getting dressed, personal hygiene, etc). Elena refers to Parkinson’s as “Herself, that fucking whore illness.” She is a prisoner in her own body, only briefly freed (and in a very curtailed way) by the drug Levodopa.
The next thing we learn is that Rita is dead. The police say it was suicide, but Elena knows it was not suicide because Elena knows (or knew) her daughter and this could not have happened, especially in the circumstances reported. Elena is angry that the police are not investigating what she is certain was a murder, and so Elena decides to find help. Most of this novel is about Elena’s journey one day to the house of a woman named Isabel. Who Isabel is and why Elena thinks she is obliged to help her investigate Rita’s death is a mystery until the end of the novel. We only know that Rita and Isabel knew each other and that it has been 20 years since they last met. Elena wakes up on this fateful day with a plan to get herself up and out of the house, down to the train station and then to the section of town where Isabel lives. She doesn’t have an address, only landmarks that she recalls from 20 years ago. The journey is painful to read, as it must be painful for Elena to execute. As she travels, she thinks about Rita, her dead husband and the past.
Author Pineiro has a lot to say about the systems in which her female characters must operate, particularly the health care system that Elena and Rita must navigate and the Catholic Church. Rita works for a Catholic school and is devout, while Elena is the opposite. Pineiro also writes in great detail about Parkinson’s disease. I really wish you would read this book! I wish I could tell you why it is so important to read but doing so really would be a spoiler.