“If it is necessary, our atomized consciousness invents love, imagines it or feigns it, but does not live without it, since in the midst of infinite dispersion, love, even if as a pretext, gives us the measure of our loss.” (P.116)
Carlos Fuentes’ The Old Gringo is set during the Mexican Revolution, examining themes such as love, loss, and war. It is written from the perspective of Harriet Winslow, as she looks back on her recollections about life. Then, the ‘old gringo’, Ambrose Bierce, is the American who goes back to Mexico to die during the Mexican Revolution. He meets and later falls in love with, Harriet. The old man meets her through Arroyo or ‘the General’, as she was meant to work for the Miranda family. However, Arroyo burned down the Hacienda owned by the Miranda family in order to get revenge for what they did to his mother. Since Harriet refuses to leave even though she is no longer needed for the work she came for, she then takes a liking to the old man.
Upon reading the description for the book on our class website, I was excited to read a book that had themes of romance in it. The love story I was expecting was carried out way more different than I thought. Instead, I found the book to be more about the journey to the end of someone’s life. Although, the quote I included above really stuck with me, as I thought it was such a great description of the way love really transforms us and our understanding of the world. Since the old man had already lost most of his family and his daughter is estranged, I kind of see his reasoning as to why he decided to end his life the way he did. He did not have much to live for anymore and though meeting Harriet briefly changed that, in the end, he remembers what he came to Mexico for.
I found myself not particularly attached or moved by any of the characters and relationships in this novel. Especially with Arroyo, or the General, his ill-tempered and vindictive personality was very unlikable. The relationship that Harriet and the old man had was also questionable, as the familial interpretations they had for one another made me uncomfortable. In a good love story, I think that the reader often must root for the couple to have a successful and thriving relationship but within the old man’s relationship with Harriet, I found myself not really invested in it and not caring too much. My only question regarding this book is: What aspects of the old man’s life made him ultimately decide the way he wanted to die? Was there anything specific to it?
