The old gringo is another look at memory and trauma, recounting the story of an old man who leaves his life behind and has nothing to lose, and Harriet and Arroyo, all of whom are situated at the hacienda.

What struck out to me was how some parts of the novel sounded poetic, especially with the repetition of Harriet sitting alone and remembering. I didn’t really find myself becoming very interested in the story, and this might have been because I felt very removed from the context when I first started reading it (and I was deathly sick so don’t have much memory reading it in the first place. Though I did really like the take on memory this novel had.

With Harriet, I really resonated with the idea of trauma haunting the present. The sprinkling of the lines of her thinking, as if the novel were her memories coming to life around her as she’s remembering, speaking to the vitality of our traumas and how they can tie the past to the present in an almost seamless way.

This kind of reminded me of both Nada and the shrouded woman, with Nada having the idea of trauma within the relationships in the house (hacienda), and with the reflective aspect of the shrouded woman as she recounts her life (though she is dead, and Harriet remains the only one out of the three alive).

My question is: Did you enjoy this novel? Could you relate to any of the characters? I could go on about the idea of having nothing to lose as in the case of the old man, but how did it make you think about your own life, and if it did, what motivates you to do the things that you do or to be fearless?