I would like to begin this blog post by commending Jon for taking that shot like a champ. Didn’t even flinch or anything. I am very impressed. I am also very impressed by Rivera Garza’s prose and overall writing style; the line “Death makes us want to put things into our mouths” is great—not entirely sure what it means, but I’m here for it. I also found the decision to begin most chapters with the word “That” super interesting and authentic. I’ll admit I struggled to find the syntactical sense in this at times, but am always in support of bold creative choices.
I think the “poetics of failure” is a great concept, as well as a means of humanising the protagonist. Yes, not getting all the answers in the culmination of the novel was a touch frustrating, but lends itself well to the scattered, twisty narrative the speaker creates for us, with the fantastical elements interwoven throughout. I can see Rulfo’s influence in Garza’s work in that he also doesn’t rely on a particularly linear writing style, and leans heavily into prose as well. A “magical-realist fable” is a perfect way of describing this book. Definitely touch to track at times, but the magical elements are enough to keep readers engaged throughout.
Prior to watching the lecture video, I actually didn’t clock that the man who’d sent the narrator on the mission beat her up in the end. I really thought a wolf did it; I think I like that the novel’s surreal enough to go either way, yet still grounds itself in reality. The man’s anger was foreshadowed earlier through the narrator’s revisitation of the moment he grabbed her by the elbow and “with a dexterity that was pure elegance, led [her] from inside the gallery toward the terrace” (10)—the man’s forceful action almost overshadowed by his “elegance”, perhaps hinting at an underlying anger coveted beneath an innate charisma. I never did grasp exactly why his wife ran away, but perhaps it is for this very reason; she didn’t want to circumnavigate his temper, and running into the deep wood felt easier than staying under a roof with him.
Why do you think she ran away (unless this was explained and I missed it entirely)? Do you think the man’s first wife really died in a car crash? Why did he take the time to mention her to the detective?
I really liked your blog post about this novel, because of the depth with which you get us into one of the themes of the novel, and possibly the entire course. How to narrate the different forms of violence (especially against women)? Sometimes it is very obvious, as in some passages in The Underdogs, and in others it is more subtle, but no less terrible, as in this novel. If this narrative is similar to Rulfo in anything, it is in the importance of subtleties, where a detail reveals more than an explanatory phrase, but one that we must think about until it makes sense. In this, reading resembles the work of a detective. How much do we resist failure in this endeavor, how much does the ghostly become a veil that we cannot pass through?
Thanks for the insightful blog post, it really made me think of what the motivations of other characters in the story are, besides the detective. Perhaps, the man wanted a sense of closure from the woman or maybe wanted to harm her in some way, this novel leaves a lot of different interpretations for those events. The description of the man and the wolf are very similar to each other I believe, especially in how the detective describes them as both compassionate and dangerous at the same time.
HI Neko! I really enjoy your insights on this novel, because I think its ambiguity really opens itself up for interpretation vis a vis what is going on. I agree with you in the confusion of the ending, and perhaps we aren’t fully meant to have a solid end point of the novel due to the mysterious prose used to guide us through the narrator’s experiences. I can’t really say I have any idea why the wife ran away, but I do think the man mentioned his dead wife to manipulate the emotions of the narrator. To make himself perhaps appear more vulnerable, normal, weak? To convince the narrator to help him out?