March 02, 2006
Rosario Tijeras
"Since they shot her at point-blank range while she was being kissed, she confused the pain of love with that of death."
"Como a Rosario le pegaron un tiro a quemarropa mientras le daban un beso, confundió el dolor del amor con el de la muerte. Pero salió de dudas cuando despegó los labios y vio la pistola"
Rosario Tijeras takes place against the backdrop of Medellín, Colombia in the late-'80s when drug lord Pablo Escobar controlled the city and its government.
Rosario Tijeras has overcome a childhood of misery and poverty by becoming not only lover to drug lords but also a hitwoman. Antonio, the narrator, reconstruct the sad and sordid tale of the friendship between him and Rosario, her love story with his best friend Emilio, and her life as a hitwoman as he waits in the waiting room of the hospital where Rosario was taken after being shot at point-blank range.
The novel is short, vibrant and a clear allegory for the how Colombia's upper class lost control of the country to drug traffickers.
February 04, 2006
Las Peliculas de Mi Vida
Las Peliculas de Mi Vida by Alberto Fuguet is a somewhat autobiographical novel about a young Chilean boy who spent his early childhood in Southern California. At age 10, Beltrán returns to Chile for what is supposed to be a summer vacation. His mother who feared her family would be disintegrated if they stayed in America decides the family will stay in Chile. Beltrán is never able to recover from this change, always feeling like an outsider.
In the novel, Beltrán, a seismologist, uses a list of fifty films to narrate his émigré childhood in California and his return to Santiago. The structure of the book feels clunky: biographical introduction, movie watched, biographical fallout.
I'm not sure what I think of the book. I never once put it down without expecting to pick it up again. I suppose that I don't like the book, but it is good.
January 11, 2006
Wine
Nick, Liza, Andy and I went to Gary Dankos in San Francisco and had a bottle of 2002 Failla Syrah from Phoenix Ranch, Napa Valley. It went veru well with all the dishes that we had.