❤️ loved this book because...
Los recuerdos del porvenir (Recollections of Things to Come) by Elena Garro
I heard once that Elena Garro was the mother of Latin American Magic Realism, and now
that I’ve read her debut novel, I believe it. Published in 1963, Recollections of Things to Come precedes García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (the epitome of Latin American
Magic Realism) by five years. She set the standard for the genre. I love the dreamy, suspended feeling one gets while reading this novel. It is chock full of ethereal characters, uncanny and weird events that happen naturally, and a flowing narrative that winds through time and space.
What surprised me most is that this novel is not only the beginning of an entire genre of literary
fiction but is also a memory of another specific genre: novela de la Revolución or Mexican
Revolution Novel. Its main theme is the remembrances of the town of Ixtepec during the
Mexican Revolution and later the Cristero War, as told by Ixtepec itself—the town spirit that
knows it all, remembers all, and now sits forgotten.
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Loved Most
🥇 Originality 🥈 Immersion -
Writing style
❤️ Loved it -
Pace
🐕 Good, steady pace
1 author picked Recollections of Things to Come as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
This remarkable first novel depicts life in the small Mexican town of Ixtepec during the grim days of the Revolution. The town tells its own story against a variegated background of political change, religious persecution, and social unrest. Elena Garro, who has also won a high reputation as a playwright, is a masterly storyteller. Although her plot is dramatically intense and suspenseful, the novel does not depend for its effectiveness on narrative continuity. It is a book of episodes, one that leaves the reader with a series of vivid impressions. The colors are bright, the smells pungent, the many characters…
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