Fiction, World Literature, Fiction Subjects, Peoples & Cultures - Fiction

Leaving Tabasco

Name: Leaving Tabasco
Author: Carmen Boullosa
ISBN: 9780802138606

by Carmen Boullosa, Geoff Hargreaves

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Overview

Carmen Boullosa is one of Mexico's most acclaimed young writers, and Leaving Tabasco tells of the coming-of-age of Delmira Ulloa, raised in an all-female home in Agustini, in the Mexican province of Tabasco. The Washington Post Book World wrote, "We happily share with [Delmira] ... her life, including the infinitely charming town she inhabits [and] her grandmother's fantastic imagination." In Agustini it is not unusual to see your grandmother float above the bed when she sleeps, or to purchase torrential rains at a traveling fair, or to watch your family's elderly serving woman develop stigmata, then disappear completely, to be canonized as a local saint. As Delmira becomes a woman she will search for her missing father, and will make a choice that will force her to leave home forever. Brimming with the spirit of its irrepressible heroine, Leaving Tabasco is a story of great charm and depth that will remain in its readers' hearts for a long time.

Synopsis

KLIATT

When this novel opens, in the winter of 1997, Delmira, exiled from her native Mexico for 30 years, is living in Germany, working as an editor and translator of works by Latin American authors. In the bleakness of that winter she begins to look back at her childhood in Agustini, Mexico, a place and climate that stand in stark contrast to the dreariness of Berlin. Two years of her childhood make up the main story of this work. We meet Delmira, in 1961, age eight, living with her mother and grandmother in an all-female household that seems devoid of any loving feelings for her. The story fast forwards to 1967, when Delmira, now age 14, begins to awaken to the possibilities of a life outside of Agustini. Befriended by a teacher from the local public school, Delmira first rebels against her family by going to the public school, where she mixes with those from the lower classes. This eventually leads to her taking part in a political demonstration, which leads to her arrest and exile. But this story is not only Delmira's. Interspersed with her childhood memories are the stories of her grandmother. It is from these stories that the reader gets a clearer understanding of how the town was settled and how those of European descent slowly lost economic and political ground to the Indian population they had enslaved. Both of these stories, Delmira's and her grandmother's, are similar to many other Latin American and Caribbean works in that they combine fantastical phenomena with realism. For instance, Delmira recounts a series of Sundays when strange events occur: birds fall from the sky, unable to fly; an old servant awakens with stigmata and the ability to levitate; and earth tremors bury themarket. It is as if life in the heat and sun of that climate brings its inhabitants into closer contact with a fantastical spirit world. Bulluosa's style and choice of words result in a fast-paced cacophonic description of colors, sounds, and scents that assault the reader's senses. Agustini is vibrant and so real that we can feel its heat. The authors' talent lies in enabling the reader to not only visualize the richness of the town and its people, but also to feel it. This novel would be a great addition to Latin American collections and would be a good way to introduce older teens to this body of literature. Category: Paperback Fiction. KLIATT Codes: SA Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Grove, dist. by Publishers Group West, 244p., , Glenview, IL

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Editorials

KLIATT

When this novel opens, in the winter of 1997, Delmira, exiled from her native Mexico for 30 years, is living in Germany, working as an editor and translator of works by Latin American authors. In the bleakness of that winter she begins to look back at her childhood in Agustini, Mexico, a place and climate that stand in stark contrast to the dreariness of Berlin. Two years of her childhood make up the main story of this work. We meet Delmira, in 1961, age eight, living with her mother and grandmother in an all-female household that seems devoid of any loving feelings for her. The story fast forwards to 1967, when Delmira, now age 14, begins to awaken to the possibilities of a life outside of Agustini. Befriended by a teacher from the local public school, Delmira first rebels against her family by going to the public school, where she mixes with those from the lower classes. This eventually leads to her taking part in a political demonstration, which leads to her arrest and exile. But this story is not only Delmira's. Interspersed with her childhood memories are the stories of her grandmother. It is from these stories that the reader gets a clearer understanding of how the town was settled and how those of European descent slowly lost economic and political ground to the Indian population they had enslaved. Both of these stories, Delmira's and her grandmother's, are similar to many other Latin American and Caribbean works in that they combine fantastical phenomena with realism. For instance, Delmira recounts a series of Sundays when strange events occur: birds fall from the sky, unable to fly; an old servant awakens with stigmata and the ability to levitate; and earth tremors bury themarket. It is as if life in the heat and sun of that climate brings its inhabitants into closer contact with a fantastical spirit world. Bulluosa's style and choice of words result in a fast-paced cacophonic description of colors, sounds, and scents that assault the reader's senses. Agustini is vibrant and so real that we can feel its heat. The authors' talent lies in enabling the reader to not only visualize the richness of the town and its people, but also to feel it. This novel would be a great addition to Latin American collections and would be a good way to introduce older teens to this body of literature. Category: Paperback Fiction. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Grove, dist. by Publishers Group West, 244p., , Glenview, IL

Library Journal

Told in memoir format, this coming-of-age work by Mexican novelist Boullosa (They're Cows, We're Pigs) tracks Delmira from childhood through late adolescence in a small town in Mexico. Delmira's memories alternate with those of her grandmother, a tyrannical household overlord who spins magical tales of witches, revivified lizards, and a woman who dissolves into urine. Grandmother always takes Delmira's mother's side in any dispute, though the mother is ineffectual and wanton. Only Uncle Gustavo, who lives the sophisticated life in Mexico City, and the local teacher take Delmira under their wing. In the end, Delmira is arrested for distributing antigovernment leaflets and is forced to flee to Europe, never to see her hometown again. This novel is full of vivid images, and the combination of realism and folkloric magical realism serves Boullosa well until Delmira returns the narrative to the present, where she relies on sighs rather than substance. Recommended for collections strong in Latin American literature.--Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib. of New York Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A coming-of-ager set in a small Mexican town, from the author of They're Cows, We're Pigs (1997). Delmira Ulloa is eight, raised in a house "where only women live," and she's intensely curious about her unknown father. Her grandmother and mother see no reason to satisfy her curiosity and endeavor to distract her with stories, some magical, some more prosaic. This strategy temporarily appeases the strong-willed girl and helps nurture her vivid imagination as well as her love of reading. What the classics don't provide in the way of entertainment, Grandma does. The old lady regales Delmira with tales of the awful day the sea turned to stone and the stones to sea, the albino crocodile that once stalked frightened villagers, the glorious birds who fled the forest and then refused to fly; she instructs the girl as well in family history and heroics. Delmira scarcely knows what to believe, and her mind begins to play tricks on her: her grandmother turns halfway into a hen, an elderly servant dissolves into a puddle of urine, and so forth. Meanwhile, she takes a fiendish glee in spying on adults (especially when her indifferent mother commences a blatant affair with a lascivious priest) and finally tracks down her missing father, who sells shawls in the open-air market. Most of this tumultuous narrative seems to take place in the late 1960s, and it ends with a few predictable scenes of political and cultural unrest witnessed by Delmira as a teenager. Her subsequent sojourn in Germany, where she remains, amounts to little more than a bleak, self-imposed exile from the colorful world of her childhood. Vivid but incoherent.