Whose Law is it when the books you ordered ALL ARRIVE AT ONCE instead of sensibly pacing themselves one at a time every few days?! How to prioritize? Most are three-week loans. Two are 500-pagers. Meanwhile I was halfway through a random grab to fill the waiting time and it had become quite fascinating. So ... Night Film was regretfully set aside because it has unlimited time. Almost halfway through Blackwater Falls I was having trouble with the style and its overabundance of diversified characters. That was returned, for future call back. I seem to have settled on one, with two others counting down on me. Stay tuned ... and meanwhile:
Fernanda Melchor. Paradais. Ebook download from TPL. USA: New Directions Ebook 2021.
What to say about this slim but astonishing book? Based in a foreign environment in more ways than one? Uneducated youth with no future? A searing slice of indigent daily life? Sixteen-year-old Polo (Leopoldo) has a job as gardener for the Paradais estate, an upscale housing development on the outskirts of Progreso, Mexico. Mom dragged him to apply for the job and his salary goes directly to her, who day and night rails abuse at him, that he's a useless loser. His cousin Zorayda, whom he thinks is a slut, lives with them—constantly, purposely, playing seductive tricks on him. Then she's pregnant, father unknown, maybe Polo. The young man also chafes at his job, being ordered to take care of any extra distasteful chore, working overtime for no pay, washing cars and dirtier tasks for the rich, white homeowners.
Polo's downtime is spent at the nearby unkempt riverside smoking cigarettes and drinking whatever rotgut he can afford. But a companion joins him, the despicable, obese, younger teenager Franco, who lives with his grandparents on the estate; Franco is often able to supply real booze or other substances for their evening enjoyment. But it's no joy to pay for it by having to listen to Franco's (Fatboy, Polo privately calls him) obsessive talk about Señora Mariána Maroño, a housewife and mother recently arrived in Paradais. Franco's obscene fantasies about the unsuspecting woman turn into stalking, betraying a psychosis, while Polo dreams about the boat he and his grandfather were going to build. His mother sold the necessary tools when the old man died. He yearns for his cousin Milton to return, although it's unclear if Polo understands that Milton has been hijacked by a drug cartel.
It sounds pretty grim, but the author is totally on target with characterization and suspense. Written in long sentences and longer paragraphs (not to my liking, normally), the style absolutely reinforces Polo's thoughts and daily drudgeries; having no control over his own life, he's worn down by Franco's wild plan to invade the Maroño household. Paradais solidifies Melchor as a powerhouse writer of contemporary youth and their struggles, having already been acclaimed for her prior novel, Hurricane Season.
BITS
▪ Which was exactly what she wanted, right? To be desired, lusted after, to put dirty thoughts into your head. (14)
▪ Had Franco not seen himself in the mirror? Did he really think a woman like Señora Maroño would cheat on her millionaire husband with a tubby pimply greaseball like him? (38)
▪ They didn't have a pot to piss in, and with his cousin Zorayda's little slipup, in a few more months they'd be more squeezed than ever, assuming the whole town didn't go to shit before then. (44)
▪ "Seriously, who do you think you are, Leopoldo? Who the hell do you think you are, you little shit?" (Mama, 45)
▪ He was one tough motherfucker, his grandfather, and completely incomprehensible. Polo had loved him to death, and feared him too, whenever the old man overdid it on the rotgut and suddenly started talking to himself like a madman and hurling things at the walls. (62)
▪ If I kill her after, she won't be able to tell anyone it was me. Polo shook his head. They'll still pin it on you. (92)
▪ Did he really think they were friends? Or was it a setup maybe, a trap so he could tell that faggot Urquiza that Polo did it? (92)
▪ You're scared, aren't you" Franco sniggered. You're scared of my gun. I'm scared of your fucking retardedness, Polo muttered with his hands still in the air. (94)
▪ Polo wasn't plannimg on killing anyone, he wasn't planning on using any violence at all, he would just throw what he could into the SUV and give it all to Milton in return for his help. (98)
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