AUTHOR: Fulgencio Argüelles
PUBLISHER: Acantilado Quaderns Crema, S.A.
GENRE: Literature novel
READER’S NAME: Lynn Leazer
 

The main events of El otoño de la casa de los sauces take place over the course of about three days at the family estate of Zigor and Alma and are told chronologically with flashbacks to events from twenty years prior. Zigor is dying of cancer and has decided, against Alma's wishes, to convene his old group of resistance fighters at his home, for reasons that only become clear toward the end of the book, which takes some surprising twists and turns.

This diverse group had waged guerilla warfare together against a dictatorship that was ultimately ousted, but the group disbanded when their leader, Hector, was killed in a failed attack. None of the survivors of the group had stayed in contact during the intervening twenty years, and all but one had gone on to pursue mainstream careers and ostensibly "normal" lives after their two-year involvement in violent political resistance. Nonetheless, it becomes apparent that all suffered profound emotional consequences from having taken part in the killing of innocent people while under Hector's spell, in the name of social and political justice, for which the political importance and justification has diminished with time.

Zigor's motivation for the reunion is to force his former comrades to face their fears and guilt and, thus, be redeemed, as he has been by facing his impending death from cancer. There are many parallels drawn to Christ's Last Supper, and Zigor sees himself as a sort of god. This seems a timely subject and intriguing premise that would be of interest to U.S. readers.

Argüelles has tried to create a universal story, set in a fictitious country, with characters that represent society at large. These include a small town mayor, a high government official, a successful businessman, a priest, a Human Resources manager, a college professor, a thrice-married woman, an archeologist, a homemaker, and a ne'er-do-well. Each is described and explained in detail upon his/her arrival at Zigor and Alma's mansion and at other moments as the story unfolds.

Then, there are Zigor and Alma's servants, whose lives, actions and attitudes stand in sharp contrast to those of the invited guests. These characters and their story lines are actually some of the more interesting ones in the book. Unfortunately, character development, especially of the invited guests, is accomplished largely through exposition by an omniscient narrator. The author mainly uses the narrator to tell us who they are, what they do, think and feel rather than showing us through dialogue and action. There is some well-written dialogue embedded within the narration, but it is hard to follow, as there are no quotation marks, and speaker identification is not always obvious. The moments of true action are vividly portrayed and engage the reader fully. Would that there were more such moments rather than so much over-written prose, which shows off the writer's command of the language and obscure references, but bogs down the story.

El otoño de la casa de los sauces is an ambitious novel, which makes it interesting and ponderous at the same time. The author impressively weaves politics, philosophy, religion, and mythology throughout the narrative, albeit with mixed success. For the most part, these topics are explored in lengthy passages revealing Zigor's reflections about revolution, death, marriage, relationships, guilt, loss, desire, purpose, and other topics. 

Zigor's thoughts read like mini-essays, which is neither realistic (who thinks in well-developed paragraphs complete with literary flourishes?) nor particularly enjoyable for the reader.

This book would appeal perhaps to literary readers, but not to a broad audience. Particular challenges to its translation would be the absence of conventional dialogue punctuation, the sophisticated vocabulary, and the dense, run-on paragraphs.