darkshape

[This review was originally posted on my blog.] Valle de la Virgen is a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere. The majority of its inhabitants is quite content with their lot, and the few who dream of bigger things leave for the city. Ernesto, eldest son of Doña Nicanora and troublemaker pur sang, is one of the latter. With luck as bad as his late father's, he soon cuts his losses to return home with a shabby pick-up truck and a grubby foreigner to show for his efforts. To his exasperated mother's relief, doctor Arturo takes him on as an assistant and as a companion, because no other villager feels inclined to seek out his medical expertise. The town-dwellers are so used to their own customs and routines that any impending change feels like a threat. So they visit medicine doctors when illness strikes and the men seek out Don Bosco's barbershop for a daily shave and chat. Yet ironically, the traveling market is utterly unpredictable, driving the poor city doctor to distraction. The Gringito, whom I secretly suspect to be a North-American yogi, is the pebble that disturbs the surface of quiet backwater Valle de la Virgen. With the money he pays for lodging and meals, Nicanora starts to dream once more of opening a hat shop... and there the trouble begins. The misinterpretation of a well-meant suggestion leads to havoc and interestingly improvised solutions. The book acts like a magnifying lens, so that the reader can discover for himself how remarkably normal these remote village-dwelling people are. They are nothing like the "dirty, uneducated peasants" that urbanites accuse them of being. Nor are they the "oppressed yearning for a(nother) revolution", as romanticised by the People's Liberation Front. Doña Nicanora's Hat Shop is a delicious, rib-tickling, wistful romp of a novel that cheered me up while the incessant rain was busy ruining my summer break. The colourful villagers touched me with their antics and were a gentle reminder of how life is always precious no matter who we are and where we live.

2022-11-14 17:01