Tyrant Memory

May 30, 2011
Moya's absorbing new novel is set in early 1944 El Salvador after a coup fails to depose real life pro-Nazi dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martinez. Members of Moya's fictional Aragon family play unexpected roles in the uprising: With her husband in prison, well-connected matriarch Haydée must handle the crises that befall her family, such as when their newscaster son, Clemente, announces on-air that the dictator is dead, an error that could cost him his life. His cousin Jimmy, a tough military captain involved in the coup, helps the pampered Clemente escape (Clemente's entitled whining and Jimmy's bravado make for some very funny scenes). The story unfolds largely through Haydée's diary, documenting her growth into solidarity with the politically oppressed; at great risk, she becomes involved in a general strike that eventually ousts the dictator. Moya (The She-Devil in the Mirror) has an unlikely heroine in Haydée, but she possesses one quality that her husband lacks: she's not been corrupted or disillusioned by politics. This intriguing novel turns the spotlight from the rulers onto the hopeful souls who will tolerate tyranny for only so long.

August 1, 2011

This page-turner by Castellanos Moya (Senselessness) follows the fictional diary of Dona Haydee Baldoni, whose husband, Pericles, and son, Clemente, risk reprisals after an unsuccessful coup against Salvadoran strongman Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez. To justify his brutality, this "Nazi warlock," who ruled El Salvador from 1931 to 1944, dabbled in the occult, famously claiming that it's better to kill a man than an ant, for when a man dies he is reincarnated, while an ant dies forever. At first the military-minded Pericles is recruited by the new regime as ambassador to Belgium, where in the heady decade of the Spanish civil war he converts to communism. Once Pericles runs afoul of the regime back home, his wife watches as furor wells up against Martinez and evolves her own breed of heroism that helps topple him. Despite an occasional reference to World War II, the narrative does not bog down in historical details and could easily take place in the present. More analytical than violent and not devoid of humor, the novel sheds light on a tragic aspect of Latin American life. VERDICT For politically minded saga lovers, but also for those who relish a well-told story.--Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland

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