When I was in law school, the contracts professor explained the use of weasel words in law. The idea was a weasel would suck the juice out of an egg leaving the shell. So a weasel word was a word that would suck the meaning out of another word. The notion of Magical Realism was first used in art but soon was applied to several Latin American authors. For example, the book, Like Water For Chocolate is considered to be in the genre of "magical realism". The problem with that is the word "magical" sucks out the meaning of realism. It gives the idea that the events described are not real but fiction or a creation of the imagination of the writer.
Thus those things described that are not congruent with a European world view are considered magical and not real but the story presents them as if they were real. Here is the problem with this notion. It denies the reality of the Latin American experience. Much of this literature present an alternative reality that has just as much validity if not more so than the traditional European world view. Victor Villasenor ran into this problem when the book company that gave him an advance on his book Rain of Gold wanted to publish it as fiction. It was fiction to those who could not accept the reality of the world view presented by Villasenor. When I first read Rain of Gold, I had to suspend my world view to accept what he wrote. Now that I have read all the works of Villasenor, I have come to realize he wrote about a reality that is of another dimension then the European world view, but real nonetheless. The use of the term "Magical Realism" is a subtle put down of what Villasenor and many other writers have written.
Showing posts with label Rain of Gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rain of Gold. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Monday, November 15, 2010
RAIN OF TEARS
Years ago, mid-90's I think, I woke one night unable to sleep so I got up and turned the TV to a Tom Snyder show. Tom was interviewing this author, Victor Villasenor, and I was fascinated with the story. Mr. Villasenor had written a book based on his family's history. He had received an advance from a publisher who was now insisting that the book be remade as fiction as the stories were too unbelievable to be called fact. The author insisted that he couldn't do that was it was his family's story and the publisher said because of the advance, it was to be a novel. Mr. Villasenor bought back his book by repaying the advance and found a small publisher, University of Houston Press.
I few weeks later I found the book, Rain of Gold, in a bookstore. The copy I picked up was signed by Victor Villasenor so I bought it. I started to read it and my mother came over to watch her grandchildren. She started reading the book and "borrowed" it from me. She couldn't put it down. My mother was thrilled with the story of the two families. She had followed the crops herself and she knew what it was to work picking fruit. Victor's father had gone to Montana where my mother's family was from. So when my mom finished the book, she looked up Victor's telephone number and called him. She was thrilled that he talked with her.
At this point, I had lost track of the book. I had a receptionist that had time on her hands between telephone calls and client appointments so I would recommend books for her to read. One of those books was Rain of Gold. This year, my former receptionist graduated from college. I sent her a note via Facebook congratulating her on her achievement and she reminded me about recommending Rain of Gold. I still had not read it some 15 years later. I bought the book again and read it. I don't know if I was ready for it 15 years ago, now it touched me in a way few books do. Perhaps because I have a Mexican girlfriend or that my mother has died. I don't know. But at this point, I would call the book a Rain of Tears. You can find reviews of the book elsewhere. This is not a review. This is only my interactions with this story. Victor has several websites and he continues to write and speak about his family. I would have loved to have met his grandmothers in person. I feel like I have met them through his writing. So thank you Victor, Yadira, Tom Snyder and my mom for inspiring me to read Rain of Gold.
I few weeks later I found the book, Rain of Gold, in a bookstore. The copy I picked up was signed by Victor Villasenor so I bought it. I started to read it and my mother came over to watch her grandchildren. She started reading the book and "borrowed" it from me. She couldn't put it down. My mother was thrilled with the story of the two families. She had followed the crops herself and she knew what it was to work picking fruit. Victor's father had gone to Montana where my mother's family was from. So when my mom finished the book, she looked up Victor's telephone number and called him. She was thrilled that he talked with her.
At this point, I had lost track of the book. I had a receptionist that had time on her hands between telephone calls and client appointments so I would recommend books for her to read. One of those books was Rain of Gold. This year, my former receptionist graduated from college. I sent her a note via Facebook congratulating her on her achievement and she reminded me about recommending Rain of Gold. I still had not read it some 15 years later. I bought the book again and read it. I don't know if I was ready for it 15 years ago, now it touched me in a way few books do. Perhaps because I have a Mexican girlfriend or that my mother has died. I don't know. But at this point, I would call the book a Rain of Tears. You can find reviews of the book elsewhere. This is not a review. This is only my interactions with this story. Victor has several websites and he continues to write and speak about his family. I would have loved to have met his grandmothers in person. I feel like I have met them through his writing. So thank you Victor, Yadira, Tom Snyder and my mom for inspiring me to read Rain of Gold.
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