The Storm

3.5*

26-year old twins Mario and Jose help their father run a beach holiday complex on the Colombian coast. Their feelings towards him are conflicted. They have a faint, grudging admiration for the life he has built for himself. But what they feel is primarily anger at his casual arrogance, his overriding pride, his belittling of his sons and his ex-wife, who has descended into mental illness partly as a result of his philandering (or, at least, that’s what Mario and Jose seem to think). One morning, against all good sense and despite ominous weather warnings, the three men set out on a fishing trip. As the wind and waves gather around them, pent up emotions surface and bubble over.

Tomás González is one of Colombia’s leading contemporary novelists. Thanks to Andrea Rosenberg, English-speaking readers can now appreciate this finely-crafted novella. True, the Lear-like pathetic fallacy – a storm as a backdrop to a fiery family portrait – borders on the obvious. But the character studies are convincing and insightful. I also liked the quirky narration which alternates between a “real-time” diary of the fateful fishing trip and multiple first-person accounts from the point of view of the people who follow the events from the safety of the Caribbean coast : the estranged wife, the father’s new partner, children playing on the beach, guests at the holiday complex. All this plays out against a lovingly-drawn natural setting, with the awe-inspiring beauty – and violence – of the ocean recalling Romantic notions of the Sublime.

The title “The Storm” has several implications in this powerfully evocative novel. At the most obvious level it is the impending storm which the father and his two sons who are fishermen have to face. There is also the storm of hatred which exists between the father and his two sons, who loathe him to the extent that they would have no compunctions of getting rid of him. The sons’ mother also faces a storm as she is of unsound mind and has mentally created a chorus of voices which she has to contend with.

The novel is short and is divided into one hour segments instead of chapters. The father also owns a hotel and Tomás skillfully weaves in the voices of various guests. The father does not heed the warning of the other fishermen or the storm and brutally, selfishly and greedily decides to go fishing and forces the boys, to whom he shows no affection whatsoever to accompany him. He has abandoned his wife, the mother of his sons and has taken on a younger woman with whom he has a son.

The end seems a bit inconclusive but it is the powerful emotional content and the lyrical writing of the novel which makes this novel a good read

From now on whenever anyone asks me to prove fragile masculinity, I might just direct them to this book. Gonzalez evokes landscape and the sea and gives you a great setting which forms a pitch perfect background to this Greek chorus of a book. It is difficult to pull off a mixture of first, second, and third voice narration to tell the same story (whether you end up feeling like this is a plot or not is a different issue-the only note that rankled under my skin) but Gonzalez (and Rosenberg) pull it off. The father and sons relationship is sticky, dysfunctional, and made my skin crawl at just how unnecessary all the hate was but also how unlikely a world for them without it was. There's masterful echoes of other work- Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, and Aeschylus come to mind- but this is without a doubt a masterpiece from Gonzalez's skill. Each tourist, each voice used in the novel is distinct, useful, and advances the overall book well.

Very well-written family drama, with the father and his 2 sons on the high seas, and his wife and girlfriend on the shore.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Once in a while it’s good to have a different reading experience with a book written by a well known author of another country, a book that has been translated. Sometimes the translation works and sometimes it doesn’t, but in this case I can say it definitely did. The translation is beautiful, not awkward as some can be. It’s an odd, but interesting little book at 120 pages. The book has a narrative structure that was unique - alternating narratives, from one paragraph to the next, first person, then third person, different characters and the chorus, the hotel guests . I didn’t find it in the least bit confusing- it seemed to flow. This is a story of a beautiful place in Columbia at the ocean, a story of a dysfunctional family. The owner of a hotel, the father who remains unnamed and is only referred to as the father, is presented as a mean, arrogant, selfish man. His twin sons Mario and Javier at twenty six are a disappointment to him and they loathe him just as much. His wife, Nora, mentally ill, delusional speaks to the chorus who sing and speak to her. The father’s mistress Iris and young son, Manny live with the father in their own bungalow.

A suspense filled fishing trip taken by the father and sons makes up the bulk of the book. This is a trip where the hatred for their father is in some ways more dangerous than the storm they experience. I felt as if I was watching a play, moving from scene to scene of the father and his sons on the boat, Nora and the chorus, the tourists whose observations about the place and the father and sons help set the scene.

“ I’m the old tourist in bungalow five. It has the best view of the ocean....”

“I’m the seven-year-old girl from Medellin with pale blond hair who stepped on a catfish and got stung....

“Or I’m the grandmother, born and raised deep in the mountains of Antioquia, who’d never been to the seashore before...

In such a short book, Gonzalez has done a wonderful job with letting us know who these characters are and their relationships with each other. The ending was not what I expected, but definitely was thought provoking.

I received a copy of this book from Archipelago Books through NetGalley.

Two sons and their father own a beach resort in Columbia. One morning they set out on an ill-fated fishing expedition, during which the conflicts, resentments and animosities between them come fully to the fore, and with a title like “The Storm” it’s not giving much away to say that things turn out badly. However, there’s nothing predictable about this compelling and atmospheric tale of family dysfunction and the tension is cleverly maintained right to the end. There are three strands to the novel: the first is the straight-forward narration of the fishing trip, nerve-wracking in its intensity, the second that of the mother Nora, who is mentally ill and has hallucinations, and the third is the first-person narration by the various guests at the resort, who, much like a Greek chorus, comment on what’s happening. There is something essentially mythic about the whole story – the vindictive father, the resentful sons jostling for power, the vision-seeing mother, the Greek chorus, and indeed even the unities of time and place are adhered to. But it’s not heavy-handed, and the human story played out in these pages is relatable and powerful. Gonzalez is an acclaimed Colombian writer and this is a well-written, thoughtful, intelligent and absorbing novel.

The Storm is a translated from the original work by Colombian writer Tomas Gonzalez. Through this story of a coastal holiday village run by a local family and a storm gathering intensity out to sea, we see the truths of that family, the sadness of those on holiday, the growing hatred of sons for their father, the dementia and surreal madness of their mother.

The titular storm is both reality and metaphor; as father and sons set forth on their fishing trip, it lurks in the distance with low rumbling thunder and vivid lightning. There is also the storm in mother Nora’s mind, a storm that takes her into other worlds and brings her people and creatures to share her time. And there is a storm of reciprocal hate ebbing and flowing between father and his twin sons. And there are other storms in the lives of those who live in or are visiting this village.

The novel has an interesting structure which works well. Alternately narrated by family members, members of the staff, people on holiday or Nora’s spectral visitors, we get many views of everyone involved. There is also a neutral omniscient narrative voice giving overview interspersed throughout.

The novel moves with a feeling of power and dread, of forces barely controlled. The writing is controlled and well done. I do recommend this book.

A copy of this book was provided by Archipelago Books through NetGalley in return for an honest review.