Breathe
By Pamela Cerdeira
That was the only time I have presented a book that I did not finish reading. I couldn't finish it, but not for lack of time, but because I decided to: every line threw me off, every page forced me to close it, leading me to not want to see it anymore. At the presentation I admitted it and said that, if it were not for the fact that I believe that censorship is the best publicity tool that any book can have, I would like this book never to have been published. The author, to whom today I would offer an apology for having said that, nodded: It's that you have daughters, she told me, that's what happens when you have daughters.
The book is El monstruo pentápodo, and it masterfully tells the story of a pedophile, who has earned a respectable place in society and almost flirts with the reader with the ironic tone with which he criticizes the mothers of his possible victims. I won't tell you more, because that look should be given to each reader; so, if you have it in your hands, let's talk about it.
This story, the story of El Monstruo Pentápodo and my terrible introduction, came back to me because I started reading another book: Triste Tigre by Neige Sinno. Neige is a writer who almost completely banishes her French accent with grammatically impeccable Spanish. I sense that the change of country (she has lived the last few years in Mexico) and the mastery of a new language were intended to build a new life for herself, because the one she has had is a horror story.
Neige has written novels, short stories and has devoted her studies to literature, but when she is interviewed to talk about Triste Tigre, people want to talk about her life, not her writing. Does literature serve as an exorcism? Neige answers that she does not believe that literature can or should serve as therapy. I believe that the past always haunts you until it finds a way out, ink is her favorite vehicle.
With a rhythm that seems to slap us with every comma and hammer on every point, she puts us like no one else in her head, her dilemmas, and opens with an honesty that frightens each one of the angles of the victim, but not to place herself in that place, but to understand her victimizer. And it is no small thing when talking about the victimizers has become politically incorrect, but if it is the victim who does it, are we going to censure her?
Neige exposes him, analyzes him, undresses him. Is it immoral to use that word in this context? I don't think so, because he is a rapist, a pentapod monster; and she is a writer. What he did lasted for a while, until distance and then jail could stop him. On the other hand, what she did, her revenge, will last, mainly because it is very well written.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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