The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 14 September 2021
by Francisco Goldman
It can be a challenge to objectively evaluate a work of fiction if the reader finds him or herself closely identifying with the protagonist and his journey, the events and reactions so very familiar that it renders unfamiliar elements of the story less visible, less relateable. This reader faced that challenge with this engrossing and beautifully written novel by Goldman, a Jewish man of Guatemalan extraction. Not that this reader identified with that identity, just that the protagonist, the semi-autobiographical Francisco Goldberg, travels to places and times of great familiarity, and has experiences and character reactions that also resonate strongly. We look for that resonance in the fiction we explore, but to have it so close to heart, it can both raise the writing in the eyes of the reader and skew one's reactions to those parts of the story less familiar or personally gripping. So the book becomes a nostalgic joy to read, but also becomes more of a project to remain focused on the story the author is telling, not on one's own memories and one's own story.
Our protagonist and narrator is Goldman's alter-ego Francisco Goldberg, a man of mixed Jewish and Guatemalen heritage. He boards a train in New York, headed to Boston for a radio interview for a book he has published. Goldberg has written of the guerilla wars, extrajudicial killings and other conflicts in Central America, particularly his Guatemala, where he has lived intermittently throughout his life, though he was raised mostly in Boston. So his trip to the Hub is rife with memories mixed up with his plans to visit several of the women in his history, his mother, his sister, maids and boarders at their suburban house, and even a lawyer who once knew a man who painted a memorable portrait of his mother many years before. There is a beautifully wrought tone to his memories as he rides the train to Boston's South Station. The journey and the memories are interwoven so that we hear about the people on the train, as well as his experience as a teenaged docent at the Tea Party ship not far from South Station.
Once in Boston, we experience his swirl of memories through his wanderings in town and his visits with old friends and family. Goldman's writing here is mesmerizing in that way that a fellow writer marvels at. His ease with the story telling and its smooth flow through events and memory are just a pleasure to read. Other reviewers (see The New Yorker) have compared this book to Proust, but it doesn't have the heaviness of that massive work. There is wit and lightness even as the narrator relates the brutal experiences of his youth, as an outsider in school and as battered by his father. For a book of this modest length, it is also remarkable how much story Goldman manages to import. He does, after all, also interweave tales of war, politics and tragedy to the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. All in all, the author captures his time and place, a contemporary train ride and a journey through his life from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. This reader found the book amazing, but perhaps that is also because this reader found so much congruent with his own history. We can't be sure. In any case, it was a terrific read and most highly recommended.