Novel
Jonás y la ballena rosada
Not translated into English
Wolfango Montes Vannuci · 1987
Synopsis
Jonás Larriva, a teacher in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, has no desire to succeed and looks with cynicism at the hypocrisy around him. His in-laws have a hold on him. Patroclo, his father-in-law, an undertaker to high society, offers him the job of directing the construction of a family mausoleum in the Egyptian style, and himself leads a double life in the drug trade. Thalia, his wife, believes herself to be the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette. Jonás falls in love with Julia, his sister-in-law. Around them, the city lives through hyperinflation and the rise of drug trafficking.
Context
The novel appeared in 1987 in Havana, with the Cuban publisher that had awarded it its prize, in 292 pages. Daniel Dory regarded it as the most representative novel of its decade: the bourgeoisie of Santa Cruz tries to resist the traffickers, then adopts the double morality that it already practises in family life, in love and in business. Juan Carlos Valdivia made it in 1995 into his first film, co-produced with Mexico, in which Jonás runs a photography studio; the author makes a brief appearance in it.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French translation. Funny and cruel, and one must accept a narrator who does not spare himself.
Prizes and reception
Casa de las Américas Prize 1987, and ranked in 2011 third among the country's essential novels.
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