Novel
El domador de pulgas
Not translated into English
Max Jiménez · 1936
Opening lines
Por la frente de aquel hombre corrió una gota de sudor. Y se parecía enormemente al padre de Jesús.
A drop of sweat ran down that man's forehead. And he bore an enormous resemblance to the father of Jesus.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from es.wikisource.org
Synopsis
A flea tamer gives up exhibiting his trained animals to devote himself entirely to them and decides to feed them only on his own blood. A world is born in his room: the fleas take on the qualities and faults of men, farm the land, commit crimes, divide into good and bad, and experience adultery, alcohol, prostitution, politics and religion. The tamer, who dreamed of a paradise, watches chaos grow. One chapter follows the artist flea, gifted and at odds with her surroundings.
Context
The book was published in Havana in 1936, the same year as two of the author's verse collections, and is illustrated with his woodcuts. It combines novel, short story, essay, lyrical digression and satirical tableau, and Orietta Ortíz sees in it a satire of Costa Rican society and of the patriarchal family. Juan Durán Luzio reads in it a fable of human vices, envy, careerism, thirst for power, with an allusion to the Nazi and Stalinist regimes; Carla Arce, an existential reading of the loss of values. Gabriela Mistral praised it in 1938.
Who it is for
A short text, in Spanish, made up of discontinuous episodes rather than a continuous plot, illustrated with engravings.
Prizes and reception
Reissued by Editorial Costa Rica and now studied by the country's academic criticism as a major work by the author.
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