Novel
Almidón
Not translated into English
Manolo Cuadra · 1945
Synopsis
A book of chaotic appearance, built around cassava starch, raised to the status of a national substance: around this tuber is organised the satirical portrait of a country held by the army, where Colonel Belisario Cascantes, an arrogant military man, bears the features of the dictator. With no continuous plot, the narrative constantly breaks the order of time and place, moves from the cell and the jailer to a secret diary, and leaves it to the reader to piece together the fragments of the farce.
Context
Imprisoned in 1943 by the Somoza regime, its author had to spend the following year in Masaya, with the town as his prison, before publishing the book in Managua in 1945, from Nuevos Horizontes, in one hundred and sixty-four pages. Publishers and author announced it as a novel, although in places it keeps the form of a private diary. It had been preceded by the account of his banishment to Little Corn Island and by short stories drawn from the war against Sandino.
Who it is for
A book in Spanish, not translated into French, regarded sometimes as a prison diary, sometimes as a satirical novel. It assumes knowledge of the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza García.
Prizes and reception
Critics regard its author as a pioneer of modern prose in Nicaragua; they still debate the novelistic coherence of this book, which some judge poorly structured.
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