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jackievr's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
brunapsmm's review
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
befriendtheshadow's review against another edition
3.0
Beautiful writing but I didn’t really connect with the story or characters.
hetauuu's review against another edition
4.0
I have not dipped my feet that far into the pond of Latin American literature, but it is a blind spot I have always wanted to fix. Springtime in a Broken Mirror was something I bought years ago when I still had my ambitious plan to read a book from every single country in the world. Set between Uruguay and Argentina and following an imprisoned man and his loved ones, Springtime in a Broken Mirror is open and honest about the political tensions and human rights violations of 1980s South America.
Springtime in a Broken Mirror hammers home one point loud and clear: life does not stop for those who are extramural even if you yourself are intramural. Santiago, our political prisoner main character, does not experience time moving in the same way as his wife and daughter, Graciela and Beatriz, his father, Don Rafael, or his best friend, Rolando, do. His days of imprisonment are slow and uneventful, while the lives of his loved ones change by the day. This change was brilliantly expressed through the multiple POV structure that the novel has. I was able to feel very close to every character in the book, even though all the narrators weren't even spesifically named. This story could have easily just been about Santiago, but Benedetti wanted to flesh out the world around him, a world Santiago himself was in exile from, and he did that beautifully.
Springtime in a Broken Mirror definitely inspired me to pick up more literature from Latin America in the future. It is a poignant and raw description of imprisonment, exile, and the secrets we all keep.
Springtime in a Broken Mirror hammers home one point loud and clear: life does not stop for those who are extramural even if you yourself are intramural. Santiago, our political prisoner main character, does not experience time moving in the same way as his wife and daughter, Graciela and Beatriz, his father, Don Rafael, or his best friend, Rolando, do. His days of imprisonment are slow and uneventful, while the lives of his loved ones change by the day. This change was brilliantly expressed through the multiple POV structure that the novel has. I was able to feel very close to every character in the book, even though all the narrators weren't even spesifically named. This story could have easily just been about Santiago, but Benedetti wanted to flesh out the world around him, a world Santiago himself was in exile from, and he did that beautifully.
Springtime in a Broken Mirror definitely inspired me to pick up more literature from Latin America in the future. It is a poignant and raw description of imprisonment, exile, and the secrets we all keep.
rouge_red's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is different from my typical read. Time, displacement, political prisoners, liberty, tenderness, toughness. I found this to be a sometime sad, mostly contemplative read Santiago, a political prisoner, who has been in jail for five years, and his father, wife, daughter and best friend as they each live in the aftermath of Santiago's imprisonment. As you can expect, everyone is living their lives in different ways. On Santiago's end, he's become more tender (as his wife describes his letters to her) and philosophical during his stint in jail. He has a lot of time to think about their family and relationship, hoping to pick back up on where they left off all those years ago. Graciela, his wife, loves Santiago, but no longer needs him in the same way, sexually, as she did before. Since his imprisonment, she's had to do a lot on her own, including raising their daughter, Beatriz, exiled from her own country. She's become a much tougher person and is able to admit some things to herself, namely that she's not attracted to her husband that same way anymore and wants to move on. Beatriz is just a kid, who's tackling a lot of quite mature ideas like the idea of home, displacement, freedom/liberty. Seems like a good kid who is need of some guidance. Meanwhile, Rolando, Santiago's friend, has kept an eye on Graciela and Beatriz. Whether it's time, proximity, etc, the two fall in love and it's hell trying to decide what to do and if they should reveal to Santiago, who's still in jail when they get together, if he should know the truth. Santiago's father, Don Rafael advises against it...but at the end of the novel, I still feel tense. What happens next?!?
tatianasb's review
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
emma7377's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
the book switches perspectives constantly which makes it interesting but also quite difficult to follow. what makes it even more difficult is that sometimes bendetti will interject the fictional storyline with his own experiences of being exiled.
once you get the hang of whos who though, you can appreciate it. it is a very good book. very well written. very unique. but its just quite challenging, especially because theres NOTHING about it online.
once you get the hang of whos who though, you can appreciate it. it is a very good book. very well written. very unique. but its just quite challenging, especially because theres NOTHING about it online.
wrystake's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
sparklesandcupcakes's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
When the time comes...
Santiago is a political prisoner in Montevideo in Uruguay, in the 1970s. His family and friends are scattered, exiled from the country they call home. The book begins with Santiago writing to his wife, Graciela, who is living in Buenos Aires with their young daughter, Beatriz. In Buenos Aires, too, is Santiago’s father and Ronaldo, his friend and former fellow revolutionary. Interspersed by some sections where we hear from the author in his own voice, relating some of his own experiences as a political exile, the book rotates among these characters, letting us see each through their own eyes, and through the eyes of the other characters.
This is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in a long time, and credit must go to the translator, Nick Caistor, who has done a marvellous job. Although it’s based around the revolutions of South America, it is not about politics as such; rather, it is about the impact that political upheaval has on the individuals caught up in it. It’s about home and exile, loneliness, longing, belonging. It’s about loyalty and love, and hope, and sometimes despair. It’s profoundly moving – full of emotional truth.
As Santiago sits in jail not knowing when – if – he’ll be released, he writes letters full of love to Graciela. For him, life is static, his memories of their love the thing that has sustained him through the torture and now the sheer stultification of his imprisonment. But for Graciela, life is a moving thing – she is still young, in a new city, with a job and a growing child, and for her the present is more vivid than the past. She finds herself increasingly attracted to Ronaldo, but knows that Santiago needs her love and loyalty. Graciela is the only character in the book who doesn’t speak for herself, so that the reader must try to understand her through what the other characters say. She is in a different kind of prison to Santiago, but one which has just as effectively halted her life. The crux of the story is deceptively simple – what will Graciela decide to do?
Rafael, Santiago’s father, is an old man now, exiled because of Santiago’s actions. He muses on the meaning of “home”, feeling homesick more than the other characters, perhaps because for him there is less chance of ever returning. Through him, Benedetti gives a heartbreaking depiction of the kind of homesickness that comes when a person is unwillingly forced to live elsewhere. He captures it beautifully – the odd things one misses, the clinging to people who have come from the same place, who understand one’s own culture, and the eventual almost unnoticeable putting down of fragile new roots, the settling and acceptance, and even the beginnings of a new feeling of “home”.
Beatriz’s voice brings a touch of lightness to the story, preventing the tone from becoming too bleak. Life isn’t always easy for her, either – she gets into fights at school over people saying nasty things about her dad being in prison. She defends him on the grounds that he’s a political prisoner, even though she doesn’t really know what that means – but she knows it means he’s a good man, not a criminal. She’s spent half her life in Buenos Aires, and questions in her childish way whether she is Uruguayan or Argentinian. For the children, if a time comes when they can go home, will it feel like home? Or will it be, for them, another kind of exile? But although Benedetti makes Beatriz’s sections as thought-provoking as the rest of the book, her voice is convincingly childish. She loves words, and when she learns a new one, she shoehorns it in at every available opportunity, providing some much-needed humour.
Ronaldo’s voice is more detached, giving us some of the background to what led to Santiago’s imprisonment. But he also talks of exile, giving us a rather more positive view of the possibilities and joys of sharing cultures. There is a feeling throughout the book of South America as one entity, with exiles and refugees from the various revolutions in different countries drifting from place to place depending on where sanctuary can be found. It also takes an interesting view of Cuba as the one country whose revolution has been successful, looked at from the perspective of the communists in other South American countries. Benedetti’s own sections tell of exiles trying to get to Cuba to make a new life, at the same time as some Cubans were trying to leave to get to the US for the same reason.
This is a short book, but has more to say than many lengthier tomes. I have no idea about the political situation in South America in that, or any other, era, but didn’t find this got in the way of my understanding of the book. Fundamentally, it’s about people, and especially people who have been forced out of their homelands – the reasons for the exile are secondary to its impact. And, in the end, it holds out hope: that the human spirit has the resilience to find new ways of living when the old ones are taken away. A wonderful book – highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Penguin Classics, via Amazon Vine.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Santiago is a political prisoner in Montevideo in Uruguay, in the 1970s. His family and friends are scattered, exiled from the country they call home. The book begins with Santiago writing to his wife, Graciela, who is living in Buenos Aires with their young daughter, Beatriz. In Buenos Aires, too, is Santiago’s father and Ronaldo, his friend and former fellow revolutionary. Interspersed by some sections where we hear from the author in his own voice, relating some of his own experiences as a political exile, the book rotates among these characters, letting us see each through their own eyes, and through the eyes of the other characters.
This is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in a long time, and credit must go to the translator, Nick Caistor, who has done a marvellous job. Although it’s based around the revolutions of South America, it is not about politics as such; rather, it is about the impact that political upheaval has on the individuals caught up in it. It’s about home and exile, loneliness, longing, belonging. It’s about loyalty and love, and hope, and sometimes despair. It’s profoundly moving – full of emotional truth.
As Santiago sits in jail not knowing when – if – he’ll be released, he writes letters full of love to Graciela. For him, life is static, his memories of their love the thing that has sustained him through the torture and now the sheer stultification of his imprisonment. But for Graciela, life is a moving thing – she is still young, in a new city, with a job and a growing child, and for her the present is more vivid than the past. She finds herself increasingly attracted to Ronaldo, but knows that Santiago needs her love and loyalty. Graciela is the only character in the book who doesn’t speak for herself, so that the reader must try to understand her through what the other characters say. She is in a different kind of prison to Santiago, but one which has just as effectively halted her life. The crux of the story is deceptively simple – what will Graciela decide to do?
Rafael, Santiago’s father, is an old man now, exiled because of Santiago’s actions. He muses on the meaning of “home”, feeling homesick more than the other characters, perhaps because for him there is less chance of ever returning. Through him, Benedetti gives a heartbreaking depiction of the kind of homesickness that comes when a person is unwillingly forced to live elsewhere. He captures it beautifully – the odd things one misses, the clinging to people who have come from the same place, who understand one’s own culture, and the eventual almost unnoticeable putting down of fragile new roots, the settling and acceptance, and even the beginnings of a new feeling of “home”.
Beatriz’s voice brings a touch of lightness to the story, preventing the tone from becoming too bleak. Life isn’t always easy for her, either – she gets into fights at school over people saying nasty things about her dad being in prison. She defends him on the grounds that he’s a political prisoner, even though she doesn’t really know what that means – but she knows it means he’s a good man, not a criminal. She’s spent half her life in Buenos Aires, and questions in her childish way whether she is Uruguayan or Argentinian. For the children, if a time comes when they can go home, will it feel like home? Or will it be, for them, another kind of exile? But although Benedetti makes Beatriz’s sections as thought-provoking as the rest of the book, her voice is convincingly childish. She loves words, and when she learns a new one, she shoehorns it in at every available opportunity, providing some much-needed humour.
Ronaldo’s voice is more detached, giving us some of the background to what led to Santiago’s imprisonment. But he also talks of exile, giving us a rather more positive view of the possibilities and joys of sharing cultures. There is a feeling throughout the book of South America as one entity, with exiles and refugees from the various revolutions in different countries drifting from place to place depending on where sanctuary can be found. It also takes an interesting view of Cuba as the one country whose revolution has been successful, looked at from the perspective of the communists in other South American countries. Benedetti’s own sections tell of exiles trying to get to Cuba to make a new life, at the same time as some Cubans were trying to leave to get to the US for the same reason.
This is a short book, but has more to say than many lengthier tomes. I have no idea about the political situation in South America in that, or any other, era, but didn’t find this got in the way of my understanding of the book. Fundamentally, it’s about people, and especially people who have been forced out of their homelands – the reasons for the exile are secondary to its impact. And, in the end, it holds out hope: that the human spirit has the resilience to find new ways of living when the old ones are taken away. A wonderful book – highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Penguin Classics, via Amazon Vine.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com