Scan barcode
A review by zoefcampion
The Weight of All Things by Sandra Benítez
4.0
The Weight of All Things, by Sandra Benitez, tells the story of a young boy, Nicolás, searching for his mother. The book begins with Nicolás and his mother at the funeral of the assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero. Gunfire erupts, and his mother protects him with her body, causing her to be shot and killed. She is dragged away from his, and Nicholás refuses to believe that she is dead. So begins a quest to find her. He starts by looking in the catedral, but has no luck. Then he goes to his grandfather’s ranchero to find the address of her employer. At the ranchero a group of FLP, the people’s army, soldiers take it over as a camp. When they move out Nicolás is captured by a government soldier and put to work at one of their bases. While working at the base he finally accepts the fact that his mother has died, with the help of la Virgen. He escapes and goes back to his grandfather, and then the two of them, along with some other friends try to escape to Honduras. The army raids the camp of hundreds waiting to cross the river. Most people try and cross the river, but Nicolás, his grandfather, and a friend hide and watch hundreds of their fellow refugees get killed by the Honduras and El Salvador armies while crossing the river. The theme of this book is life is hard, so you must be strong, but also caring.
The Weight of All Things is a very good book. It was very interesting to read, especially because I am also learning about the Salvadoran Civil War in spanish class. Nicolás calls la Virgen his mother, and also compares himself to a lion and a lamb, which I found was really interesting to compare himself to both. But by the end of the book I learned that it was good to be a mix of both. It was also interesting how he used la Virgen to bridge the gap between the two, like she was a mix of both, which Nicolás tried to be. This book was accelerated because it uses a lot of metaphors that can be hard to understand. It also talks a lot about the pains of the Salvadoran Civil War, which was very hard to read about and slightly confusing if you didn’t have prior news. I recommend this book to people who want to learn about the Salvadoran Civil War and reading about self discovery.
The Weight of All Things is a very good book. It was very interesting to read, especially because I am also learning about the Salvadoran Civil War in spanish class. Nicolás calls la Virgen his mother, and also compares himself to a lion and a lamb, which I found was really interesting to compare himself to both. But by the end of the book I learned that it was good to be a mix of both. It was also interesting how he used la Virgen to bridge the gap between the two, like she was a mix of both, which Nicolás tried to be. This book was accelerated because it uses a lot of metaphors that can be hard to understand. It also talks a lot about the pains of the Salvadoran Civil War, which was very hard to read about and slightly confusing if you didn’t have prior news. I recommend this book to people who want to learn about the Salvadoran Civil War and reading about self discovery.