The Tree of Life: Stories of Civil War

by Mario Bencastro, Susan Giersbach Rascón

Overview

A grand, mystical tree festooned with brilliant red flowers becomes the heart of a village. When the tentacles of civil unrest tear the hamlet apart, the tree swallows the dead, and the fallen friends and enemies are born again to live in peace within the majestic and benevolent tree.

The passion and politics of the civil war in El Salvador and the blight of political strife and social injustice color this richly textured short story collection. With poetic vision, Mario Bencastro chronicles a chapter of hemispheric history that gripped El Salvador and polarized not only the United States but also every other country in South America. The turmoil, intrigue and suffering have been captured and universalized in these beautifully wrought tales told from the perspective of the common man caught up in a confusing maelstrom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611927818
Publisher:	Arte Publico Press
Publication date:	06/30/1997
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	134 KB

About the Author

MARIO BENCASTRO is the author of award-winning novels that explore the impact of civil war in the lives of Central American immigrants in the United States. His first novel, A Shot in the Cathedral (Arte Público Press, 1996), was a finalist for the international Novedades y Diana award, and his collection of short stories, The Tree of Life: Stories of Civil War (Arte Público Press, 1997) focuses on the civil war that took place in El Salvador in the eighties. Odyssey to the North (Arte Público Press, 1998) examines Central American immigration into the United States. Bencastro’s novels have been published in Canada, El Salvador, United States, Haiti, India and Mexico. Bencastro lives in Florida.

Editorial Reviews

These 15 stories deal with people of El Salvador striving to lead ordinary lives amidst the brutality of the 13-year (1979-1992) civil war that rages around them. The pervasive violence is set against a backdrop of mysticism and faith, as those who are oppressed try to retain a sense of meaning while experiencing or witnessing horrific cruelty. "Photographer of Death'' concerns a mild-mannered employee of the completely ineffectual Human Rights Commission whose job it is to photograph each day's victims. He describes gruesomely tortured and deformed bodies, circling vultures, packs of stray dogs digging up corpses. Then he becomes one of the disappeared. Each short narrative recounts brutalities inflicted at random and manifold injustices, yet each is related with calm clarity and no trace of melodrama. The novella "Once Upon a River" is a heartwrenching tale of teenagers whose love can't surmount the carnage. In the best of these stories, the matter-of-fact recital of unspeakable horrors is punctuated by vivid imagery. Yet the prose throughout is somewhat stiff and the dialogue stilted; it is difficult to tell whether this is due to the translation or to the author's deliberate attempt to underplay the grim nature of his material. In some tales, however, Bencastro emphasizes the ongoing quality of life, the ways nature renews the landscape and men and women rediscover hope. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly