Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1987)
W I N T E R R E A D I N G Spanish high Their banned sexuality is the only life, the only vital and affirming force, in the decaying fascist society. B__ Y J E F F F R I T Z c! s .J off in his study, receives clients sporadi cally and listens to the incessant bleatings of ranco’s Spain is an unlikely setting for a Franco a > iut “ victory and peace” on his radio. novel about two brothers in love, but then The pervading mood is death. Carlos and Ma The Carnivorous Lamb by Agustin Gomez-Arcos thilde are. in fact, already dead; they are just (translated by William Rodarmor, New Ameri waiting to die. But their sons bring life in the can Library. 1984) is an unlikely book. With form o f sexual rebellion, a private rebellion sensuous evocative prose and dramatic, lively which succeeds where their parents' public re characters, Gomez-Arcos creates a world of bellion failed so many years before. Their fantasy and illusion in which only the love of banned sexuality is the only life, the only vital brothers seems truly real. and affirming force in the decaying fascist society. Agustin Gomez-Arcos is a Spanish emigre The novel begins as a memory of the younger who writes in French. One reviewer of this son (whose name the author does not reveal novel, written before Franco’s death in 1975, until the end of the novel). The boy, now wrote “ the entire bizarre tale is a metaphor for eighteen, recalls his life literally from birth until the future o f Spain.’’ Well, maybe. But let’s not the time his brother Antonio leaves for South lose sight o f the fact that this is primarily a tale America. The narrator is addressing his absent o f two men, a sheltered young boy and his brother with mixed tones of passion and de brother five years senior who is his protector spair, longing and betrayal. He recounts his and lover. While some might find this theme of birth and the fact that he did not open his eyes incest disturbing, in Gomez-Arcos's sensitive for fourteen days, provoking his mother to plan hands it becomes almost magical. an extravagant trip to Lourdes. When he does Carlos and Mathilde. the boys’ parents, were open hiseves. in the midst of Mathilde’s frantic losers in the Spanish Civil War and have re consultations w ith her dressmaker about pil treated into exile in their ornate villa. Their grimage wardrobe, he becomes the great dis isolation from society is total; only their eldest ap -ointment of his mother’s life. Antonio son, Antonio, ventures out for school. Mathilde w tu s k s him away to the protection of his room. receives her confessor Periodically and pus Gomez-Arcos has a comic touch which is at sesses a coterie of invisible tnends on the end of once absurd and sarcastic. The narrator is tom the telephone line. Carlos, almost permanently between a brutally liberal teacher and an equally F repressive priest, both necessities if he is to attend high school. The episode of his baptism hows Go. ie/-Arcos at his best. While ihe e* h ,,ous oriest douses the bov w ith nol\ water \ntonio fondles his ass. provoking an »sion of apparent religious ecstasy The final third of the novel focuses on the boys’ reunion, albeit one less than planned by the narrator, for Antonio returns from South America with a very American wife, daughter o f his boss at a chemical plant. Gomez-Arcos takes the opportunity to poke a satiric finger at American values, but never loses the focus on the two brothers, producing a finale both emo tionally satisfying and totally in keeping with the fantasy of the novel. • Most Extensive Line ol Tongue Drums NOVI DIVERSIFIED 1104 NE 28th Avenue Portland, OR 97232 (503) 284 9825 C om e b y an d s e e fo r y o u r s e lf o u r w id e s e le c tio n o f H an d m ad e D ru m s. Call fo r d ir e c tio n s . Matriarchal intuition 234-1276 2008 N.E. SANDY BLVD. • PORTLAND The four main female characters respond to society’s demands as differently as four heads of hair respond to permanents . BY D O R I S W I S H E R want Karl around. He agrees to stay away. The male characters are not as clear ¿iid matter-of-fact about life as. say. Mary and ouise Erdrich’s second novel. The Beet Celestine. Russell Kashpaw. a shoi up war vet. Queen, is a grabber. Like her first. Love is hauled in from the reserva tion to be propped up Medicine, it is set in North Dakota near an in his wheelchair for parades. e.arly on. Wallace Indian reservation where she grew up. A few Pfef has a relationship with Karl and later on characters from the first novel surface in The delivers Celestine and Karl's baby during a Beet Queen, which is now available in paper snowstorm. Wallace becomes Dot's subliminal back for $4.50. Few writers can, on page one, uncle and a city father whose business savvy so authoritatively invite readers into a fictional insures profits from sugar beets in the area. Karl world that's on the verge o f expanding naturally is terrified o f genuine contact — that’s why he’s a in all directions. traveling salesman W hen he grows tired of The Beet Queen opens in 1932 with Mary them, he leaves ¡.»» >rs behind in hotel rooms like Adare. whose father is dead and whose mother play ed >ut phonograph records. On the surface, dumps her and her two brothers at the Catholic h e ’s icy. casual and rolls out of Wallace's bed nuns' O rphans’ Picnic by flying away with — "H e ironed everything I wore, washed my Great Omar, a stunt pilot. Mary and her shirts fresh, brought coffee, squeezed oranges brother Karl (baby brother went to a childless because I said I liked real juice, and cooked up couple) hop a freight to aunt and uncle Kozka, big dinners every night' * — and moves in down who are butchers in Argus. North Dakota. They the road at Celestine’s. jum p off the boxcar. Just before the train K arl’s saving grace is his bisexuality. A lout lurches to life. Karl jumps back on. Mary lives wouldn’t appreciate ironed underwear as he with the folks and her cousin Sita. and a friend does. Just before he returns to Argus to see Dot o f both. Celestine. Twenty years later. Karl crowned. Karl considers himself. " I had out blows into town like a tumbleweed and fathers lived something careless in myself. Most men Celestine’s daughter. Dot. who is crowned get to my age and suddenly they’re dissatisfied sugar beet queen as the novel closes. with all they've accumulated around them. Not This novel fleshes out four main female me I wanted everything I'd left behind. characters who respond to society's demands as I wanted the cars repossessed after fifteen differently as four heads o f hair respond to payments, custom er's houses into which I permanents. M ary’s mother. Adelaide, wings never got past the doormat, the lines I did get away w ith her pilot and lets others raise her past, their rooms and rich Miiells of wax and kids. Sita. obsessed w ith social climbing and a burned food. 1 wanted the fixKl itself, burned or "practiced voice." marries well As • ears go not. and the women who had left it in the oven bv. her connection to the world relies on remote too long. I wanted their husbands I wanted the control devices for television and rad o Just men in blind alleys, truck beds, the men who before her stiff demise, she sleeps on a pooi had someone else or like Wallace Ptet. never table, watching her beloved beer lamps with anyone before. I wanted the whole world of “ skv blue w aters" shimmering. In contrast. people who belonged to each other and owned M ar\ is a storm trooper at Dot's birthday party, things and cooked food and remembered old reads tarot cards and spits on a brick to see songs." calendar dates. She thinks she s operating on The Beet Queen affords an aerial postcard matriarchal intuition Mary and Celestine. who has thick arms (who wouldn’t, hacking up ani I shot o f the characters' lives, including bizarre comedy , which only intelligent writing can mal caracasses in a butcher shop) and a "com present. • mon sort o f fierceness." raise Dot They don’t STAY RIGHT W HERE YOU AR E! L Kinko’s will pick up your originals and deliver the finished copies directly to you. So sit tight. We do the traveling and let you take care of business. kinko's G r e a t c o p ie s . G r e a t p e o p l e . . 284-2129 IMS Nl TTM OPEN 7 DAYS 223-2056 1002 S.W. JEFFERSON OPEN 24 HOURS Thank You 3338 sw corbett portland 227 4531 NATURAL TIBRE CLOTHING tor women men & children new market village 54 sw 2nd • 228-1893 • open daily Just ()m • 17 • December. 1987