224 pages
English language
Published Oct. 14, 2020 by Norton & Company Limited, W. W..
The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.
Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666Â or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.
This was a very cleverly constructed story that leads the reader through the unexpected and, often, deeply disturbing lives surrounding the murdered “witch” in a relatively isolated Mexican community. This is a powerful novel that felt important, but still eminently readable… as long as you’re not overly attached to the concept of full stops.
I really struggled with what to rate this. There’s a lot of graphic violence, on-page rape, slurs, homophobia, etc, etc. I’m not sure if I feel that it’s worth it for the message of the story. Otherwise I think I’d give this 4 stars or higher. So I’m really on the fence!
It was a brutal book in terms of content but also, as others have noted, in style. The chapters are long and consist of one paragraph. There are many very long run on sentences. This is a writerly decision, of course, and my sense is that it was meant to enhance the brutality of what you are reading. The reading process itself is relentless.
Despite all that, I found it very readable. I got through it very quickly.
I think Melchor did such a good job really diving into the mind of each character. The chapters each focus …
I really struggled with what to rate this. There’s a lot of graphic violence, on-page rape, slurs, homophobia, etc, etc. I’m not sure if I feel that it’s worth it for the message of the story. Otherwise I think I’d give this 4 stars or higher. So I’m really on the fence!
It was a brutal book in terms of content but also, as others have noted, in style. The chapters are long and consist of one paragraph. There are many very long run on sentences. This is a writerly decision, of course, and my sense is that it was meant to enhance the brutality of what you are reading. The reading process itself is relentless.
Despite all that, I found it very readable. I got through it very quickly.
I think Melchor did such a good job really diving into the mind of each character. The chapters each focus on a different person in the village, revealing more about them and the murder of the Witch. I felt like, whether or not I liked each person, I understood how they saw the world. Poverty and neglect has warped them for the most part - into victims or perpetrators. Super bleak read!
Favorite quotes:
Because I never wanted kids, and your boyfriend in there knows it only too well because you’ve got to be open about these things, why go around playing the martyr, better to be open and say it how it is and for everyone to be on the same page: this children business is bullshit, bull-fucking-shit; there’s no way to dress it up: in the end, all kids are a burden, spongers, parasites who suck the life and all your blood from you. And to top it off they don’t appreciate any of the sacrifices you’ve got no choice but to make for them.
That’s what the women in town say: there is no treasure in there, no gold or silver or diamonds or anything more than a searing pain that refuses to go away.
The rain can’t hurt you now, and the darkness doesn’t last forever. See there? See that light shining in the distance? The little light that looks like a star? That’s where you’re headed, he told them, that’s the way out of this hole.
A formally impressive work, Melchor's novel manages to craft a disarmingly honest cluster of narrators around a grim event, and they are always interesting, and always revealing themselves whether directly or by another character. This is a novel that gets everything right as far as the mechanics of what makes for great storytelling but there is another aspect of this project that leaves very little room for discussion of all that. The only thing one is left with, in fact, after setting the novel down. Melchor has staged an inquiry into the ugliest paroxysms of male behavior. This book is profoundly unpleasant to read. I believe for the project Melchor set out to investigate it is necessarily unpleasant but there were several moments I lifted my head up after a particularly gruesome sentence, which by the way could be like 10 pages in this novel, and I thought What the …
A formally impressive work, Melchor's novel manages to craft a disarmingly honest cluster of narrators around a grim event, and they are always interesting, and always revealing themselves whether directly or by another character. This is a novel that gets everything right as far as the mechanics of what makes for great storytelling but there is another aspect of this project that leaves very little room for discussion of all that. The only thing one is left with, in fact, after setting the novel down. Melchor has staged an inquiry into the ugliest paroxysms of male behavior. This book is profoundly unpleasant to read. I believe for the project Melchor set out to investigate it is necessarily unpleasant but there were several moments I lifted my head up after a particularly gruesome sentence, which by the way could be like 10 pages in this novel, and I thought What the hell am I reading this for?
There is an answer to that question. This is not a novel merely interested in shocking it's readers. The violence and hate and deeply grotesque acts being described add to a sophisticated point being told in a sophisticated way. It just so happens that this point, about the utter toxicity which fills the vacuum of male power denuded under late capitalism - the searching, the integration into fable and rumor, the desperation, the fatalism - it's uncomfortable to read, probably because the violence is real. Compressed into a single story of a novel, sure, but not so much exaggerated as it is focused on. As though Melchor were saying, this is disturbing: look at it.
I can't recommend this novel to everyone because some readers will not be able to get past the horrific content but I do think that's on them and not the novel, which is a triumph of craftsmanship and brave enough to stare into the dark heart of our human condition.
This was a hard read, both in terms of subject matter (big ol' CW for rape and child abuse and other stuff) but also the technical writing style. Melchor definitely knows what she's doing in how she writes this book - her use of stream of consciousness and run on sentences definitely has a sweeping feel to it, evoking that sense of chaos you would get in a hurricane. On the other hand, it definitely makes it hard to follow what is happening. I think for the most part that the work on the reader's part is worth it - although it does take time to get used to the flow of the writing, ultimately the story that's slowly unraveled is a worthy one. I do wonder if so many run-on sentences were needed, though.
Incredible. A breathless narrative that sweeps the reader up and drags them through the depths of the darkest parts of human existence with complete disregard for any kicking and screaming along the way. The work of a prose master I cannot possibly give any less than 5 stars, and cannot recommend to anyone I know.
