Book Review: Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

I deeply hate to compare one book to another, especially when one of the terms of the comparison refers to a book that I haven´t enjoy for many reasons. However, such comparisons are useful for realizing the qualitative differences between a literary approach and/or authenticity and another. 

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel, that I had access to in audiobook format in the reading of the bilingual actress Inés del Castillo, wipped away all my previous experience with a book dealing with South-American immigration to America. Patricia Engel is a dual national Colombian-American, the first woman to receive Colombia´s national prize in literature.

Elena and Mauro leaved their guerilla-torned Colombia for America. They are looking for opportunities and a better life but the turn of events and personal issues will separate them for 15 years. Mauro will be deported and will leave Elena and their two other children on their own, she keeping doing her cleaning jobs as a undocumented immigrant. Their other child, Talia, born in America, will be sent back to Bogota. 

It is a classical immigration story, with two adults never able to do more than menial jobs, but with their children being offered a better future, in an America ´at war with itself´. America, that country which haunts the minds and hopes of all those looking for better beginnings. An America undergoing the 11/9 which - happily - does not occupy the stereotypical space usually devoted to this tragic moment in the recent US history as being blamed for all bads - as the immigration policies were ever friendly anyway - which keeps being a dream, that dream, despite its brutal way of treating foreigners.

Infinite Country delivers a story which is beautiful in its simplicity, with characters that do have their own individuality and reality. It develops a compassionate story as well, deeply rooted in the Colombian reality, which turns often to the mythical register of tradition and fantastic stories. While reading/listening, you feel the weight of the moment, the genuine violence which does not operate en masse, but permeates the everyday peace because there is no way out.

The book does not aim at revealing anything, just telling a story, one particular story, of Elena and Mauro and their children. I appreciate simplicity, especially when it seems to be such a difficult skill to attain, particularly in the literary world. 

Rating: 3.5 stars