A review by laurenabeth
The Passion According to Carmela by Marcos Aguinis

4.0

I’ve been trying to read more translated works. I struggled with Gabriel García Márquez and basically gave up after Love in the Time of Cholera. I’m not going to lie, the cover art here is what caused me to download this book (it’s gorgeous!). I try not to make decisions based on cover art, because it can be deceiving. In this case, I was a little disappointed. Carmela is a doctor and revolutionary in Cuba during Castro’s overthrow of Batista. She falls madly in love with another rebel, Ignacio, and together they ride the waves of Castro’s success, followed almost immediately by the devastating realization that they’ve helped install a tyrant into power. Familiar, no? “Happiness can’t be imposed, only unhappiness can be imposed, and that is what he’s done.” Ultimately, I found the text lacking in urgency. I figured secretive trysts set against the backdrop of political upheaval would ignite feelings of power or fear or even liberation, like their love might free them from Fidelism. Maybe the emotion was lost in translation, or maybe the calm was intended to feel like a refuge amidst chaos. In any case, it took me until almost the final pages to get invested in Carmela’s fate. Aside from the story, however, I want to note the narrative structure of this book. It fluctuates between Carmela’s and Ignacio’s first person accounts to a sort of omniscient third person narrator, and I absolutely loved it. It provides this macro/micro, zoomed in/zoomed out perspective. I thought I would hate it, but it ended up being something very wonderful and special