There is always a tension in reading a historical novel between the "history" and the "fiction". In her author's note, to her National Book Award novel, "The News from Paraguay", Lily Tuck acknowledges this tension and attempts to resolve it by saying: "Nouns always trump adjectives, and in the phrase 'historical fiction' it is important to remember which of the two words is which." This resolution is not always appealing in novels set in a period with which the reader is familiar. It is tempting in these cases to focus on possible historical errors or on anachronistic writing. Because it is set primarily in Paraguay in the mid-nineteenth century, Tuck's novel will not bring to bear much background knowledge from most American readers. The book thus needs to be read more as literature than as a historical account. I reluctantly reminded myself that an important question, but not always the sole question, in responding to a book of fiction is: "does it work as a novel?". In Tuck's case, I had little doubt of the answer. The book failed for me.The two primary characters in the book are Franco Lopez, (1827-1870), a dictator in Paraguay and his mistress Eliza (Ella) Lynch (1835 --1886). The novel is in part a story of the relationship between Franco and Ella and in part a story of Franco's disastrous rule as he led Paraguay into a long, brutal war with Argentina, Brazil, and Uraguay which devastated his country. The story begins in Paris when Ella, a young divorcee, is the kept woman of a Russian aristocrat. Franco is an emissary on behalf of his father to Napoleon III and he persuades Ella and her retinue to cross the ocean to Paraguay with promises of a large palace and great wealth. The couple have five children. Franco's stubborn autocratic traits become increasingly evident as the book proceeds and as he assumes power upon the death of his father. The reasons which led him to war are not fully developed in the book. But much emphasis is given to the folly of the struggle and to its cost to Paraguay in terms of life and treasure.Although short, the novel makes for slow, tedious reading. Part of the problem is the narrative style which is modernistic but I thought inapt for the book. The story is told in a variety of voices and largely from Ella's perspective. The shifts in perspective and voicing serve little purpose and make the book hard to follow. The chapters are of varying length, mostly short, and they tend to move out of chronological order. The book is disjointed. I also thought the book suffered from the large group of characters that Tuck presents. Besides the two protagonists, many people wander in and out of the story, including Franco's and Ella's relatives and servants, diplomats from the United States, European advisors, leaders of the Alliance against Franco, natives of Paraguay, and more. Some characters appear in and out through the course of the book while others have smaller roles. It is difficult to keep track of all the people in a short space. The characters are largely undeveloped as well.Franco and Ella are for the most part unsympathetically portrayed. This is not necessarily a fault in a novel, but Tuck's characterizations are largely undistinguished. The reader sees a great deal of both these individuals without getting to understand them on other than a superficial level.Portions of the book are written in an elegant style, perhaps appropriate to life in mid-Nineteenth Century Paris and to Franco's aspirations, There are some exquisite, tiny details in the story such as the fondness of Paraguayans for their cigars, descriptions of jewels, plants, parrots, and other animals. The stylization which may be meant ironically is mannered and works against the book and its story. Some of the battle scenes in the book are well done as well, but the book does not move. On the whole, the book becomes better as it moves along, but it never recovers or gets much beyond tedium.At a certain point in a person's reading life, it is valuable to trust one's responses and not persist in continuing to read a book that one dislikes. I regret that I am too often unable to follow my own advice in this matter. Although I persevered to the end, I didn't much enjoy or learn from this book. I tend to agree more with my fellow Amazon reviewers here than, apparently, with the critics who found this book deserving of honor. I did not find reading this book a good use of time.Robin Friedman
I opened this book without having read a single review, armed solely with the knowledge that it had won the National Book Award. I wish I had been armed with a paper shredder. For such a rich and potentially captivating topic, Tuck did a horrendous job. The life of the beautiful Ella Lynch, mistress South America's most enigmatic and charismatic tyrant, should have provided us with cultural and personal insights beyond a standard history text book. For example, I would have liked to have finished this book with an understanding of how Francisco Solano Lopez managed to inspire 60% to 80% (depending on your source) of his country's inhabitants to die in a war which had absolutely no rationale. Instead, I got a good solid dose of the Latin Lover.Tuck did her research, but not to a greater degree than any high school student. At no point in the story did I gain an understanding of the causes of the war, or of the unique political and social position held by Paraguay in South America at that time. Not only did Tuck miss the broader context--the political rivalry between Argentina and Brazil, the constant power vacillations of post-independence South America, the struggle to establish national identities--she completely failed to establish the character of Paraguay and Paraguayans. This is as unforgivable in a historical novel as failing to develop the characters (a feat which Tuck also manages to accomplish!).Not only did Tuck do a slap dab job with South American history, her writing was consistently poor. Long botanical lists which had no relevance to the plot (what little there was), letters, diary entries, which were all meant to provide the reader with verisimilitude, merely slowed down the prose. Short,almost cartoonish, sexual encounters between undeveloped characters, one-paragraph vignettes, strange graphic violence, all gave a disjointed quality to the prose which made it tempting to skip paragraphs, if not whole pages.Last, but not least, the author clearly does not speak Spanish. This wouldn't have been a problem had she employed the services of a native speaker to check her error-ridden manuscript. (And where, pray tell, was her editor?)It was highly irritating to wade through grammar mistakes that a first-year Spanish student could have caught and corrected.All in all, a highly disappointing read.
What do You think about The News From Paraguay (2004)?
This National Book Award Winner is historical fiction that takes place mostly in Paraguay, in the 1860's. The story mainly follows Ella Lynch, the young, beautiful Irish woman who comes home with the president's son after his trip to Europe. It is difficult to say whether or not Ella and Franco actually love each other, but they do stay together, though never marry, throughout the fifteen years that Ella is in Paraguay. During those fifteen years Ella gives birth to seven children, five of which live to be teenagers. Franco's father dies, giving him the opportunity to take control of the country and embroil it in a seemingly senseless war against the surrounding countries. Franco becomes a dictator, forcing his people to give up everything for his pointless war, becoming more and more paranoid, arresting and killing people for no reason. Ella continues to support him, more because she doesn't know what else to do, than because she actually believes in the cause. She considers leaving many times, but always stays, until the war has destroyed the entire country, killing almost all the men, including Franco himself.I really enjoyed reading this book, although it wasn't necessarily due to the story. The book is written in a very interesting way - we are given brief glimpses of parts of the characters' lives, usually in short sections that are only a handful of paragraphs or less. This makes the story feel like it is moving very quickly. Tuck does not just focus on Ella and Franco, either, but gives us pictures of many of the other characters, major and minor, and leaves it up to the reader to make a whole story out of it. Her choices of what to show about each character are very deliberate - some of the characterizations seem rather shallow at first, but get deeper as we get more glimpses of them. This is one of those books that is more interesting to read for the way it is written, rather than for the story itself.About the story - it is about real events, Ella and Franco did exist, as did many of the other characters in the book. I always find it fascinating to learn about history in this way, and also to learn about what came from history and what came from the mind of the author. In this case, events of the war are not particularly well documented, and many of the minor events were never documented. But the book is obviously well researched, and I think that Tuck does an excellent job of describing Paraguay during the 19th century. In the Author's Note she quotes a friend who says, "Nouns always trump adjectives, and in the phrase 'historical fiction' it is important to remember which of the two words is which."
—Jessica
I attempted then abandoned this book. As always, you very intelligently explained the problems with the book. I was too lazy to even write my limited thoughts - it sucked.
—Michelle
If I could rate this 3.5, I would. I had a hard time connecting with Lily Tuck's writing style--which is stunning throughout, but hit me like pelted stones somehow. One feels a bit flinchy reading this; characters are not developed on the page so much as they are "stamped." And yet, as I got to the end, I found that I cared deeply for what happened to them (tragedy, of course). I even flipped back and began immediately re-reading earlier parts. Perhaps having had no previous knowledge of the war in Paraguay in the 1850s, I was at a disadvantage as far as being immediately drawn in to the novel's story line and context. (Note: the character I came to care most about was a gray mare named Mathilde.)
—Sonya
