This was a really great book, and a great portrait of the upheaval in Colombia during La Violencia. The book follows the life of Manuel Antonio from the murder of his father in childhood through his adulthood. Manuel's dad is clearly killed by a man who lives as an assassin, and Manuel A's drive for revenge and justice drives him to follow the same life. A number of factors compile against him to make him take this route, despite his assertions that had he been allowed, he wouldn't have chosen that life. But when you read his rationalizations and excuses, they ring hollow. You see the injustice and how he can't quite get ahead, but he constantly self-sabotages.
It's almost a metaphor for Columbia's politicians during the same period. They seem to have every intention of making everything better and actually working for change, but then they choose not to. They would campaign to make the narcos less powerful and then cave to them and the payments and safety promised by being in their pockets. Choosing to stay on the right side wasn't just difficult, it was dangerous. Things are better now, largely because of people like the Cardinal described in El Sicario.
Bahamón Dussán's book is beautifully written and his prose is simple, elegant. I absolutely recommend this book. I read it in Spanish, but it is widely available in translation. I'm not sure how the translations are, but it'd be worth it, especially since this book is somewhat notable as it was the first novel dealing with the phenomenon of independent hit men in Latin America.
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