Louis de Bernières' debut novel, which is also the first part of a trilogy, serves as a rough blueprint of what he would achieve in his future works.

The story, titled "The War...", commences in a Latin American country. Here, a wealthy lady named Dona Costanza desires to drain a river to create a swimming pool for herself. This act enrages the local population, leading them to revolt. In response, the government dispatches an army to quell the unrest. There are numerous side plots, but the one involving Dona Costanza and the villagers' revolt is the more prominent storyline.

Eventually, Dona Constanza is kidnapped and joins a guerrilla group, finding empowerment in the process. Meanwhile, the army becomes increasingly corrupt. At the same time, the villagers embark on a pilgrimage to a better land that is said to contain giant cats.

As a satire, the novel has its merits. De Bernières effectively portrays the corrupt undertakings of the Latin American government, ranging from bribes to tortures. Having read novels about The Dominican Republic and Cuba, I can attest that the events in this book, although seemingly cartoonish at times, are infused with dark humor.

However, my main issue with the novel is its messiness. With a large cast of characters and numerous storylines, the book often feels bogged down. There is an overabundance of exposition, and some of the characters seem unnecessary. The book truly comes into its own only midway through. I would argue that some parts are overly written. Nevertheless, considering that this is a first novel, it is understandable that it is not perfect. De Bernières managed to control the messiness of this debut with his subsequent works, such as "Captain Corelli’s Mandolin" and "Birds without Wings". Since I have acquired the next two volumes of the trilogy, I am eager to see how his writing style will evolve.

I've read it three times - that should tell you something!

It's truly an amazing piece of work. I firmly believe that it outshines Corelli's Mandolin.

Now, I'm referring specifically to the book here as I never got the chance to see the movie adaptation.

Each time I pick up this particular book, I discover new layers and details that I missed before.

The story is so engaging and well-written that it keeps pulling me back in.

It has a certain charm and depth that Corelli's Mandolin just doesn't seem to have.

Maybe it's the unique characters, the vivid descriptions, or the captivating plot.

Whatever it is, it makes this book a must-read for anyone who loves a good story.

I highly recommend it to all book enthusiasts out there.

You won't be disappointed!

I'm not really a big fan of reading novels. Instead, I have a tendency to prefer non-fiction works. However, I did go through a period where I quite enjoyed magical realist novels by a particular author and Garcia-Marquez. I believe I read around four of them before eventually reminding myself that it's all just a collection of things that some writer fabricated. While reading these novels is a pleasant way to kill time, they don't significantly enhance my understanding of the world surrounding me, although they do contribute to a certain extent.

I'm aware that I might face criticism for saying this, but that's just the way it is.

De Bernieres' debut novel commences when Dona Constanza makes the decision to divert the river in order to fill her swimming pool. By doing so, she sets in motion a sequence of events that ultimately leads to chaos in the villages of this unnamed South American country. The novel features a vast and diverse cast of characters, encompassing military personnel, politicians, industrialists, peasants, Indians, guerrillas, spirits, and animals. De Bernieres further enriches the narrative by sprinkling in words or phrases from Spanish, Portuguese, and Indian dialects, and even creating a few entirely of his own. Additionally, the author includes a significant amount of magical realism, which may not be to everyone's taste. However, I have a deep appreciation for his writing style. His use of language and the vividness with which he描绘s the characters and events make the novel a truly engaging and captivating read.

I had thoroughly enjoyed "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", so I decided to pick up the box set of 3 of de'Berniere's earlier novels, among which was this one - his very first. To be quite honest, I must admit that I found it a bit on the boring side. It took me a good half of the book to truly understand precisely what was transpiring and who was on which side of the fight. This might have been partly attributed to the constant jumping around that occurs (similar to what happens in "Corelli's"), but it certainly wasn't aided by the fact that the story simply failed to engage me. By the time I reached the end, I really didn't much care what had happened, and halfway through, I even contemplated giving up. However, it did have its plus sides. There were some moments that were hilariously sarcastic, and a handful of the characters were actually quite likeable. I will give the other two books in the set a chance, but I'm not going to rush to read them just yet.

One sentence summary: A fight in Spain offers an insight into the corruption of the army and government.

Louis de Bernières requires a vast canvas, for a small space simply won't do for him. Thus, he fabricates a country, an imagined nation in Latin America.

A new country would sense solitude. So, he fills it with magnificent forests bustling with wild animals. There are jaguars, the darlings of the Incas, hummingbirds in every hue, and rivers abundant with fishes of every kind.

Now, this beautiful country still feels lonely and deprived, and it yearns for someone to appreciate its wonderful beauty. So, he populates it with people.

The country now has all kinds of people: kind, corrupt, sly, poor, rich, and violent, along with all those countless races and types, such as campesinos, native Indians, colonial landowners, left-wing revolutionaries, and patriotic army careerists.

Of course, all these types and races have their own tales to tell, which is what human life is all about, throughout the world.

So, from among all these hundreds of people swarming this wonderful land, someone like Dona Constanza, who is rich and bored, discovers that her swimming pool needs more water. Petulantly, she orders that a local river be diverted to fill her pool.

The campesinos resist and ask another landowner, Don Emmanuel, for help. Don Emmanuel's argument is that if the river is diverted, he won't be able to wash the 'dingleberries' out of his nether regions.

As anticipated, when there are so many different types of people, one thing leads to another, and the army is called in.

As expected, the peasants get involved with the local guerrillas.

Events can always escalate to a point of no return.

Then, the peasants and the guerrillas decide to flee from the violence and certain death.

And there is an Exodus.

And then there are those people who remain in your mind forever, like General Fuerte.

Strangely, in that mire of corruption, General Fuerte is one of the few who has not succumbed to it. He believes in the army and endeavors to ensure that his branch of the army acts honorably.

In the midst of his arduous tasks, he has a passion; his true passion is the taxonomy of animals.

When ultimately everything becomes too much for him, he deserts to pursue his dream of recording the different species of hummingbirds found in the jungle.

Captured by the guerrillas, whose leader is a woman of great strength and who has her own stories to tell.

The guerrillas want to kill him for being in the army, but later realize how naïve he is and instead keep him as a prisoner for a very long time.

But it is Aurelio who breaks your heart. He is a Mountain Indian who makes his way into the tribes in the jungle.

He and his wife cannot have children, so they raise dogs. One day, when out in the jungle with their dogs, they stumble upon a toddler, a feral girl.

They adopt her; she is their daughter, and she is so beautiful. But beautiful girls most often have sad endings, and tragedy befalls Parlanchina.

But life is never entirely sad; there is also a great deal of fun.

The country has a president married to a former stripper.

Prostitutes who take revenge on corrupt and violent army officers by infecting them with all manner of venereal diseases.

This is not a mythical country in Latin America; this is the world we live in.

Only Louis de Bernières has assembled it for us!

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1994) was my first foray into the world of Louis De Bernierès' writing. His work immediately reminded me of Giovanni Guareschi's tragicomedies, such as the Don Camillo tales from the 1950s. This similarity led me to place De Bernières on my wall of exceptional writers without hesitation. Combining dark, sardonic humor with brutality and elements of surrealism or magic realism demands a sharp mind and a keen sense of parody. This is precisely what made Gabriel García Márquez an international bestseller, and his popularity endures to this day.

Louis De Bernières penned a South American trilogy, which consists of:

1. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts


2. Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord


3. The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman

His novels are populated with a diverse cast of characters. Here are a few:

Hectoro was an intelligent yet intolerant man with a simplistic view of life. He had three women, three shelters, and was the foreman on the gringo's hacienda. He owned his own mule, a revolver in a holster, leather bombachos, and could rope a steer with unerring precision. He could also hold his alcohol better than anyone else. However, the doctor had informed him that he would die of liver failure due to his drinking, and indeed, his skin had turned yellow. But Hectoro was proud and quick-tempered, and he threatened to shoot the doctor, who then changed his diagnosis to something more palatable.

Don Emmanuel had become a local legend due to his penchant for healthy dissolution, his choice of peasants as his natural friends, and his remarkable social concern. He built the village school and hired Profesor Luis to teach not only knowledge but also wisdom to the ragged children. He paid a quarter more than any other employer in the entire department and devised a method of making breezeblocks in a wooden lattice to build a small house for each of his employees. He drove the whores to their check-ups every Thursday in his Land-Rover, arbitrated in domestic disputes, and never failed to work alongside his men. Many local women could attest that even the purest-bred Negros were not more lusty or satisfying than he was. The only thing they found unacceptable about him was his refusal to smoke, a quirk considered anti-social in a land where everyone of peasant stock, regardless of age or gender, always had a large cigar in their mouth. Only effeminate oligarchs smoked cigarettes, and pipes were smoked only by French engineers and English alpinists. These cigars, like their coffee, are among the most sublime in the world, but they keep the best for themselves, exporting only the dregs for the world's connoisseurs to praise. Smoking one of those cigars outdoors in the evening while drinking half a liter of thick black coffee is to unknowingly condemn oneself to a lifetime of nostalgia.

And it was the mountains that General Fuerte loved the most. As one ascends through the altitudes, the climate and life change through three distinct stages. For the first seven thousand feet, it is the Garden of Eden, a lush paradise of orchids, hummingbirds, and tiny streams of delicious water that miraculously run alongside every path. Above this height, for three or four thousand feet, is a world of rock and water draped with alien, lunar plants in shades of brown, red, and yellow, with a curious and enchanting habit that can only be found in books of legend and romance. Above this is the Venusian world of ice, with sudden, reckless mists of palpable water, lichen, trickling springs, fragmenting shale, and glistening white peaks. Here, human realities become remote and ridiculous, the sky is both below and inside you, breathing is an accomplishment in itself, and condors, inconceivably ponderous and gigantic, wheel on the upcurrents like lords of a different and fantastic universe.

The novel delves into the characters and stories of an imaginary town in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Margarita region of South America. There is a distinct class difference, but when trouble strikes and their destiny becomes uncertain, all prejudice vanishes into thin air.

Don Emmanuel had some difficulty fitting in linguistically. He was regarded as an outstanding boor because he refused to alter or modify his peasant accent. His Spanish left a trail of tears, laughter, and misunderstandings wherever he went. Whatever he tried to communicate was always perceived as sarcastic. Careta, his bay horse, had a sense of humor but was also a pasero, a horse trained not to trot but to move at a steady, undulating lope. This was the one pace at which Don Emmanuel never rode it, so it had not only a sagging back but also the depressed, irritated, and frustrated air of a natural artist whom financial straits have reduced to taking a job as a bank clerk.

Dona Constanze wanted to divert the Mula river to fill her swimming pool, which would seriously affect some of the inhabitants, leaving them without water in their homes and on their lands. Don Emmanuel's irrigation scheme would also be affected. He was tasked with negotiating with her in his unique brand of Spanish.

'It has come to my ears, dear lady, that you intend to divert with a canal the very river which waters my land and that of the campesinos in order to replenish your piscina. I must say, as I know you appreciate frankness, that I and the local people will be fucked, buggered, and immersed in guano of the finest Ecuadorean provenance before we permit such a thing to occur.’

'The permission,' she retorted, her temper rising almost immediately beyond control, 'is not yours or theirs to grant. I will do as I wish with the water on my land.'

'I appeal,' said Don Emmanuel, 'to your highly-developed social conscience and to your concern for my nether parts.'

Don Emmanuel had a valid point about his dingleberries, and only water could solve his problem. However, Dona Constanze was having none of it.... And so the story continues...

After the canal digging was skillfully sabotaged by the diggers, Dona Constanze had a brilliant idea. She rented a bulldozer.

The bulldozer took one month to arrive from Asuncion, two hundred kilometers away. It was not just that the machine was slow, which it was, nor that the roads were appalling, which they were; it was simply that the driver was easily bribed into doing all sorts of lucrative little odd jobs along the way, especially as he reveled in the people's admiration for the awesomeness of the feats that his beloved machine could perform with magical ease. He gave free demonstrations to interested groups of people who never tired of seeing trees pulled over for no reason and huge, fearsome bulls dragged along by a rope around their horns, despite their hooves being firmly planted in the soil and all their muscles straining. Halfway to the pueblo, he had to turn back to Asuncion to fetch more diesel.

This is a tale of absurdity and make-believe (yet sadly a portrayal of true events), equivalent to Cormack McCarthy's savage cruelty. It is the male counterpart of Isabel Allende's South American novels. You need a strong stomach to endure it. However, the endearing, lovable characters and the atmospheric descriptions of a magnificent world kept me engaged and eager to continue reading. I had to read it in several sittings, though, as the cruelty and barbarity sometimes became overwhelming. It's not that it's the first time I've encountered such things; they are part of our human story throughout history and are all too familiar in other parts of the world as well.

Somewhere within these pages, you will find the South American version of Tevye (or Tevye the Dairyman) from Fiddler On The Roof, or Zorba, the Greek. The villagers had their own G.I. Jane, with the attitude of Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in the 1983 film Sudden Impact. Remedio was... tough... honorable... heroic... and beautiful. A Go ahead, make my day kind of young woman. All over the mountains, among the animals and the people, concupiscence propelled the story up and down the formidable slopes.

Wikipedia: Set in an imagined Latin American country, the novel's political themes parody the worst excesses of the Pinochet government of Chile, the collapse of democratic social order in Uruguay in the 1970s, the Colombian Armed Conflict between the military and communist guerrillas, and other dirty wars of the 1960s to 1980s in Southern and Central America. The main action of the story takes place in the small town of Chiriguaná, whose population is richly depicted in affectionate character portraits that form a large part of the novel. Other parts of the novel occur in the capital city of the fictional nation, in the clubs of the corrupt military commanders, and the palace of the distracted, amoral president.

Although the name of the country in the trilogy is never directly disclosed, several factors suggest that it most closely resembles Colombia. De Bernières' experiences from living in Colombia likely influenced its setting. Geographically, references are made to the country's equatorial climate, its northern coastline on the Caribbean, western coastline on the Pacific Ocean, and the mountain range of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Margarita, which is similar to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The Colombian towns of Valledupar, in the Cesar Department, and Medellín are commonly mentioned, and the fictional town of Chiriguaná has the same name as the Colombian town Chiriguaná. In the sequel to the novel, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (thinly disguised under a pseudonym) is a central character. The book sarcastically describes the 'democratic' politics of the country as the result of 'La Violencia', whereby two political parties jointly ruled in alternating administrations. There is a clear parallel between this and the National Front regime of Colombia, which followed La Violencia and lasted from 1958 to 1974, in which the Liberal and Conservative parties governed jointly.

Often hilariously funny - I found myself barking with indecent laughter at times - and at other times breathtakingly sad, this remains a tale that must be read and, above all, experienced. De Bernières is a master storyteller.

RECOMMENDED, I would say.

De Bernieres masterfully seizes the essence of the pathos and insanity that prevailed during the years of "the disappeared" in Argentina and Chile. In this remarkable work of magic realism, he presents a vivid portrait of an unnamed South American country深陷于20世纪中叶的军事/政治动荡之中。

The characters he portrays are ordinary individuals. Mostly peasants hailing from the countryside, they also include the middle class, the military and police, and the spiritually-connected natives. All of them are striving to survive in this extraordinary and chaotic era.

The writing is exquisitely beautiful and completely captivating. It draws the reader in and makes them experience the emotions and struggles of the characters as if they were there themselves. De Bernieres' ability to bring this story to life is truly remarkable and makes this a must-read for anyone interested in history, politics, or simply a good story.

What can I say?

This book is truly remarkable. Louis de Bernieres has an in-depth understanding of Latin America.

Any author can describe the tragic aspects of living in a contemporary Latin American country, such as the crushing poverty, constant unrest, and military rule.

However, what de Bernieres realizes is that everyday life in Latin America also has its hilarious moments.

This book shows empathy for people in tragic situations by laughing at them, but also by laughing with them and making them laugh at the reader.

No one is immune to the ridicule in this book, which is a good thing.

Just like in the real third world, humor might be the only way to stay afloat in the book's rising tide of violence, sadness, and despair.

Crap. That doesn't make it sound funny at all. But trust me: it is.

It's a unique and engaging read that combines tragedy and comedy in a way that few books can.

De Bernieres' writing style is both vivid and accessible, making it easy for readers to immerse themselves in the story.

Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Latin America or just looking for a good laugh.

This book, together with the other two in the series, namely "Senor Vivo and the Coca Lords" and "The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman", are what I affectionately refer to as my'sick books'.

Whenever I'm home sick from work, these are the books I always reach for. They are constantly entertaining, and since I've read them numerous times, I don't have to tax my unwell brain by trying to keep up with the plot.

Probably, I've read these three books more than any others precisely for this reason.

Specifically, this one isn't actually the first one I read - a big blunder! It's advisable to read them in order. Some of the elements established in this book don't really get developed further in the other two.

For instance, the romance between Remedios and the Conde Pompeyo Xavier Extremador, which is crammed into one chapter in the 3rd book.

And I can definitely understand how some people might have objections to his portrayal of women. After all, there are a significant number of prostitutes in these stories.

Nevertheless, I adore them and would recommend them to anyone.

I absolutely adored this book. It is truly one of the rare gems among the books that I have had the pleasure of reading and re-reading multiple times. The title might give the impression that I read it in Spanish, but that is not the case. The English translation that I delved into was "Don Emmanuel's Netherparts". It very much belongs to the genre of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There are a plethora of amazing events unfolding in South America within the pages of this book. It encompasses an abundance of fresh and innovative ideas. It has the power to break your heart and yet, at the same time, empower you. The vivid imagery is simply breathtaking. There are some images that you would cherish and want to live with forever, while others you would rather forget. All in all, it is a truly great novel that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

It is a must-read for anyone who appreciates literature that transports you to another world and makes you feel a whole range of emotions.

I truly enjoyed reading this particular work.

However, when compared to "The Dust that Falls from Dreams" or "Birds Without Wings", I didn't have the same level of deep affection for it.

At the beginning, I found it rather heavy to engage with, and this initial impression seemed to set the tone for the remainder of the novel as far as I was concerned.

I might consider revisiting this book in the future because I don't think I was in the right frame of mind or mood to fully appreciate it at the time.

As is always the case with his writing, it is beautifully crafted.

Nevertheless, I think I have a greater preference for his historical fiction rather than this style of mystical realism.

I look forward to seeing what other works he has in store for us, perhaps something that will capture my heart even more fully.

Overall, while this wasn't my absolute favorite, it still had its merits and I'm glad I gave it a chance.