The Bullet Swallower
Ratings23
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings23
Average rating3.8
A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He’s good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he’s also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.
In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio’s timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors’ crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.
A family saga that’s epic in scope and magical in its blood, and based loosely on the author’s own great-grandfather, The Bullet Swallower tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting and stunning prose that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.
Reviews with the most likes.
I found this title on a "Best of 2024 (so far) list. I liked the description of a "magical realism western." It takes a while for the fantastical element to fully emerge and I did find the start of the book to be overly violent and pointless. Yet, as the story progessed, the mysterious element blossomed and the pathway to the redemption story emerged. And it's a good one which I found to be worth the wait. The writing was rich, yet not flowery and I appreciated the pace of the tale. I am glad I took this particular journey.
what a RIDE. equal parts dark, gruesome, thoughtful, and beautiful. absolutely loved this.
This marks a strange book for me as I felt the character work was a bit lacking. As a dual-protagonist story, around 80% of the book is spent on one who interacts will a small changing cast, while 20% is spent on the other who has a small fixed cast. My main problem with the character is that outside of the two point of view characters and two side characters, there's not much fleshing out of anyone.
However, despite this I still really enjoyed reading it. The plot is an extremely simple revenge story with some magical realism sprinkled through it. The magical realism is mostly just there to provide a way to neatly deliver the over-arching theme of sins of the ancestor.
The part where this really shined for me was in the writing itself, painting extremely vivid images of scenes with more often than not very little going on. For this to be strong enough to outweigh the weak-to-middling characterisation is unusual for me.
The mythic nature of this story brought me back to my Latin American literature university classes in the best possible way. It is simultaneously rooted in hard realities and mythic celestial decisions. It was a long hard road to get to a place of growth and love, but it made the ending so amazing. I don't read much lit fic, but this one caught my eye and I am so glad I read it!
