Infinite country by Patricia Engel truly grabbed my attention as it was in the list of most anticipated book of this year. Despite the fact that I have not read writer previously written books. It lived up to my expectations, aside from a minor issue that I will explain later. The unforeseen delight however, was to learn about the gods and legends of the Muisca peoples of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Colombian Andes, sprinkled all through the contemporary story. As I get it, this is a sign of Patricia Engel’s writing. So I intend to search out her prior books in the expectation of reading more accessible Latino lore.
At 15 years old, US resident Talia has been raised in Colombia by her maternal grandma and with the irregular assistance of her dad, Mauro. She loves them both more than anything in her life, yet after her grandma died, she’s looking forward to joining her mom and siblings in the USA. However, her actions taken in anger have landed her in a far off girls’ reform school. In danger of failing to catch her plane ‘home’. While ingenious Talia advances back to Bogotá, we get familiar with the story of Mauro and Elena. We discover how this family came to be separated across continents.
These story strings alternate in a genuinely customary way for the first 2/3 of the Infinite country by Patricia Engel. At first, I thought Mauro and Elena would be mainly ‘backstory’, given to setting to Talia’s circumstance. However, for me, they were the meat in the sandwich to Talia’s bread. Growing up through the most awful of Colombia’s civil war and social turmoil, as teenagers they meet and fall in love.
Mauro has faced more terrible things than Elena. However, relatively shielded as she has been in Bogotá, regardless of the love they share for their country. It is Mauro whose want for a superior life drives them to leave with their first kid, Karina. In spite of the fact that they show up in the US by plane and with legitimate visas, their migration experience is certainly not a simple one. Attempting to put forth a valiant effort for their consistently growing family, they arrive at a point where a choice should be made. Choice about whether to get back to Colombia or to remain and fall under the radar with no documentation.
It is as the two strings meet where my problem emerged. There was a difference in context that I discovered very jarring. Up until that point Infinite country by Patricia Engel had been a smooth, third person view. However, out of nowhere we got first-person. The reason behind the change turned out to be clear towards the end. However, that did not make it any less awkward. As I said toward the beginning, it was only something minor and did not totally ruin the reading experience for me.
Despite the fact that I was not wowed by “Infinite Country” as numerous readers have been. I would recommend it as a decent read, if not a must-read.
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