Feast of the Innocents
Doctor Justo Pastor Proceso López should be a happy man. He has a beautiful wife, two daughters, a thriving gynecological practice and adoring patients. But his life is troubled. His wife and daughters despise him, and his community doesn’t understand him. Unable to recognize his despair and isolation, López becomes obsessed with exposing the myth of national hero Simon Bolivar for what it is: a lie covering up massacres, betrayals and sex scandals. To put an end to the myth, López devises an elaborate stunt, involving a carnival float for the day of The Black and White Carnival, which celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The day is marked by pranks and disguises where anything can happen without seemingly any retribution. However, in interviewing locals about Bolivar, Lopez discovers that in 1960s Pasto, Colombia, the myth of Bolivar holds a tight grip on the identity of the city and stirs up the wrath of people, who may turn his prank into a matter of life and death.
This is a modern-day tragedy of a man who nobody cares about. Doctor López is both a fool and an everyday man looking for compassion, understanding, and some semblance of love. The writing is sharp and mesmerizing but disturbing at the same time. The portrayals of the characters are unflinching and terse, starting from Doctor López, to his cruel wife, to the poet charged with following him, to his holier-than-thou neighbor, right down to his youngest daughter, a sociopath in the making. All the characters, however, are fleshed out with their own stories of needs and illusions.
Hard-hitting in its telling of the story of Doctor Justo Pastor Proceso López, this novel left me wanting to shake off the sense of loss, betrayal, and hopelessness.
