Travel to South America

At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels Through Paraguay

Format: Paperback
Author: John Gimlette
ReleaseDate: 08 March, 2005
Publisher: Vintage
Rating:

Hate it or love it - I'm much more partial to the former


I'd been living in Argentina as an English teacher and spent some time in Asuncion and Encarnacion, a city in the south just across the river from Argentina. I was in Paraguay this past March. While Paraguay is indeed a landlocked, little-known country, contrary to popular belief it's quite easy to reach. I took an 18 hour overnight bus nonstop to Asuncion from Buenos Aires, but for the more time sensitive there are short direct flights between Asuncion and Buenos Aires, amongst many other South American cities. The fact of the matter is, in the 21st century it's just not difficult to reach this country, distant - geographically and spiritually - as you may believe it to be.

Now about the book. Try as I might, I couldn't get past page 68. I knew something was amiss when I'd constantly put off reading it as I would homework in high school - not exactly a desired trait of so-called "pleasure" reading. While I concede that my brief exposure to this book may seem to limit my qualifications in effectively critiquing it, that I agonized in equal measure through the beggining, middle, and end of the passage I read strongly leads me to believe the rest of the book is unlikely to be very different. That said, caveat emptor: I did indeed only make it through 68 pages. My mind just wouldn't permit me any further. Here are a few observations.

- Each anecdote need be superfluously hyperbolic; each snippet of dialoge the height of melodrama or (attempted) wit. Every event described in this novel, no matter how trivial (example: putting on a suit) just has to be more interesting in Paraguay than at home. What a coincidence that when the author gets all dressed up to meet some of the Paraguayan government elite his finery is all bunched up and requires a frantic smoothing; save for the nice woman at the dry cleaners, most at home would find this hardly an event worthy of detailed description, much less in an exotic, faraway place. I guess it'd just be too easy to pass up an opportunity to artificially foment high drama, and in that regard, Gimlette succeeds extraordinarily well.

I don't completely blame him though. Take a quick look at most travel writing these days, and it becomes readily apparent that gratuitous over-dramatization has become the de rigueur writing style of employment. Either that or the always hilarious "fish out of water" tale. (Let me tell you about that time I spent all my money hitchhiking 10 hours to a decrepit Indian village despite not speaking a word of the local language and knowing nothing of their local cannibalistic customs. . . ) Yes, Paraguay is quite an enigmatic place. But for all of the people who sit around pining for the days of the 1800's era President's mistress while feasting on tea and crumpets, most Paraguayans are out doing unromantic, normal things like marching off to work, talking on the phone, or even defecating. Of course, that's not very interesting - we in the civilized world hate it most to hear that all those people living outside of North America, Western Europe and Australia occasionally put down their spears to spend time with their family or catch an episode of the Simpsons like we do. Perhaps this insatiable demand for constant amusement is to blame for the hollow, over-sensationalized caricatures that many writers paint of the places they go.

- The thing is, Gimlette seems to be blissfully unaware of any of this (or maybe he simply doesn't care; after all this is his story). His tone is insufferably smug, chock full of attempts at esoteric allusions - many which reference his own underdeveloped declarations - as if he was talking to some like-minded friends, leaving the reader firmly out of the loop and scratching his head. Speaking of these "friends," oddly enough each one portrayed in the novel seems to have the same personality as the author. Not only content to be sarcastic, melodramatic and self-absorbed, every friend is required to end his exchange with the author with some half-baked one line revelation that attempts to be ironic or timelessly witty. Arnold Schwartzenegger these people are not, and this all grows old very quickly.

This book comes off much more as the author's vanity project than a portrait of an extraordinarily idosyncratic country. Yes, Paraguay is a very poor country with a tragic history of brutal governance. Ha, ha. Of course its history and current existence is ideal material for a book; like Uganda, Germany, or even Canada its story should undoubtedly be told. The thing is, Gimlette's approach is that of a self-satisfied outsider who knows it all and has oh-so-generously decided to indulge us all in what we really need to know about the place. Being that Paraguay is an untrammeled land that few visit, much less know anything about, the author's sense of authority/entitlement is made even greater. For the wide-eyed armchair traveller whose world exposure is limited to CNN or the BBC, this may not be a problem. But to anyone who's actually seen past the tired old cliches and prejudices firsthand (of any place, not just Paraguay), Gimlette's authority - much like the despots he chronicles with condescending amusement - serves only to benefit one person.


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A Very Good Book with a Very Bad Title


I had occasion to try it myself. Fascinated by Paraguay's uniqueness, Gimlette does an excellent job of conveying its geographic variety, its turbulent history, its bilingualism, and its fascinating mixture (and stubborn non-mixture) of races and cultures. My family lived in Paraguay for a year, in 1964-65, when my husband served as Community Development Advisor with the United Nations for a year. I worked on the third edition of "Land of Lace and Legend," a guidebook published by Las Amigas Norteamericanas del Paraguay to help newcomers adjust to the country. I was happy to find that Gimlette refers respectfully to a sixth edition.

His fascination with Paraguay is clear. His prose sparkles with humor and unexpected turns of phrase. The photographs, however, fail to convey much about present-day Paraguay. Las Amigas did a better job with illustrations.

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Death by language
As a geography major I was very interested to learn about Paraguay, because it is not well known to most Americans. I was required to read this book for a Latin American geography course. Gimlette spent enough time in the country to be well versed in just about evey aspect of it, but how he communicates it to the reader is simply terrible. He sacrifices directness and brevity to fill the pages with whimsical adjectives that don't need to be there. Can anyone tell me what a "cooing, dovish waltz" is exactly? Sometimes his narration style is so casual that I'm not sure if he's providing accurate information or simply rumor and folklore. I found this book rather unpleasant to read.

Related products:
click image or link for details on these South America travel books.

	Nelles Bolivia/Paraguay Travel Map (Nelles Maps)
	Paraguay Map (Travel Reference Map)