Dogs occupy a prominent place in the new novel by the author born in Caracas in 1981, who now lives in Malaga. They wander around the Venezuelan capital because all the men and women who had the opportunity have left the country. Were they really all pet owners? It is a metaphor used by the man whose first novel, The night (Gallimard, 2016), attacked the Chávez regime. This time Nicolás Maduro is in power. The serious social, political and economic crisis that Venezuela is experiencing appears in some description, but it is only a backdrop.
Russian doll appearance
“I’m leaving the country, I can’t take it anymore”, Paulina wrote one day to her husband Ulises, without you, she clarifies. The latter’s first reaction is to find a dog. Doesn’t his father-in-law, Martín Ayala, a retired general with whom he has a good relationship, live with his three dogs in a large and beautiful villa in the shadow of Mount Ávila? When he died, Martín bequeathed to Ulises the apartment where he lived with Paulina, on the condition that he convert the villa into a dog boarding house. He has four months to complete.
In a bloodless country where raw materials are ordered from abroad, the task promises to be difficult. Added to this is the contestation of the will by Paul and Paulina, the general’s children, who have no longer spoken to their father since their mother’s death. What can we say about the return of a certain Nadine, Ulises’ former lover?
From the love of dogs looks like a Russian doll. Blanco Calderón presents a gallery of characters that emerge as the story progresses, allowing us to understand – as much as possible, and each one must no doubt have their own interpretation – the ins and outs of a family story with multiple ramifications. From the first pages we will also have understood that by making Ulises a facilitator of cinema workshops, the Venezuelan writer finds great joy in filling his story with cinematic references. Cheetah, The Godfather, The bicycle thief, to name only these films, serve to illustrate certain behaviors. What to say about All the dogs of my life by Elizabeth von Arnem, a book where Mrs. Altagracia, Martín’s wife, leaves traces?
How do you interpret dog murder? What consequences will they have? What does Nevado, Libertador Bolívar’s symbolic dog, do? When we kill these faithful companions whose love is unconditional, how can we still believe in man? A story that makes you think about people’s ability to still live in perfect harmony.
⇒ From the love of dogs | Novel | Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, translated from Spanish (Venezuela) by Robert Amutio | Gallimard, 265 pp. Price €23, digital €13
EXTRACT
“There were the Shining Path terrorists. There was a war. The Senderists and the military all committed atrocities. Each one more horrible than the last. Here, on the other hand, we sense a war, but we don’t see it. And that are the displaced themselves, the people themselves, abandoning their dogs. It is worse than hanging them on a post.
