Book Review

Alicia Gaspar De Alba : Desert Blood

Linda Hucheons in A Poetics of Postmodernism, describes the term metafiction as the”process of re-writing history through a work of fiction in a way that has not been previously recorded.” Alicia Gaspar De Alba uses the metafiction technique for many reasons which create a different effect than a simple and boring historic document. One way De Alba uses the metafiction technique is by using a third person limited omniscient narration, which gives the reader insight to some thoughts of the people in Desert Blood and completely raw scenes of murders, torment, torture and rape in the book, both (thoughts and scenes) are unique to the real-life murders in Ciudad Juarez. At the start of chapter forty, the reader gets exclusive insight to Irene’s thoughts,  “Irene could not remember how she’d gotten back to the red room. At some point, she must have fainted. She could still hear the howling and didn’t know if it was coyotes or the girl. Her stomach cramped, and she rolled sideways to vomit. There was already a pool of it on the floor, the smell and color of rust. She realized she was on top of the cot, not under it. She was naked.” The effects of this narration does to the reader are spectacular, it really is an art all in itself. First, you become attached to the characters by knowing their personality, their fears, their human flaws. Everything that occurs throughout the book is strategically put in place by De Alba. Writing this type of narration is probably the toughest. I’m glad a lot of students in the class appreciated it. The overwhelming affects of this narration however can sometimes be a bit too much for the reader because people don’t go around their daily lives knowing the thoughts of every single person they encounter. Desert Blood is considered to be written in limited omniscient narration because the reader does not know every character’s thoughts, but if De Alba limited us even more, perhaps it would be easier to swallow. Another reason why the book might have been overwhelming was because it was loaded with themes and controversial issues like: sexuality, adultery, racism, feminism, death, family etc. it is very similar to what Anzaldua does in Borderlands. It’s loaded which is good for some but too much for others. There are a few chapters in Desert Blood that could be cut off and be used on their own like chapter seventeen could be a really successful short story because of its depth, it covers a lot less themes… again, easier to swallow.