El Cartero de Neruda (Debolsillo #236)

I ordered this book for my son. We received the book very quickly and in good condition. He started reading it the day it came in.

Desde hace años sabía sobre la novela El Cartero de Neruda y de la película basada en ésta. Sin embargo, no fue hasta terminar de leer El Baile de la Victoria, la más reciente novela de Antonio Skármeta, que me interesé en leer otras obras del autor. Que la novela incluyera entre sus personajes a Pablo Neruda, el vate latinoamericano y del mundo, en una recreación poética ficcional, fue el poderoso gancho, para devorármela de una sentada.Mario Jiménez es un joven cartero en Isla Negra, Chile, que logra establecer una relación amistosa con el único de los habitantes del lugar que recibe correspondencia: el poeta Pablo Neruda. Paulatinamente, Mario logra que Neruda le enseñe algo de poesía y lenguaje. Después de conocer a Beatriz, una joven mesera, Mario le pide a Neruda que le enseñe a conquistarla, pues ha caído tan rendido a sus encantos que no le salen las palabras.Con el nombramiento de Neruda como embajador de Chile en Francia, Mario se convierte en su conexión con Isla Negra, su mar y su gente. Mientras tanto, la situación política de Chile se va deteriorando en escasez de alimentos, paros sindicales y violencia.Con la muerte del Presidente Salvador Allende, Neruda, quien durante la narrativa gana el Premio Nobel de Literatura, regresa enfermo a su Isla Negra. La muerte de Neruda, no pone fin a su relación con Mario, quien luego es detenido para ser interrogado por la nueva autoridad militar.Skármeta impregna la novela con chispazos líricos dignos del bardo chileno, y sumerge a Mario y a Beatriz en pasiones seductoras, que logran balancearse delicadamente con las convulsiones políticas por las que estaba pasando Chile.

I don't much like the poetry of Pablo Neruda. I loathe communists in general. And I think General Pinochet did the right thing when he overthrew Salvador Allende. But somehow, I love this story of a young postman on Isla Negra, Chile and the relationship that he develops with his sole customer, the great communist poet Neruda. Mario Jimenez has no desire to follow in the footsteps of his father and most of the other men of the island and become a fisherman. So he leaps at the chance to take over a postal route that requires only that he deliver the voluminous correspondence that comes for the island's most famous resident. Timidly at first and then more insistently, Mario calls upon Neruda to teach him about poetry and language. Then, after meeting a luminous young bar maid named Beatrice, he demands that Neruda help him to woo her. Eventually Mario wins her love, in large part through his own poetical devices, including an amusing string of metaphors. When Salvador Allende assumes the Chilean presidency, Neruda is sent to France as ambassador and Mario becomes sort of a surrogate set of eyes and ears for the poet, sending him observations and recordings of daily life. Initially, life is good in the new Chile, but things gradually deteriorate in an onslaught of shortages, work stoppages and violence. Neruda, who in the intervening years has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, returns home to the island to die and Mario is whisked away "for questioning." Despite the down beat ending, this short novel is filled with memorable, if overly idealized, characters, for whom the author clearly has great affection, and scenes of thrilling erotic passion and it is animated by a sense of the beauty of language and poetry. I recommend both the book and the Oscar winning movie adaptation of several years ago. GRADE: A

I really enjoyed this book! Filled with erotic passion and intrigue. It will transfix you till the last page is turned. Set in a coastal town in Chile, our heroine, Mario, is given a metamorphisis from a lowly son of a fisherman with no real goals in his life than to look at pretty girls; to a grown man that is faced with the responsibilities of an adult. Touching and heatwarming are I all I can say to describe this novel, filled metaphors and the language of love.

On one level The Postman is the comical story of how Mario the postman seduces Beatriz with the help of Pablo Neruda. But it is also about the role "letters" play in the political process, and more specifically their role during the period of Salvador Allende's rise to the presidency in Chile and his subsequent fall when his government was overthrown by a brutal CIA-sponsored coup. Throughout the novel Mario is a symbol of the rise of Allende's Popular Unity government, and the major events in the narrative are related to political events. For example, Mario first sees Beatriz the day that Neruda is asked to run for President of Chila. Neruda leaves the race when Allende decides to run again, and the day that Allende is elected Mario and Beatriz make love for the first time. Mario's poetic apprenticeship with Neruda is also part of the political transformations of the time. Mario eventually becomes a different type of "man of letters." Not only does he become a capable poet, but when Neruda is in France as Chile' Ambassador, Mario studies French. At the moment of the coup, Mario's role becomes more overtly political. He first courageously goes to the post office and retrieves Neruda's mail. He memorizes the mail and then sneaks into Neruda's house, which is surrounded by the military. Although Neruda wants Mario to recite poetry, Mario recites for Neruda offer of political asylum from countries all over the world. The night that Neruda dies in a Santiago hospital, Mario is taken away. He is never seen again. The narrative we are told is written because Beatriz wanted Mario's story told. In a play based on the novel, Beatriz, her mother and her baby march on the stage in silent protest as the play ends. In the recent film of the same name, Beatriz is nothing more than a voyeuristic delight, and the class boundaries between Mario and Neruda are carefully maintained. In the Spanish text of the novel, when Mario has finished reciting the mail to Neruda, Neruda asks to go to the window. As they move to the window, the narrator says, "they moved as though they were one man." This line is unfortunately not in the English translation. Skarmeta has told of accompanying the historical Neruda on political campaigns. On one occaision they visited an area poopulated by overworked and poverty-stricken workers who were familiar with the bulk of Neruda's poetry. More than anything this novel is about "letters" that can break barriers between workers and intellectuals and between culture and its historical and political exigencies.