The Long Night of White Chickens

The Long Night of White Chickens is a rich stew of interwoven memories and perceptions. It works from both the inside out and the outside in to create its characters, and at the same time paints an unforgettable picture of Guatemala. All this, plus a sort of mystery plot!

I've worked in Guatemala as a human rights observer as well as with many Guatemalan asylum seekers in the United States. This book, in evoking what Guatemala is like, with its beauty and cruelty and silence, is the best I've encountered. Sometimes a fictional narrative can explain the truth of a situation better than any recitation of historical facts. This is one of those rare books. While you could obviously read Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemala Nunca Mas Report (REHMI, which got the Archbishop killed in 1998), the Historical Clarification Commission Report, or Fear as a Way of Life by Linda Green, Goldman's book probably explains best the complexity of Guatemala. I don't want to diminish the great literary quality of the book, but what impacted me the most was how Goldman had put into words my most complex feelings about my time in Guatemala, the amazing draw and beauty, and this sense of silent horror penetrating the entire place.

This was one of the books I assigned as "summer reading" to myself, a year ago. I am so glad I did it. Francisco Goldman juxtaposes magical realism, humor, human tragedy and sexuality into one amazing epic of a novel. I was first introduced to him when I read "Half and Half," a book filled with accounts of bicultural and biracial writers, recalling their experiences growing up in two factioned worlds in society. For Goldman, it was the Jewish world of his father, and the Guatemalan world of his mother. He transposes his experiences loosely, in the perspective of Rogerio, the main character and (sometimes) narrator of "The Long Night of White Chickens." Rogerio is biracial/bicultural young man, plagued by illness, as a young boy, and living between the middle class world of his Jewish father, and the village life of his Guatemalan mother. It is through a remarkable twist of fate that he comes to know Flor, the beautiful heroine of the book, who is his nanny/companion, throughout his childhood and into adulthood. Flor haunts many people with her memory, after a horrendous tragedy that leaves all she touched stricken by sadness. This book is really hard to describe, but hopefully my little review encourages you to check it out!!!!

Goldman tells his story in non-linear and chaotic time in order to convey how chaotic and frightening life in Guatemala was during the brutal military regimes of the early 1980s. I found myself having trouble keeping track (is this the present or a flashback?), but it didn't matter. His writing is witty and poetic, his characters are unique. His observations of class, culture, North American paternalism and murderous politcal oppression in Central America are tough and accurate.

A lot of people have criticized this book for being too long-winded and off topic, but I disagree. Long Night of White Chickens tells the story as you would get to know someone so that by the end of the book you feel you really know Flor de Mayo. In real life, when you meet someone you don't learn everything about the person write away; it can take years for a strong relationship to develop. Throughout the book, Goldman introduces tantalizing tidbits about Flor's life and you slowly begin to understand who she is while at the same time realizing how complicated a character she actually is and that you could never know everything about her- just like a real person. At the same time, the book has an exciting plot and a thought-provoking ending.