Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Daniel Kahn – from Charco Press

Divided into three sections, this concerns the Argentinian dictatorship of 1976, but more specifically, how it affected one family.

The first part, Mercedes, tells of the adolescence of 12 year old Mirta López in 1941 and her repeated attempts to rid herself of ‘wicked thoughts’ as her parish priest tells her in the confessional. Mirta’s sexual awakening is due to ‘the Videlas’ eldest son’, who passes each Saturday on the same route, and who will grow up to be the brutal dictator Jorge Rafaél Videla.

The second part, ‘Airport,’ concerns a botched attempt by Marxist guerrillas to assassinate Videla nearly 40 years later, just as his plane takes off.

I found the third and last part, ‘Plaza Mayor’, disappointing. It details a card game between an elderly Mirta, suffering from mild dementia in a rest home, and her grandson. Its intention is to put what has gone before into persepctive; just where does the truth lie from what we have been told. Though I think the answer is that the truth lies somewhere in between the official record and the memory of those close to what happened, like Mirta. Kohan’s point is about the uncertainty of history.
I think also the last chapter is marred by a card game that the international audience, without some external effort, will largely not understand, despite Kohan’s appendix on its detail.

Let that not spoil the book overall though, which is beautifully written, and undertstandably morally challenging.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5