OBOC - Bolivia

When searching for Bolivia I found the book "The fat man from La Paz" which was a collection of short stories on Amazon, so i decided to try that. As I already mentioned in my blog, I don't particularly favor short stories. They've always been a hit or miss for me. If the story fails to grab my attention in the first paragraph or two, then it is generally very hard for me to continue further. Also I've found many short stories to be obscure and maybe i am just obtuse, a bit hard to decipher. So with much apprehension I picked up this one.

I was so close to giving up until I read a review in a website where the very perceptive reader offered a valuable advice - start with the last 8 stories instead of the first ones! And boy did that make life so much easier for me!

I absolutely loved the last story called "The well" in which a Bolivian Major 's mission for his regiment is to dig a well for soldiers passing through the North. A completely futile effort in a totally parched land, with a group of soldiers who are desperate for water and a respite from the meaningless war. Eventually the empty well becomes the reason for a battle and finds its purpose when the bodies are piled up.

A couple of stories around the indigenous communities were extremely insightful and moving and makes you wonder how their situation has changed now with one of them at the helm of their country.

I was also very touched by the story "to die in oblivion" which is about the migrant, homeless workers who wander the streets of La Paz doing all kinds of odd jobs and saving money for their dream of one day returning to their native villages. When one of them is destined to die in oblivion the others decide to hold a wake for him in the street as all of them were homeless. The plight of migrant workers who constitute a significant portion of the working poor - working very hard at jobs that most of us don't want to do and trying to earn an honest living to feed many mouths - reminds me of the famous quote from Casablanca "the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world"

"Buttons" was another nice one where a lady recounts all the women in her life from her great grandmother to her aunts and her mom as she looks at their souvenir buttons. The title story is an interesting one told from the point of view of the rich in Bolivia. A rich man trying to find his kidnapped father deals with an unsympathetic police force and finds himself an outcast due to his wealth.

There was a lot of violence in the book and even in very tragic circumstances there was some room for humor and amazing insights in at least the stories that i liked. But overall a great collection with 20 stories representing a gamut of themes - religion, social, political, love, war, indigenous rights, working poor and even the rich. I am glad i didn't give up on this one!