Costa Rica: A Traveler's Literary Companion

Not that I would know, because I am not Costa Rican, but this book did give me a glimpse into a lot more than what I was likely to hear from tour guides while I was visiting in the country. Beautiful, magical, and often very sad tales, with an emphasis on the human dimension of Costa Rican experience as well as the natural.

This book came out in 1993 and was one of the first publications in this traveler's literary companion series, a beautiful attempt to introduce a wide range of foreign writers to English-language readers. It contained 26 works by 20 writers. There were 23 short stories and 3 excerpts from novels. The oldest writers in the collection were Carmen Lyra (1888-1949), Mario González Feo (1897-1969) and Max Jiménez (1900-47). The most recent were Alfonso Chase (1945-), Alfredo Aguilar (1959-) and Uriel Quesada (1962-). Others included Carlos Luis Fallas (1909-65), a writer of the working class and social protest who's been called one of the nation's most widely read authors; Yolanda Oreamuno (1916-56); Joaquín Gutiérrez (1918-2000); Fabián Dobles (1918-97) and Julieta Pinto (1922-), who were called major voices; Carmen Naranjo (1928-), who appears to be among the writers most frequently translated into English; Abel Pacheco (1933-), recently the nation's president; and Quince Duncan (1940-), who was described as a chronicler of Costa Rica's blacks. Of all the authors, five were women. As far as could be determined, the pieces ranged from the 1930s (Lyra, Jiménez, Oreamuno) to the 1990s (Naranjo, Chase). Three-fourths of the works came from the 1960s to 90s, the rest from the 1930s and 40s. The works covered the north and south, the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, the capital/the central valley, and a mountainous area in the north. A final section contained stories on the nation as a whole and was one of the strongest sections. In general, the longer pieces were most enjoyed. The introduction provided little background on the nation's literary development. Judging from info on the Internet, the modern literature dates to the late 1800s. Trends over the following decades have included influence from European literary traditions; an opposing preference for local themes; nationalism and social protest; modernism (with less impact than elsewhere in Latin America); realism; and occasionally magical realism. A number of the stories in the collection showed a great sensitivity to nature, focusing on the harvesting of fan palms, the screeching of cicadas, tropical rain, steam rising from the earth, the sound, smell and taste of the sea, as well as descriptions of trees, flowers, frogs, birds and lizards (Jiménez, Oreamuno, Quesada, Dobles, Rima de Vallbona, Aguilar, Naranjo, Fallas). A few employed magical realism -- applying to reality some exaggeration and absurdity, or blending hallucination and reality (Jiménez, Oreamuno, Naranjo, Aguilar). Others drew attention directly or in passing to social inequity or untoward foreign influence (Lyra, Dobles, Vallbona, José León Sánchez, Pacheco). One of these, by Sánchez, was written from the point of view of a young girl trying to escape poverty and showed well the many obstacles: lack of health, sanitation, nutrition, money, learning, sexual education, role models, and protection from those who meant harm. Another piece (Ducoudray) managed to combine protest with magical realism, in the form of mysterious pairs of wings brought by an unnamed company from overseas 90 years before, which claimed occasional victims and spread contagious diseases. Other stories were concerned more with urban alienation and sexual frustration (Samuel Rovinski) or the inability to fathom another person's motivations (Chase). Stylistically, among the more interesting pieces for this reader were one by Dobles, in the form of a diary kept by two Americans competing against an unnamed fruit conglomerate in the early 1900s. One by Pacheco, in the form of voices telling their stories in a manner akin to Spoon River Anthology. And a monologue by Gutiérrez, in which a man at the end of his rope recounted his adventures and rued the passing of time. In one connection or another, a handful of the stories mentioned the unnamed conglomerate, which the introduction identified as the American-owned United Fruit Company. One of the largest employers in Central America before World War II, it appears also in the pages of authors like Asturias, Neruda and García Márquez. In the present collection, it was shown building railroads to the interior, setting up company towns, driving small competitors out of business, and buying on favorable terms from local banana farmers. An excerpt in the collection from a novel by Fallas--Mamita Yunai (1941)--showed the comradeship of the hard-working construction gangs it employed. Readers who enjoy all these things ought to enjoy this collection, it's fine as a travel guide, and it's a very useful introduction to the nation's writing over the 20th century, for which there appear to be no other widely available collections in English. There wasn't the social satire of writers like Brazil's Machado de Assis or Mexico's Juan José Arreola, the concern with humorous tales and social customs of Peru's Ricardo Palma and the Dominican Republic's Juan Bosch, or the concern with Indian subjects of a writer like Mexico's Rosario Castellanos. The tragic sense of life in some of the pieces wasn't conveyed quite as powerfully for this reader as in the best writing of Uruguay's Horacio Quiroga, Brazil's Graciliano Ramos or Mexico's Juan Rulfo. And other pieces weren't as dazzling as the best magical realism from writers of the 1960s boom like Fuentes and Cortázar, a precursor such as Borges and successors like Puig and Arenas, or experimental on the order of Lezama Lima, Cabrera Infante, or Sarduy. Still, there was much to enjoy. Other collections containing Costa Rican writers include When New Flowers Bloomed: Short Stories by Women Writers from Costa Rica and Panama (1991) and Contemporary Short Stories from Central America (1994).

Wonderful read. This book has so many varied stories from historical to present day. A fun read.

I used this book for reading during my recent trip to Costa Rica. i enjoyed the stories and they were light enough to keep me entertained, whether on the long flight from Boston or on the deck of my cabin in Tortuguero, Arenal, or Monteverde.

I read this in preparation for a visit. It feels very relevant and reads in some sense like fables. It has more serious stories than humorous ones, but it does create familiarity with locations and gives you a sense of the people and their struggles.

This book was in very good shape, you could not tell it was used. The book was very interesting and gave me a locals view of this beautiful country. Costa Rica has always prided itself for making education one of it's top priorities and this book shows the results. All the stories were well written, some had historical importance and all were very insightful. I would recommend this book to anyone, whether they are traveling to Costa Rica or not.

I read this book before traveling to Costa Rica. I think the book gives much insight into the social and economic realities of the country, which can be especially important for tourists. Definitely recommend reading this before traveling -

The seller did a great job of getting this book to me quickly, however the book was not what I was expecting... This book with few exceptions provided a rather dark view of Costa Rica with little to redeem tragedy and trauma described within the various stories.

Hey it way over my head . Couldn't get past first chapter , but kept For my Costa Rica collection . Some might enjoy for sure just Wasn't my cup of tea.

very prompt delivery very pleased with book

Not quite what I was expecting. But then you really have to first gone to Costa Rica to understand that, apart from being the most wonderful country in the world, with the most amazing wildlife, the place is mired in folklore and mythology, with witches, ghost monkeys and giant spiders galore. This book dwells in the folklore of the country, much of it based around the wildlife, and can be rather turgid reading. In terms of whetting my appetite for the country before I got there, it did little to inspire me; and reading it whilst out there was similarly hard work. It will undoubtedly serve well in getting me enthused when we inevitably head back out there,but as a Travellers Literary Companion, which it of course claims to be, it is disappointing.

Perfect.

Christmas gift for someone going on holiday to Costa Rica. Just what I expected.