Ms. Hen reviews The Implacable Order of Things

The Implacable Order of Things

Jose Luis Peixoto

Anchor Books

2000

Translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith, 2007

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she found it in a used bookstore, and she liked the title. She had been curious about the word implacable, and what it means. It means relentless, or unstoppable, but is usually used in a negative way.

This novel is about a village where strange things happen. A giant rapes a woman, and she becomes pregnant, has an abortion, and the entire town talks about how she was the one that had an abortion. A shepherd is mocked by the giant. The Devil works in a store, and is around the village, and performs the wedding ceremonies. A pair of conjoined twins at the pinky live there, and one of them gets married to the cook, and she makes them artistic meals, which they cannot afford.

This novel reminds Ms. Hen of a lot of other books she has read, especially Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has a subtle kind of magic realism, one that seems like it could be real. Ms. Hen couldn't help but be amazed by the ordinary way in which amazing events occurred in this novel.

Even though she likes this novel, she thinks it is very sad. The ending didn't make her cry, but if she was having a bad day, it would make her upset. It says in the book, "I think: perhaps suffering is tossed by handfuls over the multitudes, with most of it falling on some people and little or none on others." Ms. Hen thinks that this is a true statement. Some people get all the pain, while others don't seem to suffer at all.

A lot of chickens appear in this novel, which makes Ms. Hen happy. She has noticed that chickens are in a lot in novels about rural areas. Some were here, "It was Saturday, no one would dare say it, but the sun was gentle, the chickens walked more briskly in the street, the pigeons made wider circles in the sky." In this scene, everything was calm, but there is a premonition of the doom to come.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel. It is beautifully written, but she thinks it should not be read when one is very sad. It is also a pleasant book to read in the summer, since it is summer throughout the book, and the characters discuss how hot they are. It could be read sitting on a bench under a tree, next to a river with geese and swans and ducks in view.