Toscana, David. Tula Station. St. Martin’s Press, 2001.
Reason read: I needed a book by an author from Mexico for the Portland Public Library Reading Challenge. As for the Book Lust Reading Challenge, I have no idea why I picked it.
Tula Station opens with the tragic aftermath of a hurricane that took the lives of hundreds of people. Within the pages of Tula Station there are three narratives: First, Froylan Gomez’s biography for Juan Capistran, his alleged great-great-grandfather. Froylan is declared dead after the devastating hurricane, but his wife doesn’t believe it. After finding a journal, she thinks he has faked his demise to be with another woman. She wants Toscana to rewrite the journal, which tells of Foylan meeting Juan Capistran, as fiction to lure Froylan home. Second, a historical portrait of Tula and her station. Third, Froylan’s own obsession with the woman, Carmen, for whom Capistran supposedly gave up his life.
Toscana’s writing is sly. There are two Juans, two Carmens, two writers, and two disappearances. I found hints of impropriety riddled throughout Tula Station. An uncle glancing at his niece’s calf muscles, for example. Never enough to cause outright outrage. And speaking of outrage, reading this book was a lesson in patience. There were times when I wanted to create massive flowcharts to track everyone, but I refrained.
A quote to quote, “I am falling because I let you go” (p 250).
Author fact: Toscana, born in Monterey, Nuevo Leon in the north of Mexico, has been compared to Carlos Fuentes.
Book trivia: this book was extremely hard to get. No local library had it and an interlibrary loan would have taken months. Luckily, it was available through Internet Archive. This is the first book (and hopefully the last) that I read solely through IA.
Nancy said: Pearl was one hundred percent correct when she said Tula Station demands much of the reader.
Playlist: Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Mexican Fiction” (p 153).
~*LunaSea*~ 