Families Are Complicated

Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' begins with, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Taking a leaf from that, and a huge kick out of it, 'Happy Families' by Carlos Fuentes (translated by Edith Grossman) has every potential to crash and burn, turning it into a piece of sappy shite. But it doesn't, lifted by the hilarity of the situation, and the antics and drama of the families portrayed. Well, the cover illustration is pretty cute. Plenty of skulls and skeletons. (Read reviews here, here and here.)

16 short stories. 16 families. Familiar stereotypes that don't just occur in Mexican families. It can be anywhere in the world, situations not unique to Mexico. But the setting and background of the stories also hint at a commentary about Mexican society and the danger of Mexico City. The first story in the book 'A Family Like No Other' introduces all the different roles of the humans who make up a family led by Pastor Pagan, but leading somewhat separate lives with their respective sets of worries. A chorus titled 'Chorus of the Street Gossips' accompanies this story, and here's a graphic, depressing extract of the reality of life versus the relative comfort and stability of the Pagans.

Exita gave birth in the street
Half the girls on the street are pregnant
They're between twelve and fifteen years old
Their babies are newborns up to six years old
A lot of them are lucky and miscarry because they're given a beating
And the fetus comes out screeching with fear
Is it better to be inside or outside?
I don't want to be here mamacita
Toss me in the garbage instead mother
I don't want to be born and grow dumber each day
With no bath mamacita with no food mother
With no nourishment except alcohol mother marijuana mother
Paint thinner mother glue mother cement mother cocaine mother
Gasoline mother
Your tits overflowing with gasoline mother
I spit flames from the mouth I nursed with mother
A few cents mother
On the crossroads mother
My mouth full of the gasoline I nursed mother
My mouth burning burned
My lips turned to ash at the age of ten
How do you want me to love me mother?
I don't hate you
I hate me

Stories that I'm not interested in, like 'Sweethearts' about young love, social strata and parental wishes, I flipped through in seconds. Those like 'The Armed Family', about a military family that sees one son as the future successor to the General, and the other son, an embarrassing insurgent, I lingered. The last story, 'Eternal Father' is set around 3 sisters who have to adhere to their deceased father's last testamentary decision, and would hold a wake on each anniversary of their father's birth "in the same humble place where [I] he was born: an old garage next to the sunken park." The sisters don't seem to like each other very much, or even their father, but they fear him too much to disobey him even in death. I was like, what bollocks. Anyway.

It's quite a depressing little book that I rather enjoy thumbing through. Not too bad. I refuse to read these stories as an analysis of human relationships and interaction, and the complexity of a family unit within the larger social structures. They're effectively the author's comments on Mexican families and Mexican society, but well, I glossed over that and simply read the book as flat stories.