Shape of the Ruins

I really wasn't sure whether The Shape Of The Ruins was going to be a good book for me and for probably about the first third of it I was more ploughing through than avidly page turning. I freely admit that 1940s Colombia would not be my Mastermind subject and I felt I needed to have had a basic grounding in who was who, at least, in order to not be as overwhelmed as I was initially. Vasquez does explain where he can, but this book starts out quite drily with what I would describe as a very male style of writing. Despite ostensibly being fiction, true life men such as the assassinated Gaitan take centre stage and there are many names appearing one after another after another. I wanted these men to be fully fleshed out so that I could remember them when they reappeared a chapter or two later. Unfortunately this didn't always happen.

There are numerous commonalities with Elza: The Girl (Sergio Rodrigues) in that both books are fictionalised true crime set in Latin American countries; Brazil for Elza, Colombia for The Shape Of The Ruins. Each story explores conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths and, as an old X Files fan, I do like a good shady background! For me, this took off when Vasquez switches his focus from Gaitan's assassination to that of Uribe Uribe in 1915. Suddenly it was as though I was reading a different book! Characters leap of the page and I was totally absorbed in the tale of how a young Bogotan lawyer, Anzola, had attempted to discover and publicise The Truth. Political shenanigans, the workers uniting, unreliable witnesses, police brutality, it's all vividly portrayed and I was easily caught up in the excitement and danger. This engagement continued right to the end of The Shape Of The Ruins so I would advise any other readers struggling early on to stick with it. (Although if you love the first half, you might conversely then lose enthusiasm later on!)

I'm still not sure why Vasquez wrote himself in as the central narrating character, or gave this character his name at any rate. It did make the book feel more like real history than reading a novel, but also meant I was less sure where the lines between the truth, a Truth, and fiction should be drawn. I suspect that was the point!