When I started reading this book, I did not know what it was
about, I opened the “bag-o-books” and grabbed it, took it in to work to read
during lunch.
I had assumed because of where and who I got it from it was
a grizzly zombie or vampire tale. The
title did not give any incite as to what I would find within, unlike my
previous book (see last post).
Once I started reading however, the book cover makes
sense. This book is set in El Salvador
during a time of civil war, and in the USA.
The book begins in El Salvador, with a small secret squad of
solders who seem to enjoy their work a little too much. All except one, our
main character. This little corner of
the war is dedicated to extracting information out of the freedom fighters.
Our main character, Victor, is not interested in becoming
one of the of the group, who take great pleasure out of torturing their
prisoners, he gets this duty thrust upon him due to some of his own past issues,
he gets demoted and sent to the “little school”. The torture seems to be quite realistic, and is
quite graphic in nature and at time actually difficult to read. I have had no trouble watching any of the Saw
movies, and while reading this book I
have realized that reading about torture is quite different and much more
disturbing.
Victor is forced to observe and help in the torture and
death of prisoners at what they call the “little school”. One prisoner in particular is of great
interest to the squad, and this is where young Victor is apprenticed, this time he is forced, by threat of his own
torture and death, to take part in breaking this prisoner named Lorca. Of course we only learn her real name after
two weeks of long endurance. Now broken
and telling all, the solders mean to eliminate the prisoner, no witnesses left
to tell the tale of their techniques.
Victor is not like the rest of the secret group of solders,
he is quiet, they are loud, he enjoys reading, they make fun of him, he wants
to help, and they want to destroy.
Victor dreams of escaping his home land and traveling to America, where
he can start a new life.
Now broken Lorca, is taken out to be shot, this is something
that Victor is again forced to do, but due to heavy rain, and a mud slide, he
misses his target as she slides down the side of a cliff, the rest of the
solders thinking that Victor shot her, after all she did fall down,
congratulate him and finally welcome him into their band. Only Victor and Lorca
know that just as Victor pulls the trigger, the ground gives way beneath her
and she falls.
Victor finally gets his chance to go to America, he changes
his name, he takes the name of one of the prisoners. The city just happens to be the same city
where Lorca admitted her brother lives. Coincidence? Not at all.
Victor wants to talk to the brother, he thinks it might help him to
overcome his feelings of guilt and shame, and he wants to learn if Lorca
survived the fall off the cliff.
Victor finds out that Lorca did indeed survive, although she
has a great many emotional and physical scars from her two weeks in the “little
school”.
Victor tells the brother that he too was a prisoner, the brother
tries to convince Victor to come to dinner to talk with Lorca, Victor refuses,
he cannot, what if she recognizes his voice, all the prisoners were blindfolded,
he was sure she would not recognize his face.
Lorca’s brother feels that perhaps together, Victor and Lorca might be
able to help one another to cope, Lorca is unable to cope alone, and her
brother does not know what else to do.
Victor finally does befriend Lorca, together they find a bit
of stability in their emotional world, until the past come back to haunt them.
This was a fast read, the author Giles Blunt is a Canadian,
living in Toronto, he carries his reader along quite easily and leaves room for
us to try to guess how the book will unfold.
Giles Blunt has written 10 more books, I think I will read another
of his sometime. My next book is a “try this one, I loved it” from a friend
(AT), Toys, by James Patterson.
bfn
Brian
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