Spanish is the Novel’s First Language
James Woods in his book The Irresponsible Self reminds us that humor is essential to a successful novel. He traces the lineage of his thesis back to the source, Cervantes. With a warning that humor is in the eye of the beholder, Woods details the elements of farce, satire, whimsy, and physical comedy Cervantes used to tell his story. Don Quixote is the first novel ever written, with the second part written ten years after the first. There is a parallel to Goethe who wrote Faust, Part Two, a decade after finishing Part One. Goethe was urged by Schiller to complete the story. Cervantes does a little Brett Easton Ellis gag in part two describing a scene where he, the author, is mistaken for his character.
Last spring Little Brown released The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea, a man who clearly understands the legacy of Cervantes. Reading his book is not the first time I’ve wished I understood the Spanish language, but don’t worry about the translation. The story of Teresita shines through. The contrast between Spanish language literature and novels written in English isn’t language, but scope. English speakers are constantly stunned by the power and beauty of writers whose first language is Spanish. The Hummingbird’s Daughter is rife with humor and Urrea doesn’t shrink from poking fun at the pretensions of his protagonist, something of a high crime and misdemeanor these days.
I don’t know how the book fared in terms of sales in North America. Its release was sort of lost in the shuffle of The Historian and, God help us, The Traveler. I hope it caught on enought to capture an audience.