Hero Attacks Girlfriend, Ruins Novel (spoiler alert!)
Posted by: Nick DiMartino
Lest anyone read Red April because of my enthusiastic blog yesterday, let me warn you what I stumbled into, totally unprepared, late last night.
Maybe this is a cultural difference. Am I being too sensitive, too feminist here? But it’s the most unlikeable thing a central character has done in a novel for a long time, and it feels like character rape, not to mention rape in the usual sense, it’s so utterly unexpected and thoroughly unpleasant, and I can’t imagine a woman reading it and continuing with the book. This happens 222 pages into the novel, with absolutely no warning. Up until this moment, author Santiago Roncagliolo has presented us with a naïve but charming little man, a meek hero, respectful, and in love, a delightful character who believes in laws and still adores his dead mother.
I can see that being trapped in the church basement with a murdered priest could be stressful, could leave a guy at his wits’ end – but do you take that out on your girlfriend, pretty, open-hearted Edith? After spending the night together, she has to go to work, and he won’t let her leave in the morning. At first it’s playful, as he makes loving little overtures luring her back to bed. “Don’t go to work,” he begs. But it’s going to be a really busy day with the tourists. She has to leave.
And then it gets serious. And then it gets mean. She begs him to let her go, and he won’t. The scene becomes uncomfortable to read. There’s fear in her eyes, and he won’t stop. The fear excites him. Now, this is the guy we’ve been worrying about and liking Suddenly he’s squeezing her neck, he’s leaving red welts on her wrists. He slaps her on the bed and lowers his trousers. He has his way with her. When he rolls off, she howls at him to leave, and so do I. I threw the book down and went to bed.
I’m still completely in shock. What was the point of that? What in the world kind of response was the author expecting? Whatever, I simply want to post this qualifier as close to my last blog as possible, so that no one traumatizes their reading group by leading them unexpectedly into Red April.
