They had to wait for Elena to take her place, to turn to face the exit, to straighten her body as much as Herself would allow, to align it with the coffin where Rita lay, to take a breath, and then, with her right hand, the one that responded better, to grab that handle, the first one on the left, the one that wasn’t held by any gentleman, and to carry her daughter’s casket to its final destination.
What. A. Tour. De. Force. — But in the most positive sense. Before we start, lest not forget the trusted reference regarding this REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. That said, let’s dive in.
One is the loneliest number…
Elena has to bury her only child, Rita, who was found hanging in the belfry of her local church. Having lost her husband years earlier, her daughter was her only family, and her primary caregiver. Elena, only in her early sixties, suffers from an aggressive form of Parkinson’s disease — or as she calls it ‘Herself, the fucking whore illness.’
The investigators are positive that Rita killed herself. So are the priest and the local community, the people who knew the two women and their situation. Even Rita’s boyfriend, Roberto, has to agree that she wasn’t herself recently. But Elena knows better. Rita would have never killed herself, hanged herself in the church’s belfry. She wouldn’t because it rained that day, and Rita was afraid of lightning so she would have never even gone near the belfry when it was raining. Elena knows. But no one believes her. So she needs help, and she is determined to get it.
Over the course of a day, we accompany Elena on her way to get the help she thinks she needs to find her daughter’s killer. A day that is sectioned by her medication, by the pills she needs to keep her body cooperating with her mind, to defy Herself, the fucking whore illness, if only for a few hours, if only for a bit more range of motion.
…two can be as bad as one
Elena knows a lot. About life, about her daughter, about her illness, about the people around her. But she doesn’t know everything. Because no one does — and more often than not, we don’t know, but we believe, we think we know something. Confusing knowledge with belief, opinion, wishful thinking. And ‘believing’ is a whole different issue. As we will find out with Elena.
Elena’s day-long journey feels long and treacherous. Claudia Piñeiro describes everyday gestures and simple motions hindered by Parkinson’s in eerie detail. There’s no dignity left, not for Elena nor her daughter, who is with her all the time, dead or alive. The stink, the bent spine, the drool — a failing body serving a sharp mind, even when a functioning body succumbed to a broken spirit. Oh, the irony.
Elena’s day lasts roughly 140 pages, but these 140 pages cover over 20 years of Elena’s, Rita’s, and Isabel’s lives. Isabel — a brief encounter that changed the lives of all three women. Isabel, the woman Elena seeks help from. Isabel, the women who would have killed Rita if only she had the chance.
If thoughts could kill
In her native Argentine, Claudia Piñeiro is best known for her crime and mystery novels. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that we are open to a solution that is more creative than the obvious suicide everyone believes in. Elena’s quest for a deeper truth seems reasonable, if desperate, when looking at her list of suspects that she regularly shares with a sympathetic police officer who pretends to be working on Rita’s case long after it had already been closed. Alas, sometimes there are no hidden truths, at least not in the way we imagine or wish them to be.
More than being a mystery that needs to be solved, this book is a tour de force of a mother-daughter relationship that has never been easy at the best of times and didn’t improve once Elena’s physical deterioration advanced. It emphasizes the constant mental strain care work puts on a loved one who has received no training in the field, and does not want to provide this sort of close assistance. It tells the story of a world in which women need to fight for everything, every time — even the religious ones, the ‘good’ ones.
Elena and Rita are both hard, bitter, and seem to be older than their years. While Elena’s bitterness seems to be connected to a difficult past and her illness, Rita seems to blend her foul moods with a devout religiousness that not only seeks to guide her, but goes much further. Too far. But this will be Isabel’s issue to deal with over the years. And Elena’s, once Rita is no more.
Limits of Knowledge
Do we ever really know one another? Can we be sure of what a loved one thinks, loves, prefers, detests? No matter how close we are, or how close we should feel according to society, we will never be able to truly know everything about someone. And as difficult as this may be, it is better that way. Because sometimes it’s hard enough to understand ourselves — and learning to accept this can take a long time.
Elena is about to find out how much she doesn’t know. Her path to the realization that maybe, just maybe, things are different than she thinks, is long, winding, and difficult.
And it’s a wonderful read — highly recommended.
Have you read Elena knows by Claudia Piñeiro? Do you know any other books by the author?
Thanks for stopping by, take care & stay mighty!