Book of the Month's Reviews > The Bullet Swallower
The Bullet Swallower
by
by
Why I love it
By Fiora Elbers-Tibbitts
The first time I read Gabriel García Márquez in the eighth grade he completely changed the way I think about language—his sentences had magic and played by their own rules! So when I saw that The Bullet Swallower was being compared to García Márquez, I was a little skeptical. But when I began reading this impressive, genre-defying epic, I happily discovered it is worthy of the comparison.
The Bullet Swallower takes us from the late 1800s to the 1960s, across Mexico and Texas, following the no-holds-barred vigilante Antonio Sonoro and his more law-abiding grandson Jaime. After a train heist turns deadly and Antonio’s brother Hugo is killed, he will stop at nothing to avenge his death. 70 years in the future, grandson Jaime feels the reverberations of Antonio’s violence, and a haunting figure from the past convinces him that he’s the only person who can atone for his family’s sins.
Reading this book is a visceral experience; you can feel the crunch of gravel under your feet, the blazing hot sun beating down, the sand and silt and dirt coating your whole body as you journey with Antonio across the desert. The Bullet Swallower blends the swagger and stakes of a western, the well-researched details of a historical novel, and a dash of magical realism into something beautifully indescribable and wholly unique. If you’re looking for a transportive read, this is it.
By Fiora Elbers-Tibbitts
The first time I read Gabriel García Márquez in the eighth grade he completely changed the way I think about language—his sentences had magic and played by their own rules! So when I saw that The Bullet Swallower was being compared to García Márquez, I was a little skeptical. But when I began reading this impressive, genre-defying epic, I happily discovered it is worthy of the comparison.
The Bullet Swallower takes us from the late 1800s to the 1960s, across Mexico and Texas, following the no-holds-barred vigilante Antonio Sonoro and his more law-abiding grandson Jaime. After a train heist turns deadly and Antonio’s brother Hugo is killed, he will stop at nothing to avenge his death. 70 years in the future, grandson Jaime feels the reverberations of Antonio’s violence, and a haunting figure from the past convinces him that he’s the only person who can atone for his family’s sins.
Reading this book is a visceral experience; you can feel the crunch of gravel under your feet, the blazing hot sun beating down, the sand and silt and dirt coating your whole body as you journey with Antonio across the desert. The Bullet Swallower blends the swagger and stakes of a western, the well-researched details of a historical novel, and a dash of magical realism into something beautifully indescribable and wholly unique. If you’re looking for a transportive read, this is it.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
January 2, 2024
– Shelved