The Tattooed Soldier

by Héctor Tobar

Set in Los Angeles in 1992 on the eve of the infamous riots, and written by aPulitzer Prize-winning journalist, "The Tattooed Soldier" tells the storyof two haunted man and the tragic intersection of their lives. 320 pp. 10,000print.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Read For School, School, Novels, College, Crime

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 1998

About the author

Héctor Tobar, now a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and a novelist. He is the author of Translation Nation and The Tattooed Soldier. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of the city of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Reviews

[Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe it is just the right book at the right time, but I think there is something pretty special about the narrative of Tobar's "Tattooed Soldier" this is definitely the best fiction I read this year.

Following the lives of two opposing and intertwined Guatemalans in Los Angeles, this story was woven in such a way that characters (who are well-developed) still manage to get in line with a really engaging telling of the shared drama in the main characters' lives.

It's as much an insight into the lives of marginalized immigrant communities in Los Angeles, as it is about the smaller interpersonal issues of integrity, pride, and belonging. Foregrounding the unseen lives of those who inhabited LA in the Rodney King Riots era and right-wing nationalist cleansing of indigenous populations in Guatemala in the preceding decade.

Really well crafted.

[Nikhil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book needed to be around 125 pages shorter; it could have made an excellent novella. The first two-thirds of the novel meander and spend too much time on irrelevant plot points and details; the relevant characterization could be communicated more concisely. The middle third of the book, narrated from the interiority of Elena, was somewhat strange given the (male) author was musing on a woman's experience with childbirth. The text also felt the need to shoehorn in uninspired commentary on Los Angeles (whether it be regarding the drug wars, the homeless crisis, or the 1992 riots) that was not related well to the main storyline.

The novel works best when it focuses on the psychological journey (turmoil) of Guillermo and Antonio. It draws the connections between toxic performances of masculinity, shame, and gun ownership and violence well. The novel has a nice cyclical structure that connects the journeys of the two protagonists. The resonance of the wronged revolutionary being a middle-class bourgeois while the fascist killer is the poor peasant the urban students try to save is also quite nice.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel, admittedly, draws on a lot of the political issues I am most interested in. You can clearly see Tobar's journalistic background throughout the novel, and it was very clever to frame the story around a tale of revenge. The writing style was wonderful, the dual timelines were pulled off beautifully, in my opinion. I can't wait to read the rest of his books.

I don't think the characters were as simplistic as some people are writing them off to be, and I thought the play between the PTSD of both the protagonist and antagonist was very interesting. I thought Tobar explored that well. I think it's a very poignant comment on race and immigration in Los Angeles. I really don't think the tale of revenge is quite as simplistic as critics call it, but that may have been from the benefit of reading it in a literature course.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Against the backdrop of the Central American wars of the Reagan era, Tobar follows the intertwined lives of two Guatemalans from across a deep political divide. The fates of a young middle class revolutionary, who finds himself alone and homeless in Los Angeles, and a death squad soldier who hoards photos of the peasants and indios he has brutalized and slaughtered cross -- both in Guatemala and in Los Angeles. Tobar, a former LA Times reporter, vividly recreates life in Guatemala during a time of massacres and repression, and for marginalized Latinos in LA on the eve of the Rodney King riots. Both lead characters are complex and believable, and the suspense of how their lives will intersect in the end is palpable.

[Stephie.lovesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some quick thoughts: I loved that this book concentrated on Guatemala since I haven’t read many books that concentrates on characters from there. Told in dual timelines and Guatemala and LA we get to know Guillermo. In LA it takes places when the Rodney King riots occur. This makes for an even more impactful backdrop. One thing thing that I had an issue is with the way some of the Spanish speaking characters referred to the Black people in the book. However, I also know that there tensions between them at that time too. This was not the case for everyone and it was just a few scenes but it just didn’t sit well with me. Guillermo is full of anger for what happened to his family back in Guatemala and I got to know my about Guatemala and the atrocities that happened during the war.

[jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

perhaps my expectations were too high for this book but my apologies i just was not into it…… i think having the different perspectives of antonio elena and longoria is an interesting concept but it just was not executed too well i felt like every time i was finally getting into this book the perspective would change and it ruined the momentum. obviously this novel is about war so there’s gonna be violence and heavy themes but i felt like the writing would very randomly and suddenly get so gruesome it pulled me out of it. i’m gonna be honest i don’t know what i would have preferred to see in the ending….. just not what it was…..

[Shakira · Rating 4 out of 5]

So happy to be finishing this year off with this book. Obsessed! Usually stray away from anything associated with war but this was so worth it. The suspense. The terror. The trauma. The explosive plot- tewwww goood

[AC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty mediocre, frankly — as a novel. Might make a decent movie. Foolish, I bought two books by this author at once. When will I ever learn!!

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read along with my kid’s HS summer read, and Hector Tobar zoomed into our all-school discussion at the start of the school year! This starts out as seriously depressing, which is the point, and gets more palatable and engrossing as the story goes on. Some great plot twists in the last third. Wonderful use of perspective.

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Set in the chaos that was LA after the Rodney King murder, is a story of two men who are very opposite: one a heartbroken and defeated intellectual and his enemy, a brainwashed ex militia who killed his wife and son.
They escape the war in Guatemala only to find themselves in another war between the authority and the people.
Detailing hardships both foreign and domestic and showing how violence can shape a society.

[Katarina Cacarnakis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book I would have usually picked out for myself but really well written and interesting.

[Alexis Rivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it for class or was kewl I like the changes in perspectives the ending was like ayo Wut

[jaime schurra · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautifully done, I can’t give it less than 5 stars. The complexity of the characters and even the relationship of Elena and Antonio had me lost in thought. I really appreciate this novel for giving me two vastly different perspectives on life, ones that I could never imagine.

[lynzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book to be sad, but generally, anticlimactic. It took me nearly a month to read because I found it to have such a slow start. Part 2 of the book did start to pick up for me, especially learning about Antonio's past in Guatemala.

Part 2 really started to delve deeper into Antonio and Longoria's life stories, which I appreciated. It felt like there was finally some world building happening. I wish we had the chance to learn more about other characters in the book like Jose Juan and Antonio's friend that helps him deal with his dilemma. They seemed to be interesting characters, especially Jose Juan who was sticking by Antonio so fiercely.

I wholeheartedly understood where Antonio was coming from in his quest for revenge, and I can't say I blame him. I enjoyed seeing him fall deeper into this thirst. I found that once he got what he wanted, things started to happen so quickly. Which was odd as I thought the book was quite slow. I wish that the climax was more climactic, lol. It felt like so much was being built up, then it just kind of fizzled once Antonio got what he wanted.

I did enjoy how Tobar's prose quite a bit.

[Yvonne V (Naughty Professora) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel was told in three parts:
The first details the story of Antonio Bernal, and his fellow immigrant/friend/roommate Jose Juan Grivalda. The story begins with their peril as immigrants in the US, and their eventual decline into homelessness and survival. Throughout, you learn about Bernal's deceased wife and son.

The second part is a flash back to the incidents leading up to the killing/assination of Bernal's wife Elena and his child, and beyond. Here, you're also introduced a bit more to Longoria, the tattooed killer.

Part three focuses on Longoria, and Bernal's plan to avenge his wife and child.Throughout, you get glimpses of the social structure in Los Angeles during the pre- and post-Rodney King riots.

What could have been a gripping and gritty tale fell a bit short at the end and I'm not sure why. While I enjoyed the book, it took me longer than normal to finish - I just couldn't connect and get into the story.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated getting into the minds of the middle-class man who was traumatized by the brutal murder of his wife and son as well as into the mind of their peasant murderer is a real plus for the book. Bad guys have a history too and reasons for why they do what they do, even if it is reprehensible. Not an easy book to read, but it was informative to learn about the war in Guatemala as well as the life of Guatemalans living in during that time and later in the US. It was an interesting choice to set part of the book in LA before and during the Rodney King riots, it created a lot of extra tension and unreality to the ending. I also appreciated the fairly realistic writing of some of the characters becoming homeless, especially the shock and shame when it first happens to people. I felt the character development in the beginning was a little weak, but became stronger as the book focused more on the two men who meet again in LA.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story! What a set of characters! I cannot recommend this book enough. It's tough, real. The two main characters are perfectly described, it's impossible to favour one over the other, and we end up feeling strongly for both.

A book that shows how impossible it is to judge anyone, for we never know the full story behind a person or an action.

Beautiful written from start to end. Lots of action and emotion. Flawless.

[Luke Hooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, unique revenge story.

[Jamal Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

one helluva story....

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this exploration of loss and revenge told from two points of view. It ended in a way I was not expecting, which I also liked.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the second book I've ready by Héctor Tobar. Gritty, real and told with no apologies, the story sucked me in and didn't let go until long after it was over.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very dark read about revenge, isolation, war, homelessness, and perceptions of others. Finished this in the early hours of Christmas morning.

[Susan Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I began this book, I was excited to delve into the characters on each side of the Guatemalan civil war, Antonio and Elena -- the relatively privileged and somewhat naive allies of the revolutionary left -- and Longoria -- forced to join the military at a young age, becomes the proudly jaguar-tattooed soldier of death squads. The two sides meet in Guatemala as Longoria kills Elena and the couple's young son, then again in Los Angeles some years later, when Antonio happens across Longoria and begins to plot revenge against him.
On the positive side, Tobar does a great job with transitions between points of view and time periods. The juxtaposition of Guatemalan death squads and students with Los Angeles gangs, the Rodney King atrocity and resulting riots and looting, the ineffectiveness of the police -- these make for provocative and insightful themes. There is good commentary in the story on racism, violence, immigration, and alienation in Los Angeles.
I'm not sure if this was the author's intention or not, but I saw similarities between Antonio and Longoria as weak personalities, letting life carry them along, unable to make positive decisions to determine their destinies. In the U.S., both were severely disabled by the tragedy they both had a part in, though one as victim, one as perpetrator.
Antonio's quandary was real: the need to have accountability for such crimes as Longoria's. But who would care? Police in the U.S. would have no interest; the military in the U.S. trained the man, after all. But even if he were deported back to Guatemala, he would be more likely revered there as a valiant soldier and war hero, certainly not punished.
So Antonio concludes that only he can hold the man accountable for his horrific past. And thus a thirst for revenge takes up the latter third of the story. Here I was somewhat disappointed in the book. There could have been some real development of the two characters, some interaction between them that was surprising and illuminating. Rather, both became flat, stereotypical characters, especially Longoria. His character had little complexity. Of course he was obsessed with order, OCD-ish, and a brute to women. It was too simplistic.
When Antonio scolded Elena for being unhappy in the Guatemalan village where they attempted to escape the violence, this also felt unreal. Their marriage was mostly distant, he sat around doing nothing at his job, and neither could see a future. Why wouldn't he sympathize with Elena feeling the same way rather than criticize her. Both seemed unduly naive at the potential danger once Antonio was warned that Elena was being followed, watched. He asked her to stop making forays into the poorest part of the village, but neither considered that their lives might again be in danger. And when she was killed, it seemed strange that Antonio would actually have a chance to see Longoria and his tattoo at their home, the scene of the execution, while fleeing so quickly to the U.S. that he couldn't see the corpses of his wife and son. Of course, it was necessary for the theme of the novel to proceed, but seemed artificially drawn.
Given Antonio's dreaminess and inaction, and their distant marriage, it was hard to believe in his "blinding pain" after their death and his obsessive need for revenge (many years later). I expected him to deal with guilt, but this turn to revenge seemed out of character.
That said, once I gave in and went with the flow of the revenge, the writing held my interest. The book is well-written and suspenseful, with lots of thought-provoking, underlying themes.

[Martha Chudy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book awhile ago because it was recommended by a professor as a great book to teach in LA.

The premise of The Tattooed Soldier is taut with possibility: a Guatemalan refugee, newly jobless and homeless in the streets of LA, encounters the tattooed soldier who murdered his wife and son years ago in Guatemala. Unfortunately, the realization of this plot is bland and underwhelming. I was surprised that a journalist could write a story with so many extraneous words and, frankly, lazy metaphors. (When Antonio's landlord threatens to call the police if he does not immediately leave the apartment, Antonio is left "to the fire drill of trying to fit everything he owned and wanted to save in a black plastic Hefty trash bag"). The character development is similarly underwhelming. Why these characters move around the world the way they do seems to be based in their own small-mindedness, which is rarely contextualized out to racism against Indigenous peoples of Central America, the extreme violence perpetrated by the Guatemalan/US government during this time period or gender norms that lead to sexism and violence. Don't get me wrong, there are hints. If it weren't for the bloated descriptions and gratuitous side plots (there are so many!), I may have been able to appreciate more of the history Tobar infuses. In short, this book is a missed opportunity. With more self-restraint and a solid edit, I could see this being a timeless and vitally important narrative about the lives of Central Americans displaced in the US and the debilitating effects of trauma.

Here's a passage I liked:
"This was something that had happened to Antonio with great frequency since the death of his wife and son. Alcoholics, the suicidal, battered wives, the perpetually lonely, witnesses to catastrophe, survivors of war: they all came into sharper focus. Antonio could almost spot them across a crowded room. They were like brothers or long-lost friends."

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly engrossing story, characters, and setting.

The perspective and point in time jump around quite a bit, but this is done remarkably fluidly. There are three main parts: the first in the present day, which alternates between Antonio and the soldier; the second in the past, mostly from the perspective of Antonio's wife, Elena; the third back in the present and again alternating between Antonio and the soldier. There's some overlap, especially between Antonio an the soldier as their lives begin to touch in LA, which is well done: as much repetition as is necessary to illuminate the characters' different experiences of the same event, but not so much that it feels forced. The day of Elena's death, fittingly, is re-told in its entirety through the eyes of each of the three main characters.

Since Elena's death is apparent from the beginning, I was pleasantly surprised that the middle section of the book is in her voice. It gives her more life than Antonio's memories can provide, and it adds to Antonio's own characterization. The soldier has less depth than Antonio and Elena and certainly isn't sympathetic, but he's at least plausible.

[Banana_Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for one of my college classes so this isn't the typical book I would pick up on my own but I found it quite enjoyable! In this story we follow two very opposing characters, one a normal Guatemalan citizen and the other a man who belongs to the Guatemalan army. These characters cross paths when one of them murders the wife and child of the other, and the trauma that both these characters have gone through really becomes visible in their lives years later in Los Angeles. There is a lot of personal backstory in this novel and at some points it felt like a revenge story but it definitely dealt with very serious topics and at times it was a very dark book. But these serious topics are ones that must be talked about so this made for excellent discussion points. Would I read this book again? Probably not. But as an assigned reading it did leave me thinking about it days after I finished it, so I think that says something about the contents of the book.

[l.g.115 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short book review no. 36

The Tattooed Soldier (1998) - Héctor Tobar

"No, it was absurd to mistake rock throwing and looting for an act of love, but Antonio was willing to allow for the possibility. If only Elena were here, in Los Angeles. Elena would know, she would be able to give him a definite yes or no. After all, she had studied and thought about these questions of love and revolution and had given her life in search of the answers. If she were alive, Elena would put her arms around Antonio and kiss him on the cheek and say, 'Of course you're confused, my love, you always were.'

If she were alive, Elena would put her arms around him and whisper all the answers in his ear." (Tobar 311 - 312)

Antonio Bernal, a Guatemalan refugee, is haunted by the memories of his wife and child, who were murdered by a soldier marked with the image of a jaguar. Having relocated to Los Angeles, Antonio unsuccessfully tries to restart his life, his trauma too severe to overcome. One day, while strolling through a park, Antonio has a fateful encounter: he sees the soldier with the tattoo nonchalantly playing chess. The memories of his life come flooding back, igniting the desire to avenge. Set to the backdrop of the '92 Los Angeles Race Riots, Tobar's narrative explores the anguish and horrors of the Guatemalan Civil War & Maya genocide, and the subsequent Guatamalan Diaspora. Tobar expertly constructs his characters and narrative; the characters are fully realized, bearing nuance and complexity, and the narrative glides effortlessly to its climactic showdown. A powerful story about love, violence and revolution that asks the reader a difficult question: In the face of overwhelming brutality, loss and sorrow, what does genuine justice look like?

[Jgknobler · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something wrong about the structure of this book -- it takes a long time to get started, and a long time to really come to the heart of the matter, the pursuit by a homeless Salvadoran man of a Salvadoran soldier, a member of a government death squad who killed his wife and son during the civil war that was fought there between 1979 and 1992. (I had to look that up. Perhaps when this novel was published, in 1998, it was more widely remembered) The novel is set in Los Angeles, and the final chapter takes place during the riots that followed the not guilty verdicts in Rodney King's death in 1992. I guess among other things, this novel explores how the powerless take revenge.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, highly recommend although strong warning of violence. I really liked the multiple perspective approach to telling the events and how it built up that much suspense when getting to the climax points. I don't know how I feel about the ending. It seemed a bit anti-climactic for me, but maybe I just need to think about it more. The overall quote I would use to describe this book is the one mentioned multiple times throughout the novel, "the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love."

[Peter Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing first novel. At once reverences and surpasses the genres of mystery/crime/historical fiction. The specificity and accuracy of detail in this work regarding both Guatemalans and the Central American exiles in tumultuous Los Angeles is frankly stunning. Tobar never "gets carried away" by plot, nor incident, nor even the voice of strong characters, and never succumbs to the melodrama that the arc of the story suggests. In fact this book is painful to read: it demands close reading and is so objectively tragic that it burned my eyes. Stunning and worth more than a casual read.