Leaving Tabasco: A Novel

by Carmen Boullosa

Presents the magical coming-of-age story of Delmira, whose Mexican village is home to visions of her grandmother floating above her bed, stones turning into water, and her elderly serving woman's stigmata, but as Delmira reaches adulthood she makes a choice that forces her to leave home forever. First serial, Granta magazine.

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Latinx, Novels, Contemporary, Fantasy

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 2001

About the author

Carmen Boullosa (b. September 4, 1954 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a leading Mexican poet, novelist and playwright. Her work is eclectic and difficult to categorize, but it generally focuses on the issues of feminism and gender roles within a Latin American context. Her work has been praised by a number of prominent writers, including Carlos Fuentes, Alma Guillermoprieto and Elena Poniatowska, as well as publications such as Publishers Weekly. She has won a number of awards for her works, and has taught at universities such as Georgetown University, Columbia University and New York University (NYU), as well as at universities in nearly a dozen other countries. She is currently Distinguished Lecturer at the City College of New York. She has two children -- Maria Aura and Juan Aura -- with her former partner, Alejandro Aura --and is now married to Mike Wallace, the Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jim]

At first, I thought, "Well, here's another exercise in magical realism." The farther I went in the book, however, the more I realized that the author was making a statement about the whole concept of magical realism. Safely ensconced in Europe, heroine Delmira Ulloa recalls:

For three decades I didn’t sleep in a hammock, I saw no strange objects floating in water. No albino crocodile popped into my room, no army of Indians came by sucking voluptuously on juicy insects, no legion of toads exploded against my balcony, there were no imposing witches hawking fake merchandise, no rainstorms purchased for cash. I’ve spent six times five years here without hearing once the nightly tale of my grandmother. I came here in search of a world that obeyed the laws of physics; it is now all around me, but I can’t say I’ve come to terms with it.

The book is Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa. What its heroine is trying to escape by leaving the State of Tabasco (in Southeastern Mexico) is being trapped in a world of magical realism -- one that seems to keep going from one strange damned thing to another -- without real change -- forever!

[Piper R · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as required reading for college classes go, this was an enjoyable selection. It really is a fantastic piece of literature full of beautiful language and imagery that creates an elegant setting and rich cultural experience. That being said I wouldn’t exactly call it a page turner or the most engaging/exciting thing I’ve ever read. I think a big part of that is because (as with most magical realism novels) time is intentionally displayed disproportionately. And for the first 2/3 of the book the chronology of events is not of utmost importance so I was not really eager to find out what was going to happen as a result of the events occurring.

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-1/2 stars. This was the unique and compelling story of a young girl growing up in a small town in Mexico, told thirty years later from Germany. Magical realism. It only took me this long to finish it because I was puppy-sitting for most of this time!

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half is all magical realism, second half is all political, the last five pages make everything come together and make sense.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there were several glimpses of a good book, it just never could emerge from the muddled writing and aimless plot.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant stuff: great storytelling, and very much about storytelling. And its limitations, or at least the limitations of the stories that get told. The narrator's grandmother tells nightly stories throughout--related to us, at least partially--and storytelling has a special place in the magical realist town in which the novel is set, and which, it soon becomes clear, is on the verge of being taken over by corporate/petroleum interests. That powerful, violent takeover isn't without precedent, though; later in the novel, the grandmother, on completing a cautionary tale, warns: "That's the way stories end in Agustini, Delmira. Here people kill."

As if it's not clear enough already that the book is about magic realism itself, at the end of the book, as Delmira is leaving (and we're told at the start she will leave), a fellow plane passenger gives her a copy of then newly published One Hundred Years of Solitude, which she finds disappointingly reminiscent of her home town Agustini. And she goes to the European reason of logic that she has longed for--only to discover they are enraptured with Marquez. It's not clear to me what the relation is between this novel and that: is it a critique? Or just a self-conscious retelling, maybe an updating, or an expression of disappointment that there has been no updating?

At one point, though, Delmira returns from a demonstration to the domestic servant she has grown up with: "After running around all day, wearing myself out, and venturing on the high seas of a political demonstration, here I was, in front of the nanny I had enslaved all my life." It's a kind of reckoning of the storyteller's (and potentially the reader's) own position. And to some extent it seems the book is about estrangement from a society, about exile, and about the inadequacy both of a kind of magical thinking that obscures fundamental social relations, and also of a dispassionate liberal logic that also misses much. Toward the close, the narrator tells herself: "There's no place to return to now, Delmira, you've returned to the only place you can: to memory."

[Aylin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you want to read a book that is interesting and not boring? Leaving Tabasco is a Fictional book the author is Carmen Boullosa.This book is about a girl growing up in a small town in the Mexican territory of Tabasco . The main character is named Delmira she is eight years old. Delmira was raised in a house “where only women live,” Boullosa pg.10 she wants to learn more about her unknown father her grandma and mom try to talk about that topic so she won't think of her dad they tell her stories and letting her imagination go wild. On pg. 11 it states “ Delmira honey what is you favorite book”? Damira’s imagination kicked in and she thought about events as birds falling from the sky, coffee beans falling off their plants, volcanos, electrical storms, and rains of toads.


She wrote about lizards that were cooked on sticks,that come to life after sunset. Delmira now has a strong imagination and also her love for reading . Delmira’s love for reading and her imagination got bigger as she got older she would want people to tell her stories about their life.I feel like some people would find this weird because you are telling someone else somewhat your personal information. Delmira met a stranger on the plane that also enjoyed reading he gave delmira a book so she could read it .The book was called “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Delmira got sad because as she skimmed through the pages there were other towns that were similar to her town and she did not want to leave tabasco.



Delmira decided to not move and stay in tabasco her hometown. Delmira learns more about tabasco and is flabbergasted to find out the history of her hometown and about the people that lived there. 14 years later she found a husband then later got married and after 5 years of marriage they decided to have kids that also grew up in Tabasco. Delmira always looked up to her grandma and her mom because they were a inspiration to her they taught her to be a creative person and let her imagination go wild.

[Elizabeth Higginbotham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa is a novel that begins in Germany and then is a coming of age story of Delmira, whose father is unknown to her, but most importantly not acknowledged by her family. She is growing up in a family of some wealth, but has lost of it due to changes in Mexican politics. As a young girl, Delmira is not aware of the larger issues as her Catholic education is primarily to prepare her for marriage. She has her mother, who is not primarily involved in her upbringing, but more invested in satisfying her own needs. The grandmother controls the household. She tells stories that are part of the magical realism that is the tradition of this era. There is witchcraft and strange events that shape the town and the people. Yet, Delmira does meet a teacher, who is his own person. He exposes her to music and the politics of the day, since the family was opposed to Cuba. As Delmira connects with progressive issues, she takes sides and is arrested, but her uncle, who is connected to the President, gets her off and she does escape to Europe. The characters are interesting, but mostly looking at how these prominent families fall from grace and in fact do not have a part in a changing nation.
Read it in Mexico, so I could appreciate what small town meant in that era.

[Azizi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa is the tale of Delmira, a young girl who is coming of age in the majestic Augustini. In this pueblo, magic and mischief are common place and there is little separation between the natural world and the spiritual one. Much like the setting of the novel, Leaving Tabasco is unpredictable, complicated, and filled with wonder. I wasn't sure what to make of the book for the first 100 pages or so, but once it started to come together a bit more, I was intrigued. Boullosa's writing is exquisite as is her depiction of the culture. Each time I read, I was teleported to a world very different from mine- a place that is captivating and rich with memories of the past. Speaking of the past, I especially appreciated Boullosa's commentary on progress and modernity. She examines what we lose when we sacrifice a way of life for capitalism, greed, and "a better way." Leaving Tobasco is a literary gem that I'm happy to have discovered.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the premise but as I read through the chapters I quickly realized the reader was not going to get the same level of detail regarding the main character's time in Europe as her time in Mexico. There weren't enough chapters left. This felt almost as if the author got tired and didn't actually have enough steam to write what could have been the 2nd half of the story. And a week removed from finishing the book, I don't even recall what brings the author back to Tabasco some 30 years after fleeing. The parts of the story I was interested in were the least detailed. Disappointing.

[Juliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Fragmentary" is not a bad word in my vocabulary to describe a narrative, but I prefer it when my stories pair that with something else that keeps me grounded. The episodes are all interesting and you do get a sense of character progression but, unfortunately, I only grew to really like the protagonist of this towards the 3rd third of the book.

The last chapter, though, that one hit *hard*.

If you wanted Disney's Encanto to be grittier, I guess this will be right up your alley (with no oruguitas, though).

[Steven Montoya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upon completion of this book, I felt more positively towards the journey and unraveling of it's narrative than I did at the outset. It's a slow start for Delmira's tale; however, it is more engrossing and entertaining through the significant portion of the book most fully dedicated to magical realism. The imagery and prose of the middle (largest by far) portion of this book is it's best attribute.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read Mexican literature before a trip to Mexico and chose this because it seemed like a nice story and a good representation of the genre. When told as a narrative story, this was good and easy to follow. Towards the end, the book got philosophical, harder to follow and a little weird. I'll try another book to get another view.

[Alexandra]

The magical realism of Latin America (very Garcia Marquez indeed), about women, about growing up, about the lack of love within the family, about expectations and not fitting in. Set in a seemingly sleepy village in rural Mexico and narrating the dynamics of life there.

[Tiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was completely original! Really enjoyed this imaginative novel - it whisks you along at breakneck speed! Gloriously colorful writing and descriptions - it really transported me to a different world.

[Isaac · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it

[✨ABookGirl✨memoirs are my jam✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Ayşen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last 10 pages alone will be with me for a while..

[Jose Perez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like it 😢

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t do it… page 75 and it’s just awful

[Russ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because of the intriguing cover synopsis. I expected something good, and this book delivered.

The main character is Delmira, who tells the reader about her childhood in Agustini, Mexico. The author gives you a good sense of the rituals, traditions, ins and outs of both Delmira's crazy household and her even crazier town. By the end of the novel, you almost feel part of the town yourself.

Most of the book concerns the odd happenings in Delmira's hometown. You're never really sure if some of these things really happen, or if they're part of Delmira's imagination. Delmira herself does not entirely trust her own senses and memories. True or not, it's best to just enjoy the stories as the fantastical wonders they are.

Unfortunately, the last section of the book brings an all-too-heavy reality to Agustini. As Delmira leaves behind her imagination-drenched childhood, so too does the town leave behind its isolation from the rest of the world.

I'm not quite sure what to think about the ending of the novel, but the rest of it is definitely great material. The chapter I enjoyed most was Chapter 20, "The Rains," beginning on page 113. I could feel the heat of the day as Delmira describes it. I could feel the cool water she plunges into to escape the opppressive heat. This is good writing!

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

My spouse is a man who has a great deal of difficulty leaving a free book behind. He has read countless books that he would have returned to the library had we taken them out but that he cannot leave in the seat pocket on a plane. As addictions go, it is a benign one but that is how this book came into our lives. We were staying at a hotel in the very center of the tourist section of Oaxaca, where the staff spoke remarkably little English, but which had a little impromptu book exchange shelf right outside our gorgeous room. He left something there that my mother had given him and he picked this book up.

The heroine of the story is Delmira. She is raised in an unapologetically emotionally austere home in Tabasco. Her mother and her grandmother are singularly unappealing and unfeeling women, and in the case of the grandmother, she has the magical realism of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez character. Delmira sees her grandmother float above the bed when she sleeps. But that is not all--stones turn to water and there are other strange goings on. There is a backdrop of the political changes that were going on in Mexico in that later part of the 20th century, and all in all it is a good book to read when you are enjoying some Mexican sun in the dead of winter.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this novel a little more than I did. Picked it up because I was interested in the Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini and read an interview with the author discussing her life as one inspiration for the book. Leaving Tabasco is both a narrative of leaving a small town that anyone can relate to on some level and firmly within the anything-can-happen next school of Latin American magical realism. I enjoyed the narrative more and more as our heroine was propelled out of her small town like a "conquistador in a miniskirt." And I'll keep searching out Carmen Boullosa to see how she handles a less autobiographical subject.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did.

I enjoyed: Delmira's spunk and youthfulness, her realization of her privileged world, her vivid imagination.

Grandmother's snide remarks, and the magic that shrouds Agustini

I was disappointed with: the translation. I really feel that the lack of fluidity and many awkward sentences took away from the richness of this story (I actually thought about some of the sentences in Spanish and they sounded/flowed much better).

The ending was also a bit lackluster with Old Baldy and the prison bit. It was too much, then led to nothing.

[Angela Woodward]

I wonder that I'd never heard of her until a recent piece in Quarterly Conversation. This is a beautiful book, full of everyday wonder--a room made of scarves, that the scarf vendor throws up in the air when he wants to talk to her, witches selling smoked lizards, that at the end of the day revert to live animals and walk away, many off-hand incidents of glorious fantasy. A delicious book.

[Melanie Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire book reads like one amazing tall tale. It reminds me of the movie Big Fish or the stories like Paul Bunion and Babe the Blue Ox. The imagery is beautiful and extremely weird all at the same time.

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very whimsical novel, until the end where it gets serious. If you're not in the mood for whimsy, don't read this. I didn't finish it straight through and after a while, it just felt ridiculous and I had to force myself to slog through the rest of it.

[Antonio Dominguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent descriptive narrative of extraordinary life experiences from a woman’s perspective. It contains both strong and wavering characters within a family sphere. Entertaining drama of believable and unreal life experiences with an emphasis in rural life in Mexico during the 20th century.