José Trigo

José Trigo

Novel , 1966

Fondo de Cultura Económica

Pages: 467

José Trigo is the starting point for a tour of Fernando del Paso’s literary world. Structure and language make this book a delicate piece of clockwork. Starting with a radical restructuring of language and its expressive possibilities, using the dimensions of time and space with absolute wealth and freedom, del Paso recounts the life of the ghostly José Trigo, more symbol than protagonist, along with stories of trains arriving and departing from Nonoalco-Tlatelolco station. With this anecdotal character, the author has constructed a total evocation of Mexico’s history, from its origins to the present day, while recreating the atmosphere of the country’s railways at a certain moment in time. José Trigo, like very few works of world literature, is conceived within an ambition to absolutely express an instant of time on earth, with all of its ramifications, with all the expressiveness of an ancient myth.

“In the contest that’s arisen among Latin Americans to write the equivalent of Ulysses on their continent, del Paso has come closer than any other with José Trigo.Artur Lundkvist, Dagens Nyheter