From the first chapter, the three eponymous travelers, who have come Mexico to escape the ills of US mainstream culture, seem to be looking for nirvana and headed for a fall. The action begins when they get stuck in a small Mexican village after Blanche crumples the group’s aging Buick. They bumble along, led by accident or intuition from place to place, loyally banded together though each is on his or her private quest. Willi is a politico who wants to evoke his artistic side. Blanche is a party girl who gradually becomes obsessed with the desire to have a baby. Carl is the easy-going sidekick, finding intellectual solace in his role as an observer. Throw in a fire, an earthquake, an isolated farm far from civilization, a wise female mentor, and a revolution on the boil. The result is—not exactly a plot, for this saga is no more orderly than the lives of its protagonists, but a direction for the river of the story to flow.
Award winning author de la Cuesta has lived in two Latin American countries, and that experience doubtless informs her considerable ability to paint the scenes for this rambling idyll. Anyone who has ever ventured deep into Mexico beyond the border towns and beaches will feel at home in her settings. The ritual of a pig slaughter is a classic “pueblecito” situation, as are the charming folk vignettes, like the servant girl who packs a garden hose to take home to her village, believing that it would always give water. Touches like those make for some “Marquez moments” that de la Cuesta should be well pleased to have crafted.
CARL, WILLI AND BLANCHE is an emotive time machine back to a more idealistic, more footloose era.
-IndieReader.