Beaufrey's Posse and the Almanac Warning

We've caught back up with Beaufrey and David, on the finca with Serlo. I think the pictures Serlo handed David while out riding really were of Monte, because Serlo's character is detached and doesn't go for mind-games. I think he got fed up with Beaufrey toying around with David, and decided to put an end to the game. And although David thought the child in the picture was too big to be his, he hadn't seen his baby in well over ten weeks, and they grow fast. With Eric and now David gone, Seese is the only one not of sangre pura whose death Beaufrey hasn't caused. I hope that ultimately, Beaufrey will get what's coming to him. He and Serlo's ideas about pure blood are ridiculous- in the book, the non-mestizo indigenous they look down upon also have pure blood, so what makes them "filth"? The Alternative Earth Unit Serlo has designed is very weird. But he senses the uprising of the people and has good reason to be concerned, which brings me to...

...the almanac. Its purpose has been revealed- in the same manner that the arrival of Cortez was predicted, the fragments Lecha is trying to preserve record what will happen in the coming days regarding the same struggle, Native American vs European (or the upper classes vs the downtrodden lower ones, if you choose to look at it that way). The Almanac predicts that just as a hurricane builds, strikes, destroys, and is receded, the Europeans/oppressors will also fade away, restoring the land and society to its proper former balance. I had no clue what the almanac could be about that would be so important, but as a guide to the coming tumultuous days to let people know what to expect, I can't think of anything more practical.

And, of course, what ties these two aspects of the book together is that the spirits must be very disgruntled with people like Beaufrey, and when the upper classes fall, he'll be among them.

Two Old Women

I loved that the author embellished a piece of oral tradition and published it! This is a great idea, especially for mebers of a fairly small tribe, to preserve tales handed down from generation to generation.

The amount of courage and determination in this book was astounding. I, for one, don't think I would care to get up and find wood and set traps and preserve food and travel long distances by foot- just to get up and do it all over again indefinitely, after every member of my family and all of my friends had turned their backs on me, with no hope of ever seeing any of them again. I would have stayed in the snow and let myself fall asleep.

However, I found it a bit surprising they don't also leave the infants, who must be carried, need more food, and cannot contribute any knowledge or skills, such as the old women did working with hides and sewing. I wanted to meet these women myself. It would be amazing to live with them and learn about survival and resourcefulness- how many modern men can kill a squirrel from a distance with a well-timed fling of an axe? They also had amazing life stories: one had the audacity as a young woman to stand up to the chief and lived alone for years because of it, before finding a man who was similarly shunned. The other was forced to wed an older man in the tribe, resulting in what I assume was a lackluster marriage.

The morals of the book were 1) Don't complain or people will think you're useless, and 2) take care of/listen to/respect your elders.

Almanac: Too. Much. Sex.

So. It's really hard to follow a book which jumps around so much, introducing so many new characters and story lines we forget the details of the ones we read about 200 pages ago.

That said, what is Silko's deal with sex? I know it's a part of life, but really?! I don't care if the chief of police's prick gets hard thinking about a date with his new mistress, or if Leah 'rode herself raw' on Trigg's 'rod,' or if Menardo ejaculated across the sheets, or if Alegria likes it from behind. EW. Considering the book is a portrait of the lower levels of society, am I to assume that every single one of them lack morals, since they have ALL cheated on their significant others? Does she want me to think everyone in the margins of society has nonstop, indiscriminate sex? And that every single male will follow the whims of his fickle, greedy penis?

That said, I do understand that sex plays an important function in the book. In many cases, such as Leah sleeping with her business clients or Zeta with her boss, it has functioned to consolidate power and help the women get ahead. And it serves as a portrayal of human lust, since I can't recall a single instance in which two people slept together out of actual love. It is a portrait of male power, especially in cases such as the skinny secretary having bruises on her genitals from someone's "loaf" of an organ. But jeez people, keep it in your pants!