Intensely Romantic Spirits, in Love and War

LOVING YOU WAS MY UNDOING

by Javier Gonzalez-Rubio

Translated by Yareli Arizmendi and Stephen Lytle

Henry Holt/A John Macrae Book

$21, 156 pages

*

First published in Mexico in 1991, Javier Gonzalez-Rubio’s hyper-romantic, intensely dramatic novel “Quererte fue mi castigo” has now been translated into English. “Loving You Was My Undoing” might be described as a love story set against the background of Mexico’s revolution. But politics and social change play almost no part in this tale of a man and a woman swept away by a passion beyond their control.

Francisco Larios is “a loyal servant of the revolution.” But his fearless ally, Valentin Cobelo, “a loner from the desert,” fights for the sheer love of fighting. A violent, taciturn man who inspires deep loyalty in his band of machete-wielding followers, Valentin is the story’s romantic hero, rather more in the mold of a Heathcliff than a Romeo. His soul mate is the beautiful, spirited, breathtakingly haughty Rosario Alomar. Haughtiness in a woman and pride in a man being qualities highly prized in their milieu, it seems almost inevitable that these two are destined for each other.

It is fate, of course, that first brings them together, and sadly but hardly surprisingly, their overwhelming mutual attraction threatens to prove fatal. As the story begins, the splendid Rosario is living in the little town of Monreal. Despite her “incredible arrogance” (which had daunted many a potential suitor), Rosario opted to wed a gentle, intelligent young man named Federico Farias: an honorable, idealistic armchair revolutionary. The town gossips are at a loss to account for this union between so fiery a woman and a youth who so clearly isn’t “man enough” for her. But Rosario and Federico get along just fine, thank you, until he is killed in a battle between the insurgents and the federales, when the revolution unexpectedly sweeps through their quiet little town.

In the turmoil that ensues, Valentin and the newly widowed Rosario meet. Her proud, courageous demeanor fills him with boundless admiration. She is a woman unlike any he has ever known. And he is more than “man enough” for her. It’s not only a matter of their intense sexual attraction: It’s something far deeper and more compelling. Theirs is the kind of hyperbolic romantic love that was such a prominent feature of 19th century Romantic fiction, beginning perhaps with Catherine and Heathcliff and culminating in Tristan and Isolde. Can a love this intense endure? Or will it shatter the limitations of mortality itself?

Rosario boldly leaves her familiar, civilized life to accompany her lover to his stronghold in the desert. But the climate and the passion prove too hot, too fierce. Can she abandon everything she has known, her very concept of herself, for the man she loves, the man whose “other half” she is? This is the dilemma at the core of the novel.

Classic or kitsch? To some extent, the answer depends on the reader. Some people find even the greatest works of Romanticism excessive and overblown; others eagerly devour such tales, whether brilliantly imagined or tritely formulaic. But for readers not sharing either predisposition, the answer depends on the writer’s handling of the subject. Gonzalez-Rubio employs striking imagery that melds landscape and emotion. Terse dialogue and swift narration lend further power and momentum to the story. Yet more than a few passages teeter on the brink of the ridiculous: “Valentin drew closer. Rosario Alomar clenched her teeth and slapped his face once, twice; as she prepared for her third strike, he caught her hand in midair, linking their bodies. Their breaths and desires mingled.”

Bidding a fond farewell to the fiery bandido and his haughty but hot-blooded senorita, however, I couldn’t help feeling a little shortchanged by a novel that draws so heavily on stereotypes and cliches. Mexico, after all, is a land of great diversity, its capital one of the most populous cities in the world. With so many unique stories to be told, why continue recycling the same handful of stock characters and situations?