Thank you to the team at the International Booker Prize for gifting me the longlist to review, including The Adventures of China Iron! This has not affected my opinion in any way.
The Adventures of China Iron just proved to me that Charco Press are out here publishing the most cutting edge books in the industry. You need to check them out if you have any interest in contemporary Latin American lit!
Overview
Set in the Pampas of Argentina, this is Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s reimagining of an epic poem, told from the perspective of Fierro’s young wife who he left behind while he went off doing gaucho things. We journey with China (pronounced Cheena, and referring to a woman, wife, servant or girl, and not really a name at all but what China is used to going by) both physically and mentally as she traverses the Pampas with her new companion Liz, a Scottish woman and discovers her sexual awakening along the way.
Inspiration
Did someone say queer retelling of José Hernández’s epic poem Martín Fierro? Is anyone else, like me, severely under-read when it comes to Latin American classics and has never heard of Martín Fierro before now? Well never fear because this book is still amazing even if you have zero context of this epic poem! I Wikipedia’d it a few times but I think The Adventures of China Iron stands well on its own. Plus, if you ARE familiar with Martín Fierro you’ll just have an even better time with it!
The Translation
Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh tackled this translation as a team, and they did an incredible job. The language in this book is so rich, filled with references to Argentinian nature and smatterings of Guaraní vocabulary. Moreover, they had to tackle translations of poetry! Needless to say, they pull it off spectacularly. They transport the reader to the scene, allowing them to discover a whole new world alongside China Iron.
Final Thoughts
This sensual, subversive novel deserves many rereads, with new analysis each time. Seriously, there are so many layers to this book and so many lenses it could be read through. You would read it differently every time, and gain something new each time too. I’ve rated it 4 stars for now but I do think the more times I read it, the more I would get from it and the more I would love it!
If you missed my reviews of the other International Booker longlisted books, you can find them here:
- The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
- The Memory Police
- The Discomfort of Evening
- Hurricane Season
- Tyll
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