Carnaval Fever
A percipient girl narrates her tumultuous life experiences in Carnaval Fever, Yuliana Ortiz Ruano’s lyrical, pulsing novel.
In the 1990s, in Ecuador’s Afro-Ecuadorian neighborhood of Esmeraldas, Ainhoa lives at her grandmother’s house with her extended family. She dislikes playing with other children and prefers the company of her girl relatives; she loves to climb the backyard guava tree and commune with nature. Keen-eyed, Ainhoa dreads the approach of womanhood, having witnessed how mature girls attract men, and how often men bring conflict and abuse.
Narrated from Ainhoa’s garrulous perspective, the novel is peopled with vibrant personalities. Ainhoa’s hardworking father is like “an old car, always puffing smoke and playing music”; her grandmother and great-grandmother are respected midwives, skilled in natural healing. Ainhoa’s grandfather, Papi Chelo, reinforces her fear of adulthood and men; Chelo’s brutal and moralizing domination of his daughters is hypocritical, and he pursues frequent extramarital affairs. He is also predatory towards Ainhoa, sneaking into her bedroom at night with a gun, smelling of “bitter sweat” and “alcoholic breath.”
Beyond Ainhoa’s worries about her impending adolescence, another unstoppable force overwhelms the family: the arrival of Carnaval. The annual celebration is detailed with verve. Swarms of people indulge in the passion of the season. Beyond the raucous joy are episodes of violence, alcoholic excess, and sexual assault. Ecuador’s drug trade and financial crisis intensify its economic disparities, and Ainhoa’s uncle succumbs to a mysterious disease, AIDS.
Written with unsparing sensual velocity, the novel Carnaval Fever is about family and cultural complexities and an exuberant, troubled girlhood. Both anguished and enlivened by the world around her, Ainhoa is a spirited, compelling heroine. Her increasing struggles with her “girl-not-woman body” and muddled mind lead to impulsive defiance leading into the book’s somber, integral conclusion.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
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