One hundred and thirty years ago, an heir to a family curse became a bandit. On the run from Texas Rangers after a botched robbery attempt to raise his family and neighbors out of poverty, he becomes a legend.
Seventy years later, a successful cowboy movie star/singer in Mexico City ponders his next project. When he discovers a song about the legendary bandit, his elderly father tries to forbid him from pursuing it.
In The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James, the stories of the bandit and the movie cowboy unfold as tales of family love, family lore, and persevering. Pursuing riches starts the whole saga off with the bandit's grandfather. Alferez Antonio Sonoro was born with greed in his soul and an unwavering belief in his own entitlement.
He grows rich by the labor of indigenous men working in his mine. But rich is not enough. The mine is expanded and children are put to work. There is a Tower of Babel-like event. The land belonging to Alferez Antonio breaks off and becomes an island in the Rio Grande. The curse has begun, passed down to the mining baron's infant grandson.
Remedio, a creature whose function is to take the cursed to Hell when they die, can't do that to a baby who has his entire life ahead of him. So he turns away. The baby is Antonio Sonoro, who grows up in the decaying mansion that was his grandfather's. As a grown man with a family, he enters a tavern where poor people leave gifts for him. He gives the offerings to others. He lives in a shack and tries to raise goats and farm on drought-ravaged land, no better off than the people around him.
Antonio lives with his beloved wife, a daughter and son, and a "brother" who is really a parentless child taken in when he was a baby. Although Antonio has pulled off a few robberies, he dreams of a big heist. His main goal is to provide a better life for his family. Ruling over others does not interest him.
When he learns about a train laden with Mexican treasure to be sent to the United States for purpose, he knows this could be just what his family needs. Despite his better judgment, he lets his brother, a man of books and poetry, accompany him. They do find the train and haul away part of the treasure on board, but of course things go wrong.
While on the run, Antonio is shot and left for dead by the Texas Rangers. Except they don't kill him. The bullet went through his mouth, will leave a scar on his face and lodged somewhere in his body. He swallowed the bullet and lived. And now he is set for revenge.
His odyssey is a wild journey that chronicles not only the places he goes and whether he gets revenge, but also describes how Mexico and its people are treated by so many Americans -- as things to plunder and use for their own gain. The story fits the author's intent to show the casual cruelties and greed. And since the bandit is loosely based on her own family history, she knows what she is talking about.
Before Antonio's fate is revealed, the novel shifts to 1969 Mexico City. Jaime is Rooster, the beloved singing cowboy movie star. He has a loving family and enjoys entertaining his fans. A stranger is welcomed into his family circle, and discord soon creeps into the home. That stranger is Remedio, still tasked with taking cursed souls.
But what has Jaime ever done to deserve hell? Or Antonio? These are questions that come into the novel. But they are handled in such a way that honors the questions without bogging down the narrative of the quests of both Antonio and Jaime.
The Bullet Swallower, scheduled to be published next week, is an audaciously told novel with an ending that is a full-hearted display of what happens with people care about others, and the value of a family legacy that united generations.
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