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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
There are two sides to every story, and Mark Whittle tells both in his historical fiction book The Jacarandas: A Novel of Argentina's Dirty War. From 1976, the titular South American country underwent a radical and violent transformation following a coup d'état and the immediate implementation of martial law, resulting in one of history's bloodiest uprisings. Whittle introduces readers to his protagonist, Daniel, a young man with right-leaning ideologies that are cemented by the death of an uncle in a leftist attack. When he is reassigned from visible enforcer of Argentina's military junta to an infiltrator of the left, his allegiance and ideas are tested in ways he could have never imagined. “You’ve been chosen because you are strong and because you have something useful to me. Useful to your nation. Do you wish to serve your country, Inglés?”
The Jacarandas is a tightly written story able to engross a reader in a conflict with no real winner and thousands of people dead. Mark Whittle provides the landscape and takes us into its heart with multiple points of view characters, the primary being Daniel. The internal conflict Daniel faces is as intense as anything outside and it is remarkable to see his narrow vision begins to expand, which hits the ground running in chapter twenty. How on Earth does one reconcile the horrible task of turning in people you know, care for and who trust you implicitly, against the dogma of an alliance you believe so strongly in that it is practically carved into your bones? How do you justify extremism on either end of the political spectrum that destroys the hope of anyone in the middle, especially when a middling stance means you are the enemy of the left or right? These are the questions Whittle poses, and that a reader walks away with having to make up the answers themselves. This is a fantastic, thought-provoking book that I have no doubt will linger with readers long after it is finished.
