In Search of Bernabe
In this well-constructed first novel about El Salvador during the civil strife of the 1980s, Limon tells a tragic family saga. Raped by her grandfather at 13, Luz Delcano bears a son, Lucio, who is taken from her and raised by other members of the grandfather's influential family. Lucio becomes a colonel in army intelligence and heads the death squads. Meanwhile, Luz has had another illegitimate son, Bernabe, who plans to be a priest. But Bernabe is separated from his mother during a funeral procession for the assassinated Archbishop Romero, and fleeing from government soldiers into the mountains, he joins the guerillas there. His mother begins a search for him that takes her from El Salvador to Mexico City to San Diego and back to El Salvador. There she eventually finds Bernabe, after the death squads, on orders from Lucio--who hates the brother he has never met--have done their worst. Luz's search for her son and her deteriorating mental state as a result of war are compelling and chilling. But while we know what motivates her, the motivations of the other characters aren't as clear. Still, Limon effectively blends fact and imagination while asking, What is truth and what is fiction in El Salvador?Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.