The President and the Frog by Carolina De Robertis: A review

What a pleasure this book was to read. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to it for it had been in my reading queue for months but finally, I picked it up as my very last read of 2021 and it turns out it was a great way to close out the year.

It is a short book at only around 220 pages so one could almost read it in one sitting if one had nothing else to do. Carolina De Robertis packs quite a lot into those few pages. She gives us the story of an 82-year-old man who is the former president of a South American country that is never actually named but is assumed to be Uruguay. He is about to be interviewed by a television journalist from Norway and as he waits for her he reflects on his life and on the part of it that he does not want to reveal to anyone. That secret part is his relationship with a frog.

As a much younger man, the former president had taken part in an attempted revolution against the autocratic government that was then in power. The attempt was unsuccessful and many of the revolutionaries, including him, were captured and imprisoned in solitary confinement for years. His cell for the first four years was a hole in the ground with a grate covering part of the top through which food was lowered to him each day and through which he was extracted from time to time for "questioning," i.e., torture. His only light came through that grate and his only companions at first were the spiders and bugs that found their way into his hole, but finally, another creature joined him there: a frog.

This was no ordinary frog. For one thing, he could talk. He was, in fact, a philosopher frog, a snarky and prescient frog, and he and the future president had many long conversations about life and its meaning. They talked about the quest for justice and dignity and what it means to love a country. Those conversations are full of irony and satire as they reflect on politics, on the disparities endemic in society, and the systemic racism that seems so hard to root out. Their conversations are sometimes funny, sometimes moving, but always insightful. And they are a secret that the ex-president has carried with him for more than forty years.

The interview with the journalist takes place in 2016 after the presidential election in the United States and that, too, comes up in the conversation. The ex-president marvels at the idea that a country could freely elect such an ignoramus to be its leader.

This is the third of De Robertis' books that I have read after The Gods of Tango and Cantoras and I think it may be my favorite. It is very different from the other two books but it has in common with them her brilliant insights into what it is to be human. It is part historical fiction and part fable and she ties all of that together beautifully with masterful writing. The technique she employs is to flash back and forth through time as we witness the interactions with the frog who urges the man to dig deep and find "the One Thing" and the conversation with the interviewer who expresses concern about the ramifications of climate change and of the American election. The result of comparing and contrasting the two conversations is to give us a sense of the indomitable human spirit that finds hope and optimism even in the face of the grimmest reality.

It's difficult to adequately describe this novel. There isn't much of a plot and one can't really say it is character-driven. The "action" takes place entirely in the head of the main character, as we are privy to his thoughts and memories. It's not a book that everyone would enjoy, but I loved it and I'm just glad I finally got to it at the end of the year.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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