A Review of "Signs Preceding the End of the World" by Yuri Herrera

Maybe I shouldn’t have read Lisa Dillman’s Translator’s Notes at the end of Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World before I read the novel. Or maybe my impressions would have coincided with Dillman’s. More than a poet, I am constantly involved in language, so reading about the parameters Dillman worked with, her sensitivities to Herrera’s various uses, sources, and shapings of language, were revelatory and also sense-making to me.

While Dillman cites Cormac McCarthy as a writer she studied for parallels with Herrera (along with Dante, Blake, and Carroll) Herrera’s tone is much less aggressive, feeling congenial as he guides us through Makina’s journey/quest. A unique element of this book is how genuinely Herrera, in 3rd person narrative, sees and speaks through Makina’s eyes and mouth.

Makina’s mother gives her a message to take to her brother in America. Her first step is to visit the three gangsters (Fates?) who control things and can give her the help she’ll need.

Part of Herrera’s genius here is including so much in such a short space. The hero’s journey. The Rio Grande as the River Styx (but which country is the land of the dead?). Makina encounters border vigilantes, a shopping mall and a baseball stadium—icons of now. The mix of the mythic—too many references to mention—with the contemporary political is subtle, creative and powerful: there’s truth and omens, options and uncontrollables.

Racial and political comments/observations are throughout this novel, and come to an amazing head with Makina’s brother’s story. After her brother leaves, Makina encounters a sheriff, and to help a fellow arrestee she writes a statement which the sheriff reads, beginning with this:

 “We are to blame for this destruction, we who don’t speak your tongue and don’t know how to keep quiet either. We who didn’t come by boat, who dirty up your doorsteps with our dust, who break your barbed wire.” The sheriff can barely finish the paragraph. I was awestruck.

There’s so much here. Huzzah to Herrera for his insights, big heart and sharp eyes. At just over 100 pages this book is so resonant, clarifying and questioning. Read it on your next open day. You might want to change your plans for the day after.