The Secret History of Costaguana [Paperback]

Richly told fictional account of Colombia and the building of the Panama Canal. Was this story the basis for Joseph Conrad's 1904 novel Nostromo set in the fictional Costaguana?

In 1904 Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad wrote his novel about a self-publicising Italian expatriate by the name of `'Nostromo'`, set in the fictitious South American republic of Costaguana. Columbian writer, Juan Gabriel Vásquez imagines that the fictitious José Altamirano has assisted Conrad in his research by telling him his own story, only to find that the British novelist has subsequently inexcusably omitted him from his book. Now, he is seeking to set the record straight by telling the reader, who he imagines in the role of a jury, as well as someone named Eloísa (who we later find out about) the same story to pass judgement on if this was fair.

Operating in this grey area between fiction and non-fiction, combining literature with history and addressing issues of influence and originality, Vásquez explores what Columbia means as a nation, with repeated violence and political upheaval, as well as illustrating the influence of the individual on history. And it's highly entertaining, not least as the narrator, José is a witty and charming story teller, albeit one that is perhaps a little full of his own importance.

Running through the centre José's story is his relationship with his father, Miguel, a journalist, who finds employment with the company charged with digging the Panama Canal. Panama at the time was part of Colombia. His father is, by nature, optimistic and views events with a degree of `refraction' (what we would now call spin) and rather than telling the truth about the terrible conditions and deaths that occur with the project, he spins a tale of great endeavour which keeps the French backers supporting the project. Indeed, the book forces you to consider the ethical questions raised by the act of writing, not only in Miguel's work, but also ultimately in Conrad's treatment of José. At the centre of Conrad's book was a dispute over a silver mine, although Vasquez suggests that this is a thinly disguised alternative to the Panama Canal.

José is convinced that there is a link, forges by the `Angel of History' between his life and that of Conrad, however far fetched this claim may be. There's no doubt that he has witnessed great suffering and by the time he meets Conrad, he is carrying a guilty conscience and a story that has almost destroyed him.

As I've said, José charges the reader with the role of judging if Conrad's appropriation of his story matters. For the vast majority of the book I will admit that I felt it didn't much - but ultimately I found myself thinking that perhaps it does matter. At least now, Colombia can reclaim this story for its own.

But for all the plot and history contained in this book, and the ethics of an author using a man's, and a country's, history to pursue his own fictional end, the real joy of it is in the writing. By turns the book is tragic, funny, insightful but never less than a delight to read in the voice of a natural raconteur of a narrator. The translation by Anne McLean is superbly smooth. If you like big, rich stories and beautiful writing, then this is a fantastic choice. The only slight drawback is the preponderance of Colombian rival politicians that can get a bit confusing - but I suspect that it was similarly confusing to the Colombian residents of the time too!

The famous writer Joseph Conrad struggles to provide for his young family in early 20th century London, and is plagued with self-doubt about his ability to become a successful writer. The novel he is working on is set in South America, where he briefly captained a ship along the Colombian coast, but he finds himself unable to recall details about the country or its people, as he spent very little time there. He seeks the assistance of a well connected Colombian émigré, who puts Conrad in touch with José Altamirano, who has recently arrived in the capital. Altamirano shares the troubled and tragic story of his life and country with Conrad, hoping that the great novelist will tell the world what he has experienced.

The following year the first segment of Conrad's novel "Nostromo" is published in a weekly literary magazine, which is set in the fictionalized country of Costaguana. Altamirano is infuriated, as the story is not about him at all, and confronts Conrad: "You've eliminated me from my own life. You, Joseph Conrad, have robbed me." The Colombian then decides that only he can tell his story, which serves as a retort to Conrad's life and work.

Vásquez uses the life of Altamirano and his father, who was intimately involved in the initial disastrous attempt to build the Panama Canal, to create a fictionalized history of post-independence Colombia and Panama, one filled with opportunistic but deeply flawed characters whose plans brought misery and death upon thousands of its citizens and continue to haunt the country to the present day.

"The Secret History of Costaguana" was an instructional and interesting novel. However, I found it to be a somewhat difficult read, as it was filled with far too many peripheral characters and too much inconsequential detail, which diluted the power of Altamirano's narrative. I would recommend this for anyone interested in the history of 19th century Colombia and Panama, and for anyone who has read "Nostromo".

This is an ambitious novel, an attempt by the relatively young Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez to write serious literature. Give credit to him for that. But he tries to do too much; the novel is too diffuse and glib; and the Joseph Conrad angle is little more than an attention-getting gimmick. Despite some clever and entertaining passages, and a few brilliant ones, as a whole the novel fails.

The first-person narrator is José Altamirano. He was born in Colombia in 1855, the bastard son of a journalist father who coupled just one time with the Colombian wife of an American adventurer/engineer. Altamirano lived through the vicissitudes of Colombian politics and history until 1903, when the machinations of the United States - greased by several shiploads of marines and a chest of silver - brought about the secession of the State of Panama from the Republic of Colombia. That rupture, in turn, allowed the United States to pick up where the French had left off in building a trans-isthmus canal across Panama rather than Nicaragua. By coincidence Altamirano might have been able to thwart the Machiavellian maneuver by speaking up at a crucial moment, but he kept his silence. Plagued with guilt, he ended up abandoning his daughter in Panama and retreating to London for the remainder of his life. There, he was visited by Joseph Conrad, who was stymied in writing a novel set in an imaginary South American country called Costaguana. Altamirano spent a long evening with Conrad, relating his own story of Colombia and how it had been molded by the Angel of History, the Political Gorgon, the Journalism of Refraction, and human greed and ignorance. In doing so, Altamirano provided Conrad with the mythological/historical framework for what became his masterpiece, "Nostromo", only with a canal between two oceans having been transformed by Conrad into a silver mine. Altamirano then writes this, his own narrative, in 1924, shortly after the death of Joseph Conrad.

The best part of THE SECRET HISTORY OF COSTAGUANA is its episodic portrayal of the post-colonial history of Colombia (and Panama) through 1903. Vásquez presents much of the evidence that justifies these various conclusions about his native land: (i) "Colombia is a play in five acts that someone tried to write in classical verse but that came out composed of the most vulgar prose, performed by actors with exaggerated gestures and terrible diction."; (ii) "The regular massacre of compatriots is our version of the changing of the guard."; and (iii) "We Colombians were taken by the hand of our big brothers, the Grown-up Countries. Our fate was played for on the gaming tables of other houses. In those poker games that resolved the most important issues of our history, we Colombians, Readers of the Jury, just sat there like statues."

As those quotes exemplify, Vásquez's writing is playful, creative, zesty, and sprinkled with good, sardonic humor. There are many clever lines -- such as describing a drawing room cocktail party with "exchanges of witticisms that are the human version of dogs sniffing each other's tails". But for a novel-length work of serious literature, the tone is too light, too flippant. In the end, it imbues THE SECRET HISTORY OF COSTAGUANA with a sense of superficiality. There is no character development at all. Moreover, the reader is given little reason to care about any of the characters. Altamirano's abandonment of his daughter Eloisa is inexplicable, except as a facile vehicle for putting him in contact with Joseph Conrad. But then the entire Joseph Conrad episode (which, in actuality, takes up less than a tenth of the novel) strikes me as contrived. In my opinion, the novel would have been better off without it, though less marketable perhaps. In the end, I fear that THE SECRET HISTORY OF COSTAGUANA is Vásquez's contribution to a version of dogs sniffing each other's tails being played out in today's literary world.