Chronicle of San Gabriel by Julio Ramon Ribeyro - Review & Giveaway
Travel by book. It’s the only hope most of us have to go globetrotting and see places we’ve dreamed of, always feared, or never even heard of. In Chronicle of San Gabriel, Julio Ramon Ribeyro will take you to a Peru you never knew existed. Based on his own experience, this fictional work recounts one 15-year-old boy’s trip with his skirt-chasing, ever-drinking uncle to visit relatives in the mountains of Peru. The world he discovers there at the family hacienda is like nothing he could have fathomed.
The hacienda of San Gabriel is more of a pit stop, being the only place along the way for travelers to rest for the night and get a home cooked meal and perhaps a few too many adult beverages. While a large number of rebellious cousins and quarreling aunts and uncles call it home, others drift in and out causing a constantly changing series of interactions between contrasting people in the middle of nowhere - a sort of mini galaxy.
I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between Chronicle of San Gabriel and one of my favorite books The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. In both instances, you have an unusual group of people placed together in a remote location. Both groups form their own hierarchies, smaller groups, etc. as people are prone to do. But in Chronicle of San Gabriel, the outcome is more wild, passionate, and even sometimes lawless than the mostly-European group in The Magic Mountain. Oh, would I love to sit down and talk with someone else who has read both! This could consume the better part of an afternoon.
If you’d like to win your own copy of this fascinating book, I have one to give away. As usual, there are three ways to enter: 1.) Subscribe to this blog to be entered into this and all future giveaways here. 2.) Leave a comment telling me what intrigues you about this book (something more than “Sounds good” is kindly requested). 3.) Post a link back to this giveaway on your blog. Or do all three, and you have three entries. The winner will be drawn on April 3, 2008, at 12noon EST. (Please enter themommyspot(at)gmail(dot)com into your address book so you don’t miss the email telling you the book is yours.)
March 31st, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Peru is my favorite country, and I’d love to read this!
March 31st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
its my fantasy to read books and travel through them peru sounds fantastic
March 31st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
[...] Where: carp(e) libris reviews [...]
March 31st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I love meeting all kinds of people when I travel. This book sounds like I could get what I like without leaving home.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
love books of south and central america
March 31st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Hi, I have never been to Peru or anywhere in South America! I would enjoy reading about the young man and his uncle. I love to learn about different cultures in remote places. The cover of the book looks intriguing. It would be interesting to compare “The Magic Mountain” with this particular book!
Please enter me in your drawing. Thanks,Cindi
March 31st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I think this sounds like a fascinating read!
March 31st, 2008 at 9:56 pm
The fact that “Chronicle of San Gabriel” it is interpreted through the eyes of a young 15 year old boy is intriguing and will add a unique and innocent, coming-of-age perspecitve. I would love to hear his story.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:58 am
I’ve always been an aficionado of South America
April 1st, 2008 at 1:36 am
I have always been fascinated with Peru and this story sounds exciting.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:21 am
I have always been interested in South America
April 1st, 2008 at 2:32 am
I would like to read this book.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:56 am
I never been to Peru and probably never will go…..but I’ve longed believed in being able to travel thru reading, count me in please
April 1st, 2008 at 7:53 am
i did a report on Peru, it sounded like a really interesting place, i love reading of other’s adventures in foreign places
April 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am
i love to travel even through the eyes of others.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:41 am
I love to be sucked into a whole new world when reading a book!
April 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am
Thank you for this giveaway!
April 1st, 2008 at 9:34 am
Quareling aunts and uncles? Sounds familiar. I’d love to enter your contest.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:56 am
This is something I have never read much about.,..and with the desciptions sounds absolutely facinating to learn and read more about…great cover as well!
April 1st, 2008 at 10:47 am
Reading a travel book is meaningful and transports me to another realm. What a great giveaway. This is fascinating reading.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
family and relatives, that’s always interesting. I haven’t read The Magic Mountain, I might have to buy that.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:05 am
Do count me in! I have blooged about it here!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:19 am
Sounds very interesting
April 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am
I love reading about family dynamics. Sounds interesting!
April 1st, 2008 at 11:56 am
I love reading books about other cultures and countries, this one sounds interesting. Thanks for the chance.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
i love reading about real people and their real adventures, this sounds really great!
April 1st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I love reading about other cultures, especially those in South America. Please enter me, thanks.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I always enjoy visiting other places.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I loe travel stores like this! This sounds great!
April 1st, 2008 at 7:56 pm
enter me
April 1st, 2008 at 8:39 pm
yay, i love this book. I wanna own one. Love travel stories and a country’s culture.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Peru is my favorite country.
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 am
Though I was lucky to visit france on several ocassions in a past life.. I can’t say I will ever get the chance to go back or for that matter travel again (especially not to Peru!) That must be exciting… *sigh*
I added you to prizeatron.
http://www.prizeatron.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 am
I’ve always been intrigued about South America, the Peru storyline makes me want to really win this contest!
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:59 am
I’d love this because I find human nature fascinating and it’s really interesting to see how the mind works and what choices people make when trying to make structure out of non-structured situations.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:10 am
Sounds like a wonderful book!! Just what I need at the moment..to be taken somewhere I’ve never been! Sign me up to win this one!
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
looks great!
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
This book looks extremely interesting. I would love to read it as my “Peru” book for my Read Around the World challenge
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I love to read and it look interesting.
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I always love the chance to read a new book. This sounds so interesting. Being a young child & finding out about his family & roots sounds like a wonderful adventure. I love to learn about new cultures & places in the world to get get so involved that I actually became part of the boof. Thank-you for this fantastic opportunity.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Looks good!
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
like to read
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
This sounds great! I’m linking to your giveaway, and I’ve added your blog to my google reader (is that what you meant by subscribe?).
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I would like to experience Peru.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
[...] buy the winner any paperback on Amazon; but you have to be participating in BAFAB as well to enter, carp(e) libris has a copy of Chronicle of San Gabriel up for grabs, Write from Karen’s offering one winner any book of $15 or less, and Deblog has a really neat [...]
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
uuuuuuuu! yes, this one looks great! count me in. I love all things foreign, they are so interesting and exciting to me for some reason. I’d love to win this one.
Thanks for another great giveaway!!!!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
<3 books!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Sounds like alot of lively and interesting conversations in there with the mixture of families squabbling with the occasional drop in of offbeat travelers passing through. Sounds like a good read!
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
going on vacation soon - would be perfect read
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
This looks like a very good read.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
This looks like a good read!
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I’m fond of the exotic and the risqué. Sounds like this is up my alley.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 am
Awesome - Peru is intriguing to me.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 am
I would love to Peru-se this book…..my children are too young for me to do any serious globetrotting — so this book might take me away……for a while.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:53 am
very intriguing
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 am
the cover intrigues me!
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 am
The idea of complex relationships being explored in a remote location in a foreign culture intrigues me.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 am
I have gone to visit the areas I read about in the past, especially in Michener novels.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 am
The interactions between people in this group in Peru and the resulting outcomes intrigues me about this book.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 am
His wild adventure intigues
me !
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
My grandparents frequently visited Peru (lived there for a while, if I remember correctly), so it would be interesting to read about his version of Peru and compare it to theirs.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:21 am
My girlfriend is headed to Machu Picchu later this year — it would be great to win this for her!
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 am
i would love to read about this great place …
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Any kind of writing about foreign travel intrigues me! I’d love to read it!
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Sounds like my kind of book, travel and meet people without leaving home.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
The combination of different people thrown together by circumstance sounds really interesting!
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I would like to read
April 4th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Thanks for having a giveaway. I posted a link about your giveaway on my blog: http://trishtheconqueror.wordpress.com/
April 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
When I was in 5th grade, I had to choose a South American country to do a report on, and I chose Peru. Since then, I have been fascinated with the country. Plus, I love books that take me to new places - I travel through literature!
April 7th, 2008 at 1:21 am
I have the mad travel itch, but I also have a mountain of debt and a spouse now with his own mountain of debt, so travel-by-book is all I can do. I am definitely subscribing to your link!