MARTIN RIVAS

This intermittently tedious but eventually rewarding fiction—the first full-length novel published (in 1862) by its Chilean author, a would-be Balzac—portrays in workmanlike depth the —education— of its eponymous hero as he is born in the impoverished north, raised by a wealthy Santiago family, and matured by his involvement in revolutionary politics. Blest Gana’s extended contrasts between Martin and his loved ones, colleagues, and enemies pays mixed dividends in an overly earnest, infuriatingly discursive narrative that nevertheless does gradually create a convincingly detailed picture of a culture under siege and in flux. Blest Gana is no Balzac; he may, however, be Chile’s Howard Fast or Upton Sinclair.