Leaving Tabasco

A Novel

By: Carmen Boullosa

Narrated by: Ruth Livier

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Carmen Boullosa is one of Mexico's most acclaimed young writers, and Leaving Tabasco tells of the coming-of-age of Delmira Ulloa, raised in an all-female home in Agustini, in the Mexican province of Tabasco. The Washington Post Book World wrote, "We happily share with [Delmira]... her life, including the infinitely charming town she inhabits [and] her grandmother's fantastic imagination."

In Agustini, it is not unusual to see your grandmother float above the bed when she sleeps, or to purchase torrential rains at a traveling fair, or to watch your family's elderly serving woman develop stigmata, then disappear completely, to be canonized as a local saint. As Delmira becomes a woman, she will search for her missing father, and will make a choice that will force her to leave home forever.

Brimming with the spirit of its irrepressible heroine, Leaving Tabasco is a story of great charm and depth that will remain in its listeners' hearts for a long time.

©1999 Carmen Boullosa. Translation copyright 2001 by Geoff Hargreaves. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Carmen Boullosa... immerses us once again in her wickedly funny and imaginative world." (Dolores Prida, Latina)

"To flee Agustini is to leave not just a town but the viscerally primal dreamscape it represents." (Sandra Tsing Loh, The New York Times Book Review)

"A vibrant coming-of-age tale... Boullosa [is] a master.... Each chapter is an adventure." (Monica L. Williams, The Boston Globe)

A very boring story

This is a very boring book. The only reason I made it past three hours was because I skipped multiple chapters. None of the characters are particularly interesting. Their interactions have no impact on the following chapters. There's nothing driving me to know more about the grandmother's story and yet you still have to listen to it.

At first, it seems like you're going to be reading a story about the development or growth of the narrator, but for the most part she jumps to a conclusion, gets yelled at, and then the story moves on. There are very few moments of reflection. Then, it becomes a supernatural series of unusual events and yet, the writing was so bland that you don't really care to know more about why these things are happening

The narrator used varying voices for the characters and I felt she captured the childlike innocence of the character with the way she read. She read a little slow sometimes, but it wasn't that off putting.