By 1853, Benito Juárez had served as judge, deputy, and governor of the state of Oaxaca, but he would not become Mexico's first indigenous president until after a period of exile. Among other locations, he spent 18 months in exile in New Orleans, a time about which relatively little is known. With Season of the Swamp, Mexican writer Yuri Herrera (Signs Preceding the End of the World; Kingdom Cons; Ten Planets) sheds speculative light on this brief chapter in Juárez's life. Herrera's regular English translator, Lisa Dillman, again brings a precise ear for Herrera's linguistic play to this spellbinding fictionalized history.
Besides Herrera's contextualizing prologue, the name Benito Juárez almost never appears. Instead, readers accompany an unnamed protagonist, in close third-person perspective, from his arrival through his departure. Juárez marvels at the heat, the Yellow Jack epidemic, the local culture soaked in music and dance, and the stray dogs. He is dismayed at the enslaved people, referred to as "the captured," sold in open markets and subjugated, as in the novella's memorable opening scene. He meets with fellow exiles and political minds, makes new friends, settles in. New Orleans is beautiful and horrifying, and Herrera portrays both aspects simultaneously, with humor and lyricism.
Wordplay and a special attention to language form a persistent feature in Herrera's work. Juárez is attuned to new languages, including music and body language. A sense of wonder and play, linguistic curiosity, and a knack for being both morbid and funny, contribute to an absorbingly pleasurable read, even amid the death and tragedy. Herrera offers another brilliant novella steeped in political and historical time and place. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia