The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza (Book Review)

The Taiga Syndrome
By Cristina Rivera Garza
Translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana
Published by Dorothy
Price: $16.00

The unnamed female narrator of The Taiga Syndrome used to be a detective, and not a very good one at that. She has a long list of all her failed cases. But some good did come out of them. She makes a living writing novellas based off her career. So she's a bit shocked when a man hires her to investigate the disappearance of his wife who has ran off with her lover.

The husband wants the narrator to find his wife and bring her back. It's not going to be that hard actually. The wife has been sending the husband photos, letters, and of all things, telegrams, chronicling her movements. The wife and lover have fled into the "taiga" which is a term used to describe the area where coniferous trees like pines thrive on the border of tundras and snow lines. You've seen flyovers of these areas in nature shows, where you see miles and miles of green pine trees.

The husband is afraid that his wife might be suffering from "Taiga Syndrome" which refers to madness induced by living too long in the taiga. It causes paranoia and a panic to run, which in the end, proves fruitless.

The narrator sets off to track them down in a land which feels like Russia but is never named. She is accompanied by a translator/guide on her travels.

I guess you could call this a detective novel, but not the in vein of Sherlock Holmes. The more apt comparison would be to Paul Auster and his New York Trilogy where the detective's investigation becomes an investigation of his own identity and meaning. The same applies here. The narrator is searching for the wife and lover but it also allows her to experience her own memories and the cycle of love and falling out of love.

At times the narrative can wander into psychedelic head trip territory and even has moments reminiscent of horror. The author digresses into the origin of Grimm's fairy tales and sexuality. Always behind everything is the taiga, the dark forest, a place of fear and strangeness, that seems threatening, liberating, and enlightening.

I liked this book but can't say it's good because it reminded me too much of the tail end of post modernism from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The plot kind of wanders around and snorts cocaine and then tries to write a Buddhist sutra to seem really profound. I liked the VISION of it, but not so much the storytelling. I actually enjoyed the digressions out of left field. The weirdness. It seems like it should be edgy but hearkens back too much to a spent movement.

My Grade: B-