Description
In 1958, Carlos Monge McKey sneaks out of his home in the middle of the night to fake his own death. He does not return for four years. A decade later, his son, Carlos Monge Sanchez, deserts his family too, joining a guerrilla army of Mexican revolutionaries. Their stories are unspooled by grandson and son Emiliano, a writer, who also chooses to escape reality, by creating fictions to run away from the truth. What Goes Unsaid is an extraordinary memoir that delves into the fractured relationships between fathers and sons, grandfathers and grandsons; that disinters the ugly notions of masculinity and machismo that all men carry with them - especially in a patriarchal culture like Mexico. It is the story of three men, who - each in his own way - flee their homes and families in an attempt to free themselves.… (more)
Publication
Scribe US (2022), 368 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member lriley
This is my second go around with Monge. The first The Arid Sky was a little less subtle than What goes unsaid but both are about the tentacles that the Mexican drug cartels have into pretty nearly every level of Mexican society. The grandson Emiliano wants to know what’s going on within his own
It’s very interesting but it’s a book that a reader needs to take his/her time with because it can get confusing if you don’t read it carefully. Overall I liked it but not quite as much as The Arid Sky which had more elements of a crime thriller and a bit more action. Monge is a very good writer IMO but like a lot of writers though one book you like better than another.
Show More
family….the disappearances and reappearances of his grandfather throughout his life….his father’s bitterness about his grandfather and his own disappearances and neglect of the family and backgrounding that the very sinister stability provided by his maternal uncle…..someone his mother always defers to over even her own husband. It’s very interesting but it’s a book that a reader needs to take his/her time with because it can get confusing if you don’t read it carefully. Overall I liked it but not quite as much as The Arid Sky which had more elements of a crime thriller and a bit more action. Monge is a very good writer IMO but like a lot of writers though one book you like better than another.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tnechodomu
In "What Goes Unsaid," Emiliano Monge gives the reader an intertwined story of three generations of men struggling to figure out who they are; a struggle that haunts each of them so deeply that each ends up using an extreme form of escaping in order to solve their problems. One man's story is
The author's writing style is unique and there are three, if not four, distinct writing styles throughout the book that challenge the reader to shift gears in order to understand what's going on. The author's use of multi-page run-on asides, and asides-within-asides, can also be frustrating when you find yourself having to turn back a page to remember how a sentence began. One of the most interesting things about the author's writing style is what goes unsaid in the book, specifically, his half of the conversations/interviews with his father. This unsaid half of entire conversations leaves the reader with cryptic moments where they need to fill in the blanks at times, something I found humorously ironic rather than frustrating. These stylistic notes do not deter me at all from highly recommending this book, though, because Monge's writing style and his story was so fascinating that when I finished it I immediately flipped to the beginning and read the entire book a second time (something I'm not sure I've ever done before, but it was worth it).
This book is a must read for anyone who has ever felt stuck in life - not because it'll give you answers, but because it'll help you to realize that you're not alone.
Show More
heart-wrenching and will make your core ache with sadness; another man's story is deep and wise and full of witty-frustration gleaned from their honest reflection of life; and one man's story is erratic and leaves the reader hoping desperately that they find their truth because, unlike the other two stories, his is the only one that has no closure, because his story is still happening.The author's writing style is unique and there are three, if not four, distinct writing styles throughout the book that challenge the reader to shift gears in order to understand what's going on. The author's use of multi-page run-on asides, and asides-within-asides, can also be frustrating when you find yourself having to turn back a page to remember how a sentence began. One of the most interesting things about the author's writing style is what goes unsaid in the book, specifically, his half of the conversations/interviews with his father. This unsaid half of entire conversations leaves the reader with cryptic moments where they need to fill in the blanks at times, something I found humorously ironic rather than frustrating. These stylistic notes do not deter me at all from highly recommending this book, though, because Monge's writing style and his story was so fascinating that when I finished it I immediately flipped to the beginning and read the entire book a second time (something I'm not sure I've ever done before, but it was worth it).
This book is a must read for anyone who has ever felt stuck in life - not because it'll give you answers, but because it'll help you to realize that you're not alone.
Show Less
LibraryThing member eudoh
Emiliano Monge’s compelling memoir about family, mental health, and identity, What Goes Unsaid, examines the impact of loss throughout several generations of men within his own family. Monge presents his, his father’s, and his grandfather’s lives in alternating chapters that each focus on one
Though not a light read, this memoir offers spurts of humor and is interwoven with historical events in Mexico’s evolution.
Show More
of the men. The structure is occasionally confusing, but Monge’s differing writing style and major plot-points for each generation allow his writing to flow clearly. Monge’s prose lays bare many of the underlying patterns of abandonment that have plagued his family for generations and the emotional trauma each abandonment (and the familial sum of all the previous abandonments) has on the family.Though not a light read, this memoir offers spurts of humor and is interwoven with historical events in Mexico’s evolution.
Show Less
LibraryThing member pomo58
What Goes Unsaid by Emiliano Monge is a "fictionalized memoir" that made me, in turns, frustrated and in awe. Ultimately, in examining his own familial history he makes the reader ask whatever question(s) may be central to their own.
The distinct differences between each generation's section of the
I was easily carried along in each separate story as well as the larger story, which is really an inquiry. So as a memoir I feel it was successful. In particular the ways it interrogated masculinity, or more accurately how men perform their idea of masculinity.
What makes this a book that will stay with me has less to do with Monge's family history and more with what his questioning approach elicited from me. Most memoirs, even ones that intend to highlight some broader questions, are largely nostalgia through a lighter or darker lens. Those generally make me remember my life in a nostalgic manner, even the less appealing moments. But this intense questioning, this intense desire to answer questions, made me think about, and re-frame, moments in both my and my family's history.
While I highly recommend this memoir I would also warn a reader to keep in mind this is both a fictionalized account and far more thematic than a basic chronological telling.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The distinct differences between each generation's section of the
Show More
book, in both format and voice/narration, makes each quite unique in the reader's mind. Perhaps Monge has elaborated on why he did this but for me it served to illustrate something about history. The further back we go we have only written texts with which to understand, and even the best attempts, even in diaries, contain some element of self-editing, of thinking/knowing that this will, at some point, be read by another. More recent history has the advantage of being interrogated, oral histories often being the result of interviews or some type of exchange between the now and the not-long-ago. Finally, trying to understand our now, to try to place it in context, is difficult and usually episodic. We are in the moment so we don't have the (dis?)advantage of hindsight. We can be brutally honest one moment, somewhat apologetic the next, and in denial the next. We may stumble on our answers, but how aware of it are we? Like they say, only time will tell.I was easily carried along in each separate story as well as the larger story, which is really an inquiry. So as a memoir I feel it was successful. In particular the ways it interrogated masculinity, or more accurately how men perform their idea of masculinity.
What makes this a book that will stay with me has less to do with Monge's family history and more with what his questioning approach elicited from me. Most memoirs, even ones that intend to highlight some broader questions, are largely nostalgia through a lighter or darker lens. Those generally make me remember my life in a nostalgic manner, even the less appealing moments. But this intense questioning, this intense desire to answer questions, made me think about, and re-frame, moments in both my and my family's history.
While I highly recommend this memoir I would also warn a reader to keep in mind this is both a fictionalized account and far more thematic than a basic chronological telling.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Show Less
LibraryThing member pattjl
I too feel like the history keeper of family tales, so I appreciate Monge's efforts to capture the lived experiences of his father and grandfather. One of my favorite aspects was the inclusion of several cookie and drink refill breaks (because storytelling can take a lot out of a person!). I just
Show More
mainly struggled with the flow of the novel, finding it hard to follow at times. I was also curious to know if the grandfather's journal entries were fictionalized or not. Show Less
LibraryThing member kidzdoc
Emiliano Monge (1978-) is an award-winning writer of novels, short stories and children’s books who is one of the most highly regarded Mexican and Latin American writers of our time. His latest book to be published in English translation focuses on the lives of his paternal grandfather, Carlos
The book opens with a quote from the front-page headline of a newspaper published in Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, in 1962: “MONGE, DEPRAVED RASPUTIN!” The Monge in question is the author’s paternal grandfather, who disappeared four years earlier after staging his own death, leaving behind and severely disrupting the lives of his wife and four children, until he suddenly reappears four years without a hint of penitence, as if he had left to go to a corner store a few minutes earlier. Monge describes his grandfather’s scheme, then places it in context for what is to come:
But the scene that I have just sketched is not what matters. It is simply a list of events, And events are not the story. Even facts are not the whole story. The story is an invisible current in the depths that moves all things. The true story is why my grandfather sensed—instinctively, as an animal might—that he had to leave. Just as, many years later, my father would do the same. And how, in turn, my moment came.
The author returns to his home town to interview his father, a bitter man who is wracked with illness and frailty and seems much older than his apparent age would suggest. The fictionalized conversation between the two men consists only of the father’s dialogue, and the reader is left to fill in the son’s comments. The history of the Monge family is slowly revealed, akin to separating the layers of an onion, as the son extracts details about the life of his relatives, from his reluctant father. Other chapters consist of diaries kept by the maternal grandfather, and the author’s own story of his life, and those of his parents and brothers, told in the context of México over the past 75 years.
What Goes Unsaid was an interesting view into the lives of a remarkable but not unusual Mexican family, and the often difficult and fractured relationships that men of all backgrounds have with their families, and with each other.
Show More
Monge McKey, his father, Carlos Monge Sánchez, all of whom share one major trait: each found a way to escape from his family to pursue his own needs and desires, and in doing so neglected their responsibilities as husbands, fathers, and sons.The book opens with a quote from the front-page headline of a newspaper published in Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, in 1962: “MONGE, DEPRAVED RASPUTIN!” The Monge in question is the author’s paternal grandfather, who disappeared four years earlier after staging his own death, leaving behind and severely disrupting the lives of his wife and four children, until he suddenly reappears four years without a hint of penitence, as if he had left to go to a corner store a few minutes earlier. Monge describes his grandfather’s scheme, then places it in context for what is to come:
But the scene that I have just sketched is not what matters. It is simply a list of events, And events are not the story. Even facts are not the whole story. The story is an invisible current in the depths that moves all things. The true story is why my grandfather sensed—instinctively, as an animal might—that he had to leave. Just as, many years later, my father would do the same. And how, in turn, my moment came.
The author returns to his home town to interview his father, a bitter man who is wracked with illness and frailty and seems much older than his apparent age would suggest. The fictionalized conversation between the two men consists only of the father’s dialogue, and the reader is left to fill in the son’s comments. The history of the Monge family is slowly revealed, akin to separating the layers of an onion, as the son extracts details about the life of his relatives, from his reluctant father. Other chapters consist of diaries kept by the maternal grandfather, and the author’s own story of his life, and those of his parents and brothers, told in the context of México over the past 75 years.
What Goes Unsaid was an interesting view into the lives of a remarkable but not unusual Mexican family, and the often difficult and fractured relationships that men of all backgrounds have with their families, and with each other.
Show Less
LibraryThing member leisure
What Goes Unsaid is a well-written, evocative, fluid account of fathers and sons, tales and realities, here and not here, actual and fictional, truth and lies, remembered and forgotten, visible and invisible, present and not present, witnessed and imagined, cruel and loving, spoken and silent,
Show More
freedom and bondage, life and death and rebirth. Show Less
LibraryThing member Babs.2021
The author had an interesting story of a father who fakes his death to escape his life, as well as writing well with clever style. But I was overwhelmed by the heavy emotion that didn’t really let up and did not finish.
LibraryThing member Phille
I just couldn't get through the dialogue. I wanted to like the book since it spoke to themes close to my heart, but the narrative style wasn't readily available to me.
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2022-07-19
2019
Physical description
368 p.; 8.3 inches
ISBN
1950354911 / 9781950354917