Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera Review

Makina’s brother crossed over to America - “the Big Chilango” - chasing a spurious land deal. Gone for a while, she now makes the Mexico-USA border crossing herself in search of him, with a message from their mother. Will she find him - is he even still alive?

I sorta liked Yuri Herrera’s novella Signs Preceding the End of the World although I don’t think I fully understood it, nor fully appreciate it as a non-Spanish speaker, and the short book lost me in places.

The scenes about the crossing itself were great: Makina visiting the various Mexican gangsters with letters instead of names, in the run-up to her crossing; the crossing itself; the shadowy figures that inhabit the border world - compelling stuff.

The parts where Makina is basically just wandering about were quite dull. These are also the parts where I felt Herrera’s stylised prose didn’t quite survive the translation into English and these passages felt murky to read. Lisa Dillman’s translator’s note mentions how difficult it was translating Herrera given his syntactical choices and the regional style he was writing in - for example, “versed” is used in lieu of more common words like “moved” or “walked”.

The ending is also weak and I wasn’t clear what we were meant to take away from the story - it certainly felt like it was trying to impart something. I get that Herrera was emphasising that American life isn’t better than Mexican life, or that Mexicans aspire to be Americans or have any desire to give up their cultural identity - the crossing over is transactional only.

But then life in Mexico doesn’t seem that much better. The story opens with a literal sinkhole opening up in Makina’s town! And there wouldn’t be such a large infrastructure surrounding border crossings if there were better economic opportunities in Mexico. Coupled with the title, is this intended to be a nihilistic parable then?

I’m not entirely sure, but parts of the book are undeniably entertaining and it’s a short, swift read, so I didn’t mind it. The parable-esque tone to it, its Latin flavour and brevity put me in mind of Steinbeck’s novellas, particularly The Pearl, as well as Cormac McCarthy’s books. Signs Preceding the End of the World is a decent quick read, if largely unimpressive, and readers who enjoy Steinbeck/McCarthy’s work will enjoy this the most.