The Tunnel - Argentina 🇦🇷

At the beginning of this book, Juan Pablo Castel introduces himself as the murderer of María Iribarne. So, in unapologetic writing, "The Tunnel" starts Castel's story of how he met and murdered the only person he thought understood him.

In this psychological novel from the late 1940s, Castel is a considerably known painter in Buenos Aires. He is a presumptuous artist who doesn't like anyone and feels misunderstood. He tolerates humanity always in a judgmental tone.

The tunnel present in the title is built by himself. The loneliness is created by his contempt for everyone. He doesn't show any fraternal feelings, empathy, or love toward anyone.

Until the day that, in one of his exhibitions, he sees a woman staring at a detail in one of his paintings. Something that no critic or painter had noticed. Hence, this is the opportunity to break his loneliness and meet someone just like him. So he obsessively seizes this chance.

This book brought me so much discomfort and a literary hangover that was difficult to deal with. It's an extremely toxic relationship from the beginning to the end.

Who is María?

María Iribarne appears in this novel as Juan shows her. After thinking over the text I couldn't tell if she is what Juan describes in his heightened rationalization. He analyzes every gesture and word of hers, getting into a spiral inside his head.

During my book hangover, I read a few reviews to see if anyone had any conclusions about who María is that were better than my near-diagnosis. And I found some comparisons with Capitu (the character of Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, a famous Brazilian author. Capitu's husband suspects that she cheated on him with his best friend. But there is no confirmation of such betrayal). Is she sly or depressed? This similar ambiguity of Capitu is throughout Juan's description of María.

SPOILER ALERT

after all, there was only one dark and solitary tunnel, mine, (...) And in one of those transparent places in the wall of stone, I had seen that woman and had thought naively that she was moving through another tunnel parallel to mine when, in reality, she was out in the open world, the limitless world of those who do not live in tunnels;

Ernesto Sabato's writing takes you inside the head of a sick and obsessive person. You feel uncomfortable and hope that María is saved, even though we already know the end.

I do not recommend this book to anyone triggered by toxic relationship topics.

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About the Writer

Ernesto Sábato (1911-2011) was an Argentinian novelist, essayist, and visual artist. Researcher and physicist, he began publishing articles in 1941 on philosophical, scientific, and political topics. He worked for human rights in Argentina's democratic transition. He is considered one of the greatest Argentine authors of the 20th century.

Other Books: Uno y el Universo (1945), On Heroes and Tombs (1961), he Writer in the Catastrophe of our Time (1963), The Angel of Darkness (1974)