In a nutshell Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases is the story of a Jewish family living in revolutionary Argentina whose teenage son is "disappeared" by the police. The plot centers on the parents' attempts to get him back.
There were several things I enjoyed about The Ministry of Special Cases. A) Oscar, my cat, knocked over a glass of water on the book, making the pages crinkle. I love playing with crinkly pages. It's like popping bubble wrap and being able to read at the same time. B) The Ministry of Special Cases has many, many chapters and frequently the end of a chapter is only half a page long, maybe even less.. C) AND The Ministry of Special Cases is divided into three parts. That means thrice the reader comes upon the occasion when he faces a short page of text, a single page designating which part is about to start, and a blank page before the text again starts. Truly momentous events! D) At this point you may be surprised to learn that the author did sometimes express an interesting idea in a pleasing manner, but it did happen.
1) At the start of the revolution, a character notices uniformed and armed young men marching slowly through the streets. She notes, "Trouble does not break out anywhere in the world …. War is not unleashed. It is slowly, it is carefully, installed." (page 37) Unless, of course, it is installed by the United States to protect her interests. Then there's shock and awe.
2) A character asks, "Why do you suppose all those soldiers out there are also nineteen? It's because they're the only ones stupid enough to die for a cause. After that, a little older, and the high-mindedness will melt away like baby fat. It's only generals, …your military men and your outright morons, that go boldly after adolescents looking for a reason to die." (page 82) I was frequently amazed at how well this book "about" Argentina nailed the United States.
3) A nation in turmoil: "The troubles always start when they start for you." (page 255) "First they came for," etc., etc.
4) A character warns, "These are the things this country wants desperately not to know." (page 307) Sound familiar? If not, let me remind you of: How dare that soldier release pictures of what happened at Abu Ghraib! He should be thrown into the brig.
5) And perhaps the most fitting quote from this book comes near the end: A character says, "Nothing like a novel to knock a man out. I've been reading the same two pages of this one for a year." (page 315) If he ever does finish it, I have a recommendation.
So, A) why'd I finish it, and B) what happened to stopping at fifty pages if a book isn't interesting? A) I wanted to know if the parents found the kid. B) At fifty pages there were still glimmers of interest, which--damn it all--teasingly appeared throughout all three hundred plus pages.
