The Origin of Sadness , by Pablo Ramos, is one of those novels that, although short, gradually delights us. If you'd like to learn more about the book, you've come to the right place.
The origin of sadness
It is a short novel, barely 168 pages long, that you can easily read in a free afternoon, but this book in particular is one of those that requires you to read them in parts, in three, specifically. Since there are three stories it contains, which are related to each other, the same characters and landscapes, but if you read them independently it would not affect it at all.
Gabriel, a boy who rode a horse through his childhood to maturity, the point in life where we are literally in the middle, where we question (and others question) everything, and understand the world less than at any other time.
At that stage where there is nothing but uncertainty, what fantasizing about love and sex consumes our time. Gabriel lives in a neighborhood called “El viaducto”, in the 80s. It is that type of childhood that, although it happened on the other side of the planet, is more similar to ours than to those of today's children. It is that type of childhood where we would spend the day on the street, with the bicycle, disappearing from home for hours, and doing a thousand things with our friends.
This is the environment where Gabriel thrives, only in a much poorer neighborhood than where most of us grew up:
One year after Julia was born, our room had to be divided in two to make hers. Dad simplified the construction as much as possible and built a single wall, leaving half a window on each side. And if sleeping in a room with a half-window that opens onto a kitchen sounds weird, it was worse that Mom and Dad's didn't even have a window, and its only opening was a double door that led straight into ours.
So in order to get into their room, they had to go through ours. Also to go to Julia's. To go to our room to the bathroom you had to go through the dining room, and to go from mom and dad's, you had to go first to our room and then to the dining room. A dining room that in the time of the grandparents had been a gallery, and that had an aluminum awning as a roof where the rain, no matter how finite, sounded like the storm at the end of the world.
If there is something strange (or different) in the language of the text, it is that it is obviously Castilian but with a marked Argentine character. This in particular is one of the points against the book, because it is difficult to start, since it is a very particular dialect. In the second and third story there are no unforeseen events, it is a matter of getting used to the first.
The story, as highlighted in the quote, is narrated in the first person by Gabriel himself, which makes us feel even closer. She has no shame to express her feelings, what she sees, what she likes and what she doesn't. That innocence is exposed and allows us to open up and question things that over the years we only do in private or internally.
Opinions about the novel
Another point that can be considered negative in the story, but which nevertheless totally makes sense, is that it is an open narrative. It not only has an open ending, but the entire narrative. It could easily be three random chapters of a novel.
At all times it conveys that feeling that it doesn't close, that you don't know all the surroundings or all the circumstances of Gabriel's life; but on the contrary, you are left wanting more. But it's part of the magic of the book, which is like seeing someone's life through a hole in a wall, but from the wall of his feelings.
Pablo Ramos, the author, captured in The Origin of Sadness those moments in our lives that are more difficult to write about, when everything bothers us, when you feel you know more than others, and when adults are an enemy you need to fight.
It's very difficult to capture how we feel when we leave behind our innocence and the comfort of our family, when we yearn to conquer the world, when passion and impulsiveness drive us. And Pablo Ramos captured it perfectly; there are countless phrases and subtle touches that convey that Origin of Sadness . You feel the anger, detachment, and rebellion.
The Origin of Sadness is a tender and melancholic story, where the things that matter most aren't necessarily the most relevant, but rather those that make your heart skip a beat. A short and sweet story to savor and enjoy slowly, with a cup of coffee, sitting on the sofa on a cool day. A story where the small details are the ones that bring the most joy and sorrow.
That concludes our article on this wonderful short book. If you enjoyed this article, please visit our related article, " Summary of The Labyrinth of Solitude."
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