Chronicler of the Winds (Vintage) Review

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Chronicler of the Winds (Vintage) ReviewI had never read anything by Henning Mankell. I randomly chose Chronicler of the Winds, and it was a fantastic book. However, many will believe the opposite, and I fully understand why. On the surface it tells the grim story of Nelio, a mortally wounded ten-year-old homeless boy, shot twice in the chest and destined to die on the grubby rooftop of a bakery in Mozambique. In the nine nights he clings to life, he manages to tell everything to Jose Antonio Maria Vaz, a sympathetic and lonely baker. He tells a brutal story--murder, rape, and the lesser horrors of daily survival in the city--but in the end, the story possesses an odd feeling of hope. It changes Jose Antonio's life, and he roams the city telling Nelio's story to the wind.
Many will dislike this book for two reasons. The first involves the bits of magical realism that gradually overwhelm the plot. Nelio lives in the empty belly of an abandoned equestrian statue. He has never been beaten up by other homeless kids, appears to have curative powers, and expresses simple wisdom like an old sage. He shares his travels with an albino dwarf, then (by chance) befriends an albino toward the end of the tale. Mystical cats, healing herbs, floating spirits--not to everyone's liking.
The second reason, and for many the most damning, involves Mankell's clear attempt to "say something." I won't rant, but people tend to see any search for deeper meaning as an attempt at The Five People You Meet in Heaven, as if there can be nothing meaningful yet sincere. People either like or don't like to be given answers, and those who dislike will see Mankell as a heavy-handed dispenser of philosophy-lite. I think they miss the point. Mankell doesn't intend to give answers; he reminds you to ask the questions. Mankell's big question is this: What kind of world allows a child to die? Mankell doesn't answer this except to say that it matters. Who can argue with that? How can you not be moved when a child "forced to eat life raw" makes the simple observation, "Old people are supposed to die. Not children"? It's a question that, when handled with care, leads to a fine novel like Chronicler of the Winds.
Mankell also makes this brutal story oddly uplifting by reminding the reader that happiness, to a certain extent, comes from how you live inside more than how you live outside. I wouldn't say that Nelio enjoys his existence, but he does the most with what he has. He challenges the sorrow of his world, and while he doesn't overcome it, his gains small victories. Mankell has written a book that wallows in realistic brutality yet leaves the reader feeling moved, thankful, and oddly inspired. He earns my respect for that.Chronicler of the Winds (Vintage) Overview

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