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The Weight of All Things
by
Sandra Benítez
Author . Discussion Questions .
Reviews
 About
this Guide
The following
author biography, critical praise and list of questions about this book are
intended as resources to aid individual readers and book groups who would
like to learn more about the author and this book. We hope that this guide
will provide you a starting place for discussion, and suggest a variety of
perspectives from which you might approach this book.
About this Book
Sandra Benítez received international acclaim for her first two novels:
A Place Where the Sea Remembers ("A quietly stunning work that leaves soft tracks in the heart."
--The Washington Post Book World) and Bitter Grounds ("The kind of book that fills your dreams for weeks."
--Isabel Allende). Now she returns with an unforgettable tale of life in war-torn El Salvador.
The Weight
of all Things is a novel about war -- and the lunacy of it --
seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy. The battleground is El Salvador. The hero is
Nicolás Veras. His story begins at the funeral of assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero. Along with thousands of others,
Nicolás and his mother have crowded into the plaza of the capital's cathedral to pay homage. When gunfire erupts,
pandemonium ensues. With bullets flying in all directions, his mother throws herself atop
Nicolás to protect him, and is killed. When medics arrive to take her body away, the boy believes she is only wounded. In the
melée of the moment, he loses sight of her.
The attempt to find his mother begins an odyssey that leads from one peril to another.
Nicolás searches through a merciless no-man's-land menaced by guerillas on the left and the army on the right. It is a search that ends in still another massacre, and a heroic gesture by the boy who comes to understand, as grown-ups seemingly
cannot, that guns and violence are not the answer; that, in war, there are no winners, and that the ultimate losers are the
innocent caught in the middle.
About the Author
Sandra Benítez is the author of A Place Where the Sea
Remembers, which won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award; the Minnesota Book Award; and was a finalist for the
Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award. Bitter Grounds won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award.
Benítez is a past Keller-Edelstein Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Minnesota, and she won a Bush Foundation Fellowship in Fiction. She lives in Minnesota.
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Discussion Questions
1. The novel’s story is told through the eyes of Nicolás Veras, a nine-year-old
Salvadoran boy. Do you think this point of view is effective? What do you
think is gained by portraying the story this way? Would the story have been
more powerful if told through the point of view of an adult?
2. The concept of fate -- the idea that events occur in our lives over which we have
no control and that we must do the best we can to play with the cards we are
dealt -- is deeply embedded in Latin American culture. In what ways did Nicolás
show he accepted his fate? And in what ways did he show he refused to accept
his fate?
3. When fate is unkind, many turn for help from a higher power. Nicolás turned
to The Virgin after whom he was named. Do you think this belief really helped
him? Do you think he would have coped just as well if he hadn't had this belief?
4. Benitez couches the appearances of The Virgin to Nicolás in ambiguous language
so that the reader can't be sure whether they're meant to be real or merely
imagined. However, we know that Nicolas believed she really did appear and
speak to him. Did you?
5. In the final analysis, which group threatened
the most harm to Nicolás -- the guerilleros who commandeered his rancho in the
mountains or the soldiers who offered him "a new life" at their garrison?
Why?
6. Nicolás and his grandfather, Tata, wanted nothing more than
to just be left alone. They didn't want to take sides. But circumstances were
such that neither the left nor right would allow them to be neutral. Do we sometimes
find ourselves in a similar situation? What can we do about it? What are our
options?
7. There appear to be few joyful moments in The
Weight of All Things. But joy is relative. Do you remember a scene or two
that could pass for joy or, at least, hope?
8. What is it, do you think, that enables people
to keep functioning in the midst of constant ambiguity, fear and stress such
as characterized the war in El Salvador?
9. Aside from Nicolás, which other characters in
the novel struck you as being highly memorable? For you, what is the most poignant
scene in the novel?
10. Thanks to The Virgin’s support, Nicolás is left with a philosophy to live by:
adopt the gentleness of the lamb, the strength of a lion. Might this philosophy
be one that is of use in our own troubled world today? Copyright © 2001 by
Sandra Benítez. All Rights Reserved.
Reviews
"Sandra Benítez's new novel, The Weight of All Things, ably conveys that intimate texture and an authentic sense of the personal experience of living through war . . . the sheer amount of historical and cultural detail, as well as the pointed and precise descriptive work, are wonderfully rewarding . . . And Benítez can move easily and fluidly from a graphic description of a field amputation to a sensual tribute to the joy of eating a tangerine." --Chicago Tribune
"In this graceful and unabashedly tenderhearted novel, the politics behind the fighting is almost beside the point." --New York Times
"Benitez spins a lyrically heart-rending tale of a 9 year-old-boy's confrontation with . . . the Salvadoran civil war . . . [the] story is . . . emblematically universal." --The Washington Post "The Weight of All Things is a strong and provocative novel."
--Oscar Hijuelos, author of Empress of the Splendid Season and
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
"In this fierce novel, events are dramatized with such sensory perception and narrative pulse, the reader must gasp, then weep. Sandra
Benítez imbues this tragic history with dignity and optimism, through the
medium of the perfectly rendered scene. She is a novelist of great anger and greater love."
--Sandra Scofield, author of A Chance to See Egypt
"Benítez does it again. From the first lyrical sentence to the last
powerful scene, she draws us into a fascinating world of violence and love, death and redemption. What a read!" --Ana Veciana Suarez, author of
The Chin Kiss King
"If your book club wants to know what to read this year, I
wholeheartedly recommend The Weight of all Things. A lyrical parable about the folly of war set in 1980s El Salvador, it chronicles the experiences of a nine-year-old boy caught between battling factions as he searches for his mother. This odyssey is for all of us who are looking for 'a place where the river is wider and the water is not as deep.' "
--Mickey Pearlman, author of What to Read: The Essential Guide for Reading Group Members and Other Book Lovers
"The Weight
of all Things, like Kosinski's The Painted Bird, illuminates and makes particular the horrors that people at war can inflict on a young boy. More than any report of events in El Salvador I have ever read, the story of
Nicolás Veras and his terrible odyssey will stay with me." --Katherine Weber, author of
Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear and The Music Lesson
paperback:
February 2002;
$13.95US/$19.95CAN;
0786887036
Available at your favorite bookseller.
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