Elena Knows

***Spoiler Alert*** I love reading foreign authors' books as I gain great insight in their ways of building stories, developing characters, etc. Needless to say, I was looking forward to reading this book. However, the characters disappointed me. They were so full of hatred. The story is centred around Elena - a widow who has Parkinson and her daughter, Rita who cares for her. Both of them have hatred for the disease that is tying them together and the hatred spills over to their relationship. Rita sees no life for herself in taking care of her mother - she feels trapped. Elena feels trapped in her body. When Rita commits suicide, Elena looks to who the murderer could be and later is told that it is probably she who precipitated the death of her daughter. Along with this, is a woman who wished the death of Rita for saving her from an abortion long ago. The book is full of anger and I believe that Pineiro is trying to stuff all her beliefs (pro-abortion, pro-assisted dying) in this story. She sees life from a dark and dismal place instead of one from hope. Pineiro portrays Elena as a burden on her daughter and society (even though Rita fights any help at each turn) and concludes that if Elena only died, it would save Rita - but Rita cannot be saved because she can't see that she has a gift in her mom. This is less of a mystery and more of a soapbox. Perhaps her mysteries are better.

Elena Knows is very well written and translated. It communicates in a very compelling way the horror of living with advanced Parkinson’s disease. And it deals directly with agonizing social issues.