Paraíso es tu memoria

Paradise is Your Memory

“The descriptions of objects is reminiscent of Proust

as well as the prose of Lezama Lima.”

Fernando del Paso

“There are several parallelisms in the story's plot that can compare

with Lampedusa's Gatopardo. The characters witness their own

decadence and try handling as best they possibly can, although

in the end they will suffer the same fate.” Jorge Volpi

Paradise is Your Memory spans Justo de Llave’s family history, a fifty-year-old aristocratic bachelor, who with stupor witnesses the crumbling of a regime and a system—his own—which he thought imperishable before the outburst of the Mexican Revolution. He has never worked and his fortune is slowly depleting in a convulsed and ever changing modern landscape which questions everything. Before the uncertainty that lies before him, one thing is clear: that to preserve the politesse and his obsession for the arts (he is a hopeless music lover) is the only way to defend what is left. In his quest to find answers to his personal crisis, he decides to take a trip to Europe just like a few of his friends have, nevertheless, on his return to Mexico he still faces the same dilemmas, including his love for Chelin, his great love, rejecting the opportunity to marry her, or even the possibility of living together, as he considers he lacks the sufficient economic means to do so. Much to his own regret, it just might be time for him to find a job and begin a new life.