Money to Burn – Piglia

During class last week we were once again given a small spoiler for this book in the form of “it’s something different than the coming-of-age stories we’ve read as it’s going to be a thriller” and that description stayed true while reading this week’s book. Right from the beginning we are thrown into a fast-paced book with a bit of a confusing writing style. It might be less of the style though and more of how the author throws a lot of information about the characters from the get-go making it hard to distinguish who’s backstory belongs to whom, making it overwhelming. Despite this, the amount of action going on constantly never lets it be boring, which made me invested throughout the entire book. In comparison to the other books we’ve read so far with the family dynamics between the parent-child I feel like this book can still apply to the family dynamic through the form of found family, as the group of men seemingly care about each other and are extremely close.

This book contains a lot of shocking descriptions and dialogue through the use of vulgar language from the men making it conflicting to emphasize with them. It puts the characters in a morally grey zone throughout the book due to the author giving almost every character an in-depth background and history. Even the background characters who would appear briefly had some type of history shared about them, for example, the man shot in the leg during the shootout on pages 135 to 137 where after he got shot we were told “everything had been turning around for him”. Although I felt conflicted when trying to empathize with them due to their actions moments when they showed vulnerability made it easier as when the Kid had died, the Gaucho and him shared almost a heart-wrenching moment through the nicknames, emotions and the reveal of the Gaucho’s real name, Marquitos, making them appear more human.

Besides the relationships, the book was centered around money through the heists and the burning of it showing how much power it holds over society. The burning of the money at the end of the book symbolizes to me the end of the journey for the group of men as it reflects a change in their paths and beliefs as the money itself loses its value and significance as it can be boiled down to just a number in a system.

In my past posts, every time we’ve read a book where the writing style was confusing or the book was “uncomfortable” or presented moral dilemmas I typically have disliked it. But after finishing this book it’s not my favourite but one of the better ones I’ve read in class so far. 

My question for the class this week is “Did you find it hard to empathize with the characters?”.