El precio de la fuga

by David Unger

In 1938, as Samuel Berkow’s tramp steamer from Germany approaches Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, he is full of hope that he will be able to remake his life in the new world. Part character study and part riveting narrative of a German Jew escaping the Nazis, this novel provides its own mix of Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline, as Samuel stumbles to get his footing in a hostile setting.

David Unger was born in Guatemala City in 1950 and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of two previous novels and a story collection. He has translated sixteen books into English, including works by Nicanor Parra, Silvia Molina, Elena Garro, Barbara Jacobs, Mario Benedetti, and Rigoberta Menchú. He is considered one of Guatemala's major living writers even though he writes exclusively in English.

Genres: Fiction

332 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Henry Estrada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela bastante interesante desde un punto de vista psicológico. Sin embargo, hay pequeños detalles que le quitan las cinco estrellas. Las enumero a continuación:
1. El desconocimiento del autor por el lugar narrado en el libro es bastante evidente. Es obvio que David Unger nunca estuvo en Puerto Barrios o que estuvo poco tiempo. Las constantes descripciones de Puerto Barrios como un lugar de "mierda" o un lugar de perdición me parecen no solo erróneas, sino que hasta puede que lleven a confusiones para las personas que no conocen el lugar. Curiosamente, solo se habla del mal estado de la ciudad, pero poco se habla de las hermosas playas o del ambiente cultural que rodea al pueblo. Mal en este aspecto.
2. La novela es demasiado ideológica. Noto que el autor claramente tiene una postura inmisericorde hacia la bananera (aparentemente por su ideología izquierdista) sin darse cuenta de que sin esta misma Puerto Barrios como ciudad no existiría. Es obvio que el autor ignora las historias de muchas personas que prosperaron gracias a la presencia de la bananera, o la educación que muchos recibieron gracias a la presencia de la empresa en el Puerto. Me parece algo triste y lamentable que por cuestiones ideológicas se ignore esto.
Ahora enumero aspectos positivos:
1. Fuera de los lamentables errores mostrados anteriormente, creo que la novela muestra la pena y el sufrimiento de la perdida de la identidad (en este caso el país) de una manera fascinante. Además, y aunado a las experiencias traumáticas del protagonista, hacen de la novela una lectura que no pierde el interés.
2. Los elementos absurdos de la novela le dan un toque kafkiano que me parece va perfecto con el tema de la historia. Constantemente vemos al protagonista tratar de salir de este lugar olvidado sin éxito, y encontrarse en situaciones cada vez más problemáticas. Ahora bien, me parece que el final constrasta mucho con el tono de la novela, pues es allí cuando se abandona esto de lo kafkiano.
En fin, una novela que está bien, con excelentes conceptos, aunque con varios errores graves que la alejan de la grandeza.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting. Kind of a mashup of Camus and Graham Greene.

[Saúl Girón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todos tenemos momentos buenos y momentos malos. A veces en seguidilla.
Samuel, el personaje principal, tuvo mala suerte y tomó una serie de malas decisiones.Algo nada fuera de lo normal en la vida de cualquier persona.
La historia me hizo regresar a la época de mi niñez, cuando precisamente en Puerto Barrios, miraba el tren pasar y eventualmente lo tomaba rumbo a Bananera.
El final de la novela me parece aleccionador: hagamos lo que tenemos que hacer, no importando lo que hagan o digan o piensen los demás.

[Madonna W. King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing - the book was just beginning to speak to me and it ended.

Have found this book to be upsetting and somewhat confusing. Then right at the end of spoke warmly of a broader journey Samuel was on and my heart warmed and I loved it. Then suddenly the book stopped.

[Margie Olvera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Very unusual story. This is the story of a man who through adversity learn much about himself redeeming himself in the process. Well told, kept me hooked.

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samuel Berkow, hero of David Unger's recent novel, "The Price of Escape", stands at the crossroads: In 1938, life in Germany is fast becoming dangerous for Jews. Urged on by his uncle, he leaves for Guatemala where his cousin can help him settle. At thirty-eight, he is young enough to launch a new start. Unger builds his engaging story around the portrayal of the somewhat naive, over-confident Samuel as he stumbles totally unprepared into a completely different world. His efforts to retain his German persona while trying to survive port town chaos upon arrival in his new "home country" comes across to the reader as either funny, pathetic or irritating. Guatemalan-American Unger, recognized as one of Guatemala's prominent writers today, convincingly conveys the sense of utter confusion and helplessness that is part and parcel of any refugee's experience, transplanted across oceans, societies and cultures. He contrasts Samuel's former comfortable lifestyle with the poverty-ridden, appalling and at times dangerous conditions in Puerto Barrios. With it, Unger not only builds a sympathetic portrait of one refugee's complete dislocation and his struggle between resignation and the need to survive, he explores the wider theme of emigrant and refugee challenges. Set in Puerto Barrios, he also uses his depiction of a local community in decline to highlight a corrupt political system where private company interests control people's basis for existence.

The novel unfolds over the period of three days. From the moment he steps on land, Samuel encounters a wide range of odd and questionable characters, starting with American ex-pat Alfred Lewis, captain of the "tramp steamer" that brought Samuel into port. Lewis turns out to be a manipulating representatives of the sinister United Fruit Company, the big corporation running Puerto Barrios as a "company town", yet recently downgraded to a mere reloading point for banana shipments. Lewis, like other people he meets, warns Samuel not to linger in town and leave on the next train to Guatemala City, yet, like others, he does much to add to Samuel's delays and bewilderment. Every time he is set to make a move towards the station, something or somebody interferes: the dwarf, Mr Price, who offers himself as a guide; the seemingly helpful George, the hotel clerk/manager of the one and only "International Hotel"; his depressingly bare room there... Others appear in the colorful mix: a defrocked priest, the stationmaster, an old prostitute, and various bizarre groups in the streets or cafes/bars... For some reason, even if he tries, Samuel cannot extricate himself from their strange influence. People come at him with either sugary, even creepy, friendliness or with sarcastic comments and aggressive, even violent, confrontations, and can turn into the other without warning. Unger creates an atmosphere of suspicion, of hidden and open threats that intermingle in Samuel's mind with disturbing memories and images from his past life in Germany, thereby escalating not only his uneasiness but also resulting in his own increasingly eccentric behavior. Samuel appears to be caught in a vicious circle. With only basic Spanish, his communication is fraught with misunderstandings. Who is there to talk to openly and, above all, whose advice can he trust?

Unger illustrates Samuel's increasing disorientation with scenarios and encounters that easily recall, in some ways, Kafkaesque labyrinthine struggles. Yet, here, the hero appears to contribute much to the treatment he receives. His fashion-conscious clothing make him a laughing stock among the locals; his inability to extricate himself safely from several brewing conflicts puts him into physical danger. His reluctance to eat the local food and even drink the water results in stages of temporary mental confusion, even delirium, that make him act totally irrationally with no memory later on of what he said or did or why, for example, he ends up in the muddy water near the harbour, totally wet and soiled, crawling on all fours, searching for his passport...

The fundamental question hangs over the novel: What is "the price" of escape - both from Germany and from Puerto Barrios? The novel's conclusion answers these questions well, coincidences not withstanding. Unger ability to maintain continuous narrative tension keeps us as readers engaged. Despite his sympathetic and expansive characterization of Samuel Berkow, I found him less than a likable protagonist, at times deliberately overdrawn and his behavior exaggerated. Readers who anticipate - given various publicity materials - that considerable attention in the novel is given to the historical situation in Germany in the nineteen thirties, will be disappointed. Unger's primary concern is the arrival of a refugee in Guatemala.

[Diego Palomino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story of a man escaping from Nazi Germany and also from his past. Through adversity he somehow finds redemption.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unger presents a thorny protagonist here. Samuel should be a very sympathetic guy; he's a German Jew fleeing a Europe that is under the tightening grip of the Third Reich, and hoping to start a new life in Guatemala. However, Samuel seems incapable of seeing beyond his upper-middle-class station and is quick to anger at the smallest slights. Admittedly, there are a lot of nefarious characters here who exist, seemingly, for no other reason than to torment the recent immigrant. All the same, Samuel manages to bungle every chance he has to improve his situation. At the risk of giving too much away, Samuel continues to miss the capital city bound train - the only train out of the maligned port town of Puerto Barrios. I kept asking myself why he didn't simply find a comfortable spot on a bench in the train station and wait there for twelve hours if necessary. It's a common enough occurrence for anybody who has encountered delays at an airport; surely, similar situations existed in the 1940s. He could've read a book. It certainly would've been cheaper. But I digress.

Unger's prose is controlled, and he has a knack for drawing characters with only a few telling details, but at the end of the day there was definitely a connection missing here for me. I just couldn't get into it the way I'd hoped.

If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know where to begin with this book. I'm surprised by its rating of two stars on here. It's better than two stars if only for it's ability to hold a reader.

I read through this book really quickly and it kept my attention. At times it was a bit surreal taking us to scenes of delirium and confusion, and over all I would say I left the book a bit confused. There was no overwhelming complexity, no overwhelming suspense, but it still held my attention. The price of escape—what was it? But what I can say is that it left me thinking about the story. I kind of felt as though I was in Fear and Loathing (the movie, at least) at times. Disoriented, hallucinogenic—trippy. The protagonist would act out in odd ways that you wouldn't expect, and it leaves me thinking of it still.

I think it was an interesting read at the very least, even if it leaves a few things dangling for a reader. I don't think it authentically "captured the profound sense of displacement ," because I don't think most people would act as this main character had—so exaggeratedly out of norm. Unless this quote is applied to the reader, because you may be thinking about it afterward for quite awhile, and maybe YOU are displaced. As this is my first David Unger book, I would be interested in reading his other book. I really enjoyed it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s the 1930s and a thirty-seven German Jew is pushed to leave Germany by his uncle. He does not need much convincing having recently witnessed two Jews murdered in the street; all part of Hitler’s plan. Samuel makes it to Guatemala with the goal of meeting up with his cousin in Guatemala City. United Fruit rules the country. Those with company ties such as the American Lewis who captains a boat that takes Samuel up the coast are doing well. Later we learn that Lewis fled the US where he murdered a man. Those without ties to the company are mired in poverty eking out an existence in a bleak landscape. Samuel ends up in the sleepy coastal town of Puerto Barrios where he is waylaid by an itinerant dwarf who serves as his porter and hotel guide. He misses the train to Guatemala City and it becomes murkily uncertain if he will ever be able to make the train.
Unger writes passively well with a bit of a tilt in style toward Kafka. From Samuel’s perspective Puerto Barrios is completely surreal, his being there not unlike awakening in the body of a cockroach. The characters are a bit flat. Samuel seems to be passing through life in a dream state not unlike Kafka’s characters do, e.g., The Castle. Perhaps this is a good way to capture the shock of the new though Samuel appears to have been as dispassionate throughout his life.

[Patricia O'Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samuel Berkow’s life has been completely overturned. Once a successful businessman in Hamburg, middle-aged Samuel flees to Guatemala to escape the Nazi regime. Immersed in a culture of bribes, coarse manners, and raw survival, Samuel loses his bearing in just days, becoming with one act of violence the kind of man he’d always despised and feared. But as Samuel contemplates his life as he waits for the train that will take him from a rough port town to the capital city, he realizes that he has never really liked his life or understood the people in it. When he loses his passport in a rain storm, Samuel wonders if by changing his identity he can change his life.

This novel reminded me a great deal of The Stranger by Albert Camus because it evokes the same sense of disorientation and isolation of a man who has just suffered a great loss. I wasn’t sure if I liked Samuel, but then, I’m not sure if Samuel likes himself. At the same time, I found myself liking more and more the despicable Alfred Lewis, the American middle manager for the United Fruit Company who befriends Samuel, saving him more than once from his naiveté and indecisiveness. Though I enjoyed the book, I remain unsure if the price of Samuel’s escape is losing his life or getting a chance to remake it.

[ABC Group · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say that I'm a huge fan of this book, but it might be the character study approach that's just not my bag. Unger's novel starts off strong. We find our lead character Samuel in Germany witnessing some of the atrocities leveled against the German people by the Nazis. Samuel is then sent to Guatemala by his beloved uncle. It's at this point in the story where a clear shift to a character study begins.

Once Samuel finds himself in Central America the story becomes a bit too cerebral despite the crude events that take place in Puerto Barrios. Unger always seems to be going somewhere with Samuel's character, but he never reaches any climactic event. Rather, the story seems to teeter totter on the precipice.

I can't say that I'm compelled to read more by Unger. This books was by no means bad, it just left a lot to be desired.

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una historia que entrelaza dos realidades durante la segunda guerra mundial

[Cathy Aquila · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of dislocation. The Price of Escape depicts three days in the life of Samuel Berkow, a German Jew who leaves Nazi Germany by boat in 1938 to Guatemala where his cousin Heinrich awaits his arrival. From the moment he gets off the boat, Samuel falls victim to the malicious, often sadistic, characters that inhabit a hot, seedy port town.

[Miguel Antonio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela que cuenta la historia de un hombre atribulado en constante huída, tratando de encontrar la libertad emocional.
Un libro denso, al inicio lento pero con un buen cierre logrando sentir la desesperación del protagonista.

[Paula.winniggmail.com · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Descriptive writing.

The descriptive writing brought the many vivid characters and scenes to life. It was easy to picture the sights, sounds and smells of the places. However, the quick abrupt ending makes it seem as if the author simply tired of the book.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 1938, an uncle encourages his Jewish nephew to emigrate from Hamburg to Guatemala, where his son currently resides.