spanish but not really

 This week's novel felt like perhaps the most personal we have read so far this term. It is about a girl and her father, among a litany of other children, and a bunch of other people who see him as a sort of father figure. While reading it, I thought of two other books, one of which we read earlier on in the term (Pedro Paramo) and one that I read back in high school (Lullabies for Little Criminals.)  The main connection between these three works is the fatherly aspect. In Pedro Paramo and Papi, both characters - who are also the title of each book - play a paternalistic role to their communities in a very materialistic sense. Pedro Paramo controlled all the food and everything else in the village, such that when he died everyone perished. Papi had a similar characteristic too, in that he provided for the whole community (at a price). Not only did he provide for the narrator's community, but to most places he went.  As for Lullabies for Little Criminals, a story that was ...