Broken Crystals

Broken Crystals shows the dark and hostile aspects of lifefor those who emigrate to the United States, but the storyalso demonstrates the consequences they face, the errorsthey make that sow the seeds of their own personal failures.These errors are made when people forget that they aloneare responsible for guiding their destiny, and in doing so,lead themselves to the edge of a cliff. Pedro Santana paysmeticulous attention to this phenomenon in his novel,which is a literary, and not a didactic, work. In doing so, heis able to achieve an aesthetic quality that is truly enjoyablefor the reader. The novel addresses social problems in theworld of the author, his worldview and ultimately his desireto improve the society he is forced to be a part of.Stylistically, Pedro Santana is well versed in the literarylanguage he chooses to craft his narrative, and which standsin contrast to the discursive language of didactic,journalistic or scientific works. As is the case, novelists mustinfuse their words with a multidimensionality that cannotbe found in other written genres. Hence, the author istasked with endowing words with a significance that pointsto something far beyond the simple definitions we find indictionaries. Pedro Santana achieves this feat withpassionate flair, provoking emotions through the eventsdetailed, and describing the psychological forces actingupon each character. Pedro Santana does not use hisstorytelling abilities to perform verbal pirouettes, rather, heuses his talents to achieve a marvelous verbal simplicity.I believe that Pedro Santana has created a dynamic novel;one that comes alive with its complexity while remainingaccessible to the casual reader, who may not have the talentsafforded to one by a rigorous course of academic studies.Readers may enjoy and assimilate the author’s workregardless of whether or not they are widely versed inliterary texts.—Rafael Peralta Romero

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