As LLauzon pointed out in her post, The People of Paper smacks of magical realism. By the prologue’s conclusion I was already thinking of how much this book reminded me of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez, who helped popularize the style. It’s been some time since I read Marquez’s work, so the MR elements stand out more in People than in 100 Years to me, however without actually checking I feel the elements are more prominent in this text. It’s uncanny how disinterestedly people react to a woman made out of paper walking about.
What is important about the magical realism in this text seems to be its relationship to romance, or perhaps more accurately sex. Sexual betrayal seems to be a heavy theme in this book. Federico’s wife left him for her lover, Ramon Barreto was abusing Merced de Papal (paper lady) for his own satisfaction, and Froggy killed Sandra’s father while they (that is Froggy and Sandra) were sleeping in bed. Invariably this leads to a the woman in a given case leaving their lover, and while the man in question tries to deal with their grief through some exploration of the magical. I’m 100% sure what Plascencia is trying to communicate her but I do feel there is a pattern.
In the examples given we have various destructive relationships. In the first example it is Merced the elder who is the destructive force in her relationship with Federico. Her affair and abandonment of the family leads the distraught Federico to scar himself and flee his sorrow and go to America. The book goes so far as to say this is what is driving the narrative; not Saturn’s machinations but rather Federico’s grief. As far as magical realism is concerned, Federico’s grief is chiefly where this theme exhibits itself. His sorrow is presented as some kind of ailment, one with peculiar symptoms such as his itchy hand, and is solved through illogical act of self mutilation.
The Second relationship is a mutually destructive one. Both Merced de Papal and Ramon end up hurting one another when the have sex. Usually it is a lopsided relation where one party experiences pleasure at the expense of another; either Paper Merced cuts badly cuts Ramon when the two engage in intercourse, or in an attempt to make sex more palatable for Ramon, he ends up literally destroying and consuming parts of Merced (which was just weird to read). Here neither actor is intentionally malicious to the other, with the effected party brushing off what ever abuse they suffer. Her magical realism presents itself as the means by which the two damage each other. Were it not for the suspension of disbelief over the fact that a character like Paper Merced is impossible, this episode could not transpire. The apparent implication that there is something “magical” about a mutually destructive relationship is unsettling, and as I said earlier, I’m not at all sure hoe that figures into the narrative.
Finally in Froggy and Sandra’s relationship it is the man who is the sole force of destruction. Again, in this case Froggy was not acting maliciously, in fact he was only acting out of good intent to protect his lover, but in doing so destroyed something that was dear to her (despite all common sense). Though this particular episode is not overtly sexual, it is implied by Plascencia that Sandra ends the relationship because she can longer bear to have sex with Froggy. Romantic feelings have nothing to do with her decision, she simply “…could not sleep in the same room with the man who had killed my father.” In his attempts to deal with his loss, Froggy nearly goes so far as to bring back Sandra’s father from the dead. What prevents him from doing so is not the absurdity of such an endeavor, but the moral realization that this would not absolve him of the act that destroyed his relation with Sandra.