THE PRESIDENT'S ROOM by Ricardo Romero

Translated by Charlotte Coombe

I’ve longed considered the mark of any tyrannical despot worth their salt to be the insistence on a prominent portrait hanging in every one of their subjects’ homes. The titular president in Ricardo Romero’s wonderfully absorbing novella goes one step further - every house must set aside one room, kept in immaculate condition, should he ever choose to visit. Those living in the slums don’t have the luxury, and thereby forego the privileges of Presidential favour. Their perpetual penury is unbreakable. But for those who can, rewards await - even if nobody knows what they may be. The story’s teenaged narrator recognises his relative affluence, while dreading the ever-pending visit.

It’s an astute take on life under a dictatorship; ordinary life lived with a sense of underlying fear, all seen through an almost surreal prism that reminded me of Kafka or Saramago. It is also, in a rather sly way, a smart coming-of-age story, in which the President may well represent any of the existential crises of growing into adulthood. Ultimately, the President does visit. And the boy rebels in the smallest of ways, to no effect outside his own sense of self.

A perfect start to my reading year!

The President’s Room by Ricardo Romero (Tr. Charlotte Coombe)
Charco Press, 2020
82 pages