all this fast driving, stealing, burning, and honestly, I’m a bit confused – Money to Burn

Hi everyone and welcome back! To jump right in, I think we can all agree that this text differs a lot from most of what we’ve read so far, with the obvious difference that this book is about a bank robbery, while most (NOT ALL) have been slightly uncomfortable romances and relationship dynamics. This week’s reading, titled ‘Money to Burn’ by Ricardo Piglia takes us to Buenos Aires, and plunges us right into the action, as the group gets ready and discusses their plan to carry out their large-scale bank robbery. This type of start is one I’ve come to realize I quite enjoy, in which readers are sort of immediately thrust into action, rather than a longer and somewhat slow buildup. Getting into a book can be quite challenging for me at times, which is why I find that I enjoy this kind of start, so that I can feel hooked right away.

I think that another interesting part of this novel is that the characters are all guilty of living ‘on the edge’ lifestyles that centre around criminal activity (. For instance, Brignone, who is often referred to as the Kid, is a heavy drug user, and references to that in his physical appearance are quite common throughout the text. In addition, his close friend and companion, Dorda, is a passionate cop hater, and kills them “just because”, due to his long history of poor interactions with police (26). The same can be said for the character Mereles, who is quite the questionable character, and the driver of the getaway car from the robbery. Not only does Mereles participate in this large scale robbery, he also regularly consumes drugs and has an intimate relationship with a young girl, among various other questionable activities. The criminal nature of these men is even further exemplified when, after all the planning and shooting that occurred as a part of the robbery, is that they then decided to in fact burn the money, as the title suggests. This definitely confused me at first, and threw me for a loop, but after reflection, I feel like it further demonstrates just how attached these men are to the criminal lifestyle, as I previously mentioned. 

Furthermore, with the frequent changes in narration, I felt like the slightly depraved mentality of these men could be perceived more from the perspective of the police and witnesses, simply because the actions of the men when narrated from their point of view, seemed to me to be written in a way that suggested a more causal view. 

Overall, this was sort of refreshing for me to read, not because I disliked any of the previous books, but more so because this feels so much different than the slower-paced novels we have read, and instead, presents us with a fast-paced crime novel. While I am generally more of a fan of books like ‘Nadja’ or ‘the Time of the Doves’, I can absolutely appreciate a crime read! My question for you all this week is were there any elements of this text that threw you for a loop in any way, big or small, and if so, what was it? Thanks so much for reading everyone and I’ll be back next week!