Fables of families and cities.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara
• Position: Book Review

Magdalena: A Fable of Immortality, by Beatriz Escalante. Trans., Jay Miskowiec. Minneapolis: Aliform, 2002.

Magdalena, by Mexican novelist Beatriz Escalante, reads like an ancient fable, but it is actually a seething commentary on the condition of contemporary women. Magdalena, the title character, is a witch in search of a potion for inmortality. Her parascientific pursuits pit her against the duke (symbol of the state), his physician (symbol of the scientific establishment), and Father Thomas (symbol of the church), and even though she is successful, her closest ally ultimately undermines her achievement.

After Magdalena's mother dies in childbirth, her father abandons her. The aunt and uncle who raise her sell her to an Arab alchemist when she turns thirteen. Soon she is drawn into his world by her natural curiosity, the magic of learning, the seduction of books. Fascinated by letters and signs, she comes to see writing as a defense against mortality, but then realizes that the natural sciences provide the real key to eternal life, for only minerals are exempt from death.

Just as the Arab begins to see Magdalena as a collaborator rather than as a disciple, she grows impatient with his inability to unlock the secrets of nature. When he sees her working alone in the laboratory in a dream, he understands his days are numbered. Magdalena yearns to carry on alone, directing the course of her own investigations; for her, the Arab is an impediment. Armed with the knowledge he has given her, she determines to chart her own course.

The death of the Arab liberates Magdalena. A dwarf held captive by Odilon, a malefactor who collects and exhibits deformed human beings, befriends the young sorceress, who promises him the chance to escape. Obsessed with immortality, Magdalena kills her father and violates her mother's grave in order to compile the necessary ingredients for the coveted potion. She dispenses remedies for common ailments to the villagers, not out of compassion, but because their reactions to different compounds provide her with data and thus increase her knowledge. She ostensibly befriends an old woman named Julia, only to send Julia's son Sebastian on a risky mission to retrieve from Odilon a monster she needs for her potion--a mission that results in Sebastian's capture and death. Eventually, Magdalena's work with the serfs provokes the anger of the local priest, Father Thomas, who fears she will undermine the authority of the church.

Magdalena's metaphorical journey encompasses the ambiguities that face the modern woman. In order to pursue her personal goals, Magdalena must break with her parents and her mentor. She violates every taboo and alienates every agent of authority. It is inevitable, perhaps, that her questioning mind and intellectual independence will put her at odds with the prevailing power structure. And yet, Magdalena is not necessarily a role model. Her obsessiveness obliterates her relationships. She suppresses the desire she feels for Sebastian and betrays Julia. She sees other people as a means to achieve her own ends and so banishes love from her life. Thus, it is not. surprising that her final triumph is scorned by the person who could have given her comfort and praise. The one-dimensional life embraced by Magdalena is hardly the ideal of most modern women, and yet, the struggle for success often puts women in the impossible situation of having to choose between a successful career and healthy personal relationships.

Beatriz Escalante has written an alluring fable complete...