Chilco’s imagistic and documentary structure, its radical mixture of poetry and fiction, is held together by the novel’s emphasis on the ecology of the island.
Poetically translated ... The chapters’ brevity contributes to Chilco’s emotional grip ... Mari’s observations resonate with current issues faced by Chile’s Mapuche peoples ... Chilco’s examination of Chile’s ongoing Indigenous oppression is, quite frankly, timeless thanks to Catrileo’s portrayal and Edelstein’s translation ... Chilco is a spellbinding fever-dream, swirling with socio-political conversations ... challenges colonial narratives by dissecting female oppression in male-dominated societies ... It bears a deep message about preserving the natural world ...Daniela Catrileo and Jacob Edelstein may have just offered the literary canon an end-of-the-world, post-capitalism, post-empire survival manual it did not necessarily expect but so desperately needs.
The commentary on the failures of capitalism is clear, but there is something more essential being explored, questions of human nature. In a manner which will resonate with most, Chilco manages to capture how place helps define those from there.
