Los hallazgos expresivos y los temas recurrentes que forman el universo narrativo de Adolfo Bioy Casares, regido por relojes y medidas diferentes de los que existen en la vida cotidiana, confluyen de manera especialmente intensa en DIARIO DE LA GUERRA DEL CERDO. El conflicto de los tiempos desiguales ­manifestado ya de distintas maneras en «La invención de Morel» (BA 0268) y «El sueño de los héroes» (BA 0265)­ adquiere en esta novela la forma de una lucha entre generaciones: pandillas de jóvenes violentos parecen amenazar a ancianos y personas de edad, sin que se alcance a adivinar muy bien los motivos que los guían. Sin embargo, cuanto más conocida resulta la geografía en la que se desarrolla la acción de esta utopía pesimista, más irreales resuenan esos lugares, conductas y hombres a los que el autor ha revestido con la apariencia de la cotidianidad y la costumbre.

What would it be like to live in a city where old people are looked upon as no better than pigs, where a group of old people seen in public are immediately taken for a stack of pigs, heaps of aging flesh fit for the rubbish bin?

Diary of the War of the Pig is an extraordinary novel published in 1969 by Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares. By way of diary entries, we follow don Isidro Vidal, resident of a crowded, crumbling mansion serving as tenement building for the poor in the city of Buenos Aires. Living under these circumstances is cramped and uncomfortable, especially if you’re old like don Isidro – for one thing, from his small bedroom he has to cross two large courtyards to reach the bathroom.

And the indignities don Isidro must suffer are endless: not only is he blighted with the telltale signs of old age, things like talking to himself, unending fretting over money, insomnia, impatience, a strong leaning towards melancholy but people in the street are starting to look at him with hostility and some others hurl insults directly in his face. To top it off, don Isidro’s sore jaw forced him to pay a visit to a dentist who yanked out his teeth and replaced them with a set of expensive new gleaming choppers.

But all is not lost as there is a bright spot shining through as if a ray of sunshine in an otherwise ominously dark sky: don Isidro can get together now and again with his old cronies, his good buddies Néstor, Dante, Arévalo, Jimmy and Leardo Rey to play a game of cards. Ah, friendship to the rescue, offering succor and support, a needed balm in such a hostile, cruel world. As don Isidro reflects, such friends help us most as we face the challenges of old age.

Then one cold, windy night the friends are in for a rude shock after packing up and leaving together: in a nearby alleyway don Isidore and the others witness a gang of kids cursing and using iron clubs to beat a mass of rags. Arévalo recognizes the victim as none other than the newspaper vendor, don Manuel. Vidal insists they do something to stop the murder but is told by Jimmy to keep quiet and not make a fuss. Equally disturbing, a young man standing nearby advises in a hostile tone: “Grandpa, this is no time to be spouting off.”

Intimidation and violence continues: with echoes of Anne Frank, don Isidore is hidden away in the attic by his son when a youth group holds a meeting in their building; an old custodian has his false teeth ripped out of his mouth; another oldster is beaten to death, this time an elderly women on the sidewalk in broad daylight. Don Isidore shakes his head and speaks his mind: “Nobody’s old and ugly by choice." The very next day he runs for his life when walking down the street as youngsters suddenly hurl glass bottles at his head.

The boys (even as old men, the card players see themselves as boys) read the column in the newspaper about ‘The War on the Pig’. Arévalo complains: “Where do they get the idea? They say that old people are greedy, selfish, materialistic, and eternally grumbling. Real hogs.” This leads to a philosophic discussion on productivity, old age and the meaning of life, which prompts, in turn, a further question: what are the great reasons the youth of today act the way they do? Answer: those kids don’t need great reasons since the ones they happen to have are good enough.

As Martin Levin noted in his New York Times review of the novel, Adolfo Bioy Casares’ attitude is existential rather than moral. I agree entirely: as we live through each humiliating, horrifying scene with the golden agers, no easy answers are provided; rather, we are free to interpret events as we like.

This leads to several overarching questions: How deep is the resentment against older people? Is modern society demarcated along the lines of age? Could such a demarcation lead to violence?

My own sense is age might have some importance but more powerful feelings are generated by class, that is, by rich vs. poor, which in many instances are colored by race and nationality. Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto nearly two hundred years ago but the distinctions and categories outline by Marx continue to cast their long shadow.

Old people everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. They might not be living in paradise, but at least they are not living in the world of Diary of the War of the Pig. At least not yet, that is.



"Friendship ha turned to indifference, love has shown itself sordid and false. Only hatred flourished. He had defended himself, and would go on defending himself (he felt no doubt on that score) against the attacks of the young; but as he came into Paunero Street he had a mental picture of his own hand holding a revolver to his temple." - Adolfo Bioy Casares, Diary of the War of the Pig ( )

A harrowing, chopping novella on the elderly and the young who abuse and kill them. Some dark humor, in this most depressing of stories.

My knee started hurting suddenly because I was sitting on it funny - that scared me a lot more than usual because of this novel. Age and youth. ( )