Many years later, I chose to read the novel and was amazed by it. The portrait of a parochial, socially and sexually repressed Mexican town "on the edge of the storm" of the Revolution is searing. Images from the novel have stayed with me long after plot details have been forgotten, and I remain impressed with Yanez' prose.

The novel very deliberately incorporates the stream of consciousness techniques introduced by Joyce, and may be offputting to people who have little pacience with this narrative structure. On the other hand, the structure works well in providing snapshots of the tensions, needs, resentments, and pain of various villagers in isolated rural Jalisco. This is a work that is generally overlooked by people who have the Latin American literature bug. It shouldn't be, as it is one of the best novels from the region that I have read.