While reading, I questioned myself how much should we sacrifice for the special, intimate love between a man and woman. Can a woman give too much of herself? Is she cold, selfish if she pulls back to protect herself from danger? And where do our children fit when our love changes for another man? Is it ever right to just leave in order to fulfill the hole of love within ourselves? Can we go back again? Who knew until Leila Cobo came along that the love between a man is so complex and so unforgiving. Of course, I knew it, but Leila Cobo writes about it in a more unique, live or die way.
Sadly, there is always the possibility that once a choice is made the stars or gods might not give us the chance to fall back and regroup, to correct ourselves like we would a car or train. After all once we've crash landed, it's over. "It felt as if everything had been stunned to death and covered with a huge blanket of sadness."
I can't mention Gabriella without mentioning her lover, Angel. Angel's father is in prison while his son is on the outside striving to carve himself a new life apart from his dad's dastardly deeds. However, he doesn't tear himself completely away from his father's way of making a living. Angel remains true to his father's belief that drug intake is never a lifestyle.
Blood is thicker than water. It's always there, in us waiting to identify a part of ourselves we wish would die. In the end, blood, kinship wins, at least, in the world Leila Cobo creates for Angel in "TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE."
In the end, perhaps, all we have are words. Helena's diary is what becomes a map for Gabriella. Then, Gabriella writes a letter to her mother, Helena. She leaves her letter "I'm going to seal this letter to you, and take it to the cemetery, to where you lie on top of my grandfather...."
Some of the events in "TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE" really did occur. Leila Cobo explains this at the end of the book. I am left thinking after all is said and done words are eternal.
