by: Guillermo Rosales
Two novels by Rosales are still in existence. The Halfway House is one of them. The rest of his work was destroyed in 1993 moments before he committed suicide at the age of 47. Guillermo Rosales was a schizophrenic, living in mental institutions after his exile from Cuba, which is where he gathered the material for this novella.
There’s a lot of misery packed in a mere 121 pages. The Halfway House gets in deep—to the most crepuscular depths of humanity’s capacity for evil. It’s a cousin of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—the cousin you were never allowed to hang out with growing up. The Halfway House is a dark, dark horse.
Here’s a panoramic view of hell on earth.
-C. Hogue
