The Bullet Swallower

By Elizabeth Gonzalez James

Simon & Schuster, 2024

Every so often there is a book that is a bit difficult to write about because it is just a joy from start to finish. The Bullet Swallower, the new historical fiction novel by author Elizabeth Gonzalez James, is one such book. The Bullet Swallower tells the story of the Sonoro family through the generations as they grapple with the ramifications of a catastrophic event in their history. Elizabeth Gonzalez James deftly employs rich symbolism and themes interwoven with elements of magical realism to bring to life a story of revenge and reconciliation, which asks readers to think about how much responsibility we have for the actions of those who came before us.

In The Bullet Swallower, readers primarily follow two generations of the Sonoro family beginning in 1895 with Antonio Sonoro, the eponymous bullet swallower. Finding himself in dire straits, he gets the wild notion to rob a train heading to Houston, Texas which is reported to be carrying Mexican and Native artifacts and goods to America for sale. He makes the decision to set out on what should have been a twelve-man job with only his younger brother at his side. This choice sets off a series of events leading to the birth of the legend surrounding El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.

In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is a successful movie star, living quietly—well, as quietly as a movie star can—with his family. Until one day when a mysterious rare bookseller shows up at his home with a book reeking of fish, “drink-stained and disintegrating and looking somewhat desperate to escape into the quiet indignity of the municipal dump,” which she claims chronicles the history of the Sonoro family from biblical times to the present.

But before readers get to all that, a proper introduction to the Sonoro family is in order. And in this handful of pages, Elizabeth Gonzalez James excels in setting up a story infused with symbolism and magical realism beginning with, “Alferez Antonio Sonoro was born with gold in his eyes.” Simple and to the point. He is born with gold eyes, seemingly destined for greatness from the beginning, or so his family believes. A portent of things to come.

Alferez Antonio becomes, or perhaps is born, the embodiment of greed. Greed for gold, greed for power, greed for social status and respect. He is so consumed by his greed that by, “his early thirties, Alferez Antonio’s eyesight began to fail. The gold had slipped from the edges of his irises and was now invading his pupils, clouding his vision.” He is literally blinded by his greed. Is this symbolism perhaps a bit heavy-handed on the part of the author? Sure. But is it satisfying? Absolutely.

Alferez Antonio’s greed is, of course, his undoing, and after a cataclysmic event precipitated by his insatiable greed, his family is marked. Cursed, some say, because of his unceasing appetite for more and the steps he takes to achieve his ends. This terrible event attracts the attention of a cosmic agent named Remedio, someone whose job it is to balance the scales. Though readers spend very little time with Alferez Antonio, the impact he has on the narrative is far-reaching.

Elizabeth Gonzalez James deftly intertwines themes of fate, history and connecting to one’s roots, good and evil, and the complex nature of humanity throughout the novel to construct a world which is rich, layered, and populated by complex characters, like The Bullet Swallower himself. A man seemingly trapped by the past, but who also has a clear hand in his own fate. A farmer by trade, Antonio Sonoro lives his life literally in the shadow of his family’s fallen empire. The decaying family mansion looms in the background—a symbol of all the family lost at the hands of Alferez Antonio—as Antonio Sonoro and his wife Jesusa struggle to eek a living out of land in the grips of an unending drought.

Of course, droughts happen all the time, so who’s to say whether this is connected to the rumored curse on the family. This potential connection between present circumstances and the past is something Antonio Sonoro ruminates on during his trip to Houston. As he suggests in conversation with his brother Hugo, “‘Old things don’t pass away,’ Antonio said, watching the flames blacken the rabbit bone he’d just dropped into the fire. ‘Everything comes back around. Our punishment is that we’re always going forward, but always in a circle.’”

Challenging this notion that, “‘No man lives free from history,’” is Jaime Sonoro. His success belies his ancestry. Jaime’s story is quieter and more contemplative—the perfect contrast to Antonio Sonoro—something more fitting to a more modern time where bands of bandits don’t wander the vast expanses of the west on horseback looking for people and trains to rob. His life is the opposite of Antonio’s in nearly every respect, and yet he still finds himself in Remedio’s crosshairs.

Part western, part family saga and infused with magical realism, The Bullet Swallower is a spell-binding novel. Pulling from her own family history, Elizabeth Gonzalez James creates a vivid world full of colorful characters and mystical forces and invites readers to think about how the past and present are intertwined

Amberlee Venters is a freelance editor and writer living in Northern California.