The People of Paper
First edition cover
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| Author | Salvador Plascencia |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | McSweeney's Books, Mariner Books |
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Publication date
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June 2005 (McSweeney's), November 13, 2006 (Mariner) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | (McSweeney's, hardback), (Mariner, paperback) |
| OCLC | 60654785 |
The People of Paper is the debut novel of Salvador Plascencia. It was first published as a part of the Rectangulars line of McSweeney's Books. In form the novel owes a debt to a wide variety of experimental fiction from the magical realism of Latin American writers, to the Beat writings of William S. Burroughs, to the American postmodernists of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in its turn towards metafiction. The book is notable for its unique layout, featuring columns of text running in different directions across the page, blacked out sections, and a name that has literally been cut out of the novel.
The novel was republished in paperback by Mariner Books in 2006.
The central events depicted in the novel are variously described as a war against Saturn, against sadness, and against omniscient narration. The leader of this war is Federico de la Fe, a Mexican man who is abandoned by his wife Merced due to his chronic bed-wetting. As a result of his remorse, he falls into a depression which he cures through "burn-collecting," or burning parts of his body. After leaving Mexico for the United States, Federico de la Fe and his daughter Little Merced settle in the small, flower-growing town of El Monte. There, Federico de la Fe enlists the help of the town and a local gang of flower-pickers, who call themselves the El Monte Flores, in order to combat the influence of Saturn.
The prologue tells the story of the creation of the character later known as Merced de Papel, a woman made of paper by Antonio, a former monk who had been famed for his abilities as an origami surgeon, meaning that he performed successful organ transplants using organs made of folded paper. But as medical technology surpassed his skills, he started creating origami animals and, eventually, the origami woman. Merced has "cardboard legs, cellophane appendix, and paper breasts".
The main storyline of the first seven chapters is the origin of the "war on Saturn" by Federico de la Fe and his group, El Monte Flores (a.k.a. EMF). Having lost his wife due to his bedwetting, Federico de la Fe takes his young daughter Little Merced from their Mexican town near the Las Tortugas river and moves from Mexico to El Monte, California, where he works with the EMF (then a gang) picking carnations for a living. While moving through Mexico to the USA, Federico de la Fe begins to feel that he is being watched by Saturn, and he discovers that only lead can shield him from the omnipresent view of the planet. He convinces the EMF to help him wage this war, which they do first by setting fires around town so that Saturn cannot see through, and second by having lead walls and ceilings put into all their houses. At the end of the section, "Saturn was unhinging from its orbit and slowly moving deeper into the solar system, away from the roofs of El Monte, eventually becoming the farthest planet [sic] from the sun...."
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