In the Name of Salome

As a poet and letter writer, Salomé amassed a large quantity of papers over the course of her short life. Extracting meaning from them is the task that falls to Camila. In the opening chapters of the book, the reader learns about a trunk of papers that Camila is taking with her when she retires from teaching. Her brother has sent it and charged her with a weighty responsibility. The narrator says of Camila, “She is to sort out what to give the archives and what to destroy. The irony of his request is not lost on her—she, the nobody among them, will be the one editing the story of her famous family” (38). Camila is tasked with piecing together her mother’s published works, letters, random thoughts, and unfinished poetry. These are all supposed to be arranged into a flattering portrait of her famous mother’s life.

Over the course of the novel, we see the papers emerge in Salomé’s narrative as she is writing the words herself. In other instances, Camila picks up one or another of her mother’s writings and uses it as a springboard to jog her personal memories. As a teenager, Camila rummages through a different trunk of papers and discovers the entire sordid affair related to her father’s French mistress as well as Salomé’s unhappiness during this time.