Infinite Country

Engel begins the chapter by relating Mauro’s thoughts upon hearing of Talia’s assault of a man with burning oil. He toys with the idea that she is possessed by a demonic force, which leads to a discussion of the demons that recovering alcoholics have claimed to experience in the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings he has attended over the years. The narrator notes that many of these recovering alcoholics and addicts were former soldiers and guerillas who seemed to lose their purpose in life as the civil war ground to a halt: “The antidote to disgrace, according to even the atheists in the group, was humility and prayer” (74). Mauro has attained 10 years of sobriety.

The narrative moves to a discussion of Perla’s sense that an evil spirit had invaded her home once when Talia was quite young. She is telling this story to Mauro when she is older and ill and wants him to promise that he will never bring evil spirits into the house. To banish the demonic power, Perla ended up bringing in a folk despojo—exorcist—of great power. This would have been a direct contradiction of Perla’s Catholic beliefs except that the exorcist herself had allegedly been exorcised and was now working for the good side.