El mar que me regalas, de Jorge Rodríguez Gómez

Abstract

Review of the book The sea that you give me (San Cristóbal, Acirema, 2023), by Jorge Rodríguez Gómez.

The Sea You Give Me (2023) is a raw, visceral, and satirical novel that fuses noir fiction, social critique, and existential reflection. With the author’s characteristic black humor and dirty realism, the work portrays the Venezuelan decay of the 1980s and 1990s through the kidnapping of Paul White, an American executive of a transnational pharmaceutical company, by marginalized characters seeking revenge against economic imperialism and social inequality.

Structured in twenty-five numbered sections with epistolary and essayistic interludes (such as “Marleen” and “Etelvina”), the novel combines chronological narration with introspective and polyphonic digressions. The language is colloquial, vernacular, and sensory, laden with Venezuelan expressions and explicit descriptions of violence, sex, and pain, but also imbued with echoes of hope and love.

With epigraphs from Borges and Dickinson and rich intertextual references, Rodríguez Gómez fiercely critiques pharmaceutical capitalism, imperialism, and corruption, while exploring the human condition—loneliness, redemption, and resistance. A mature work that transforms collective horror into powerful and committed art.