The Lime Tree

The Lime Tree opens with the description of a giant lime tree in the town square of Coronel Pringles. From that tree's blossom, the author's father would brew a sedative tea, an infusion associated with the recovery of childhood memories. But Aira's childhood, unlike that of Proust's narrator in In Search of Lost Time, is marked by historical events: the ousting of Peron in 1955. A devoted Peronist, Aira's father lost his job as a municipal electrician. His dreams of ascent to the middle class broken, he lapsed into sullenness while his wife reveled in her anti-Peronism.