Identity theft: Theater and other forms of acting in At Night We Walk in Circles

In Daniel Alarcon's At Night We Walk in Circles, the main character, Nelson, stays on in the Andean village of T--- staying with the family of the late Rogelio and pretending, to the elderly mother who showing signs of serious senility that he is her son Rogelio come back for a visit from the U.S. - as noted yesterday, the family, including drug-dealing thug brother, Jaime, is trying to protect mother from the truth, that Rogelio died in a prison riot (and perhaps from the bitter fact the R. went to prison because he was caught on a drug run for J.). In short, Nelson is playing a role - and expects to get paid for his work and time by J. What happens: J. "borrows" nelson's ID card and heads off to his village to do some business; time passes, and Nelson realizes he will never see J again, never collect his money, but he's stuck without his idea - he would be arrested at any police checkpoint. He also learns that J. may have been busted himself, or at least gone on the run for protection. I have to nod here and recall that this situation is almost exactly like the premise of a novel dear to me, if to no one else, although in the novel, yes, Exiles, the main character is also playing a "role" but he does so with high political intentions and he's able to because of his uncanny physical resemblance to the guy who disappears. Anyway, I tip my hat to Alarcon, who handles this kind of identity-shifting complexity far better than I - we follow Nelson through a difficult three weeks till at last he shakes himself free and heads back to the capital city, taking his chances. At the end of this section (3) of the novel, we finally meet the narrator - who turns out to be a 20-something visitor in a house nearby where Nelson was staying in T-- who evidently became curious about Nelson's story and began the interviews and investigations that this novel constitutes. Obviously, something further happens to Nelson - death or disappearance - that spurs the narrator's influence and that brings all elements of this complex and abundant plot together.