Adiós muchachos
Información
- Autor: Daniel Chavarría
- Género: Moderno
- Editorial: Random House Mondadori (November 1, 2005)
- Subgénero: Novela Libro
- ASIN/ISBN: 0307344665
- Calificación:
- Páginas: nuevo (192 Páginas)
Comentarios
Larry Gandle (Tampa, Florida)
It seems like every year the Edgar committees nominate one book that is so unusual that it stands out amongst the usual fare. Sometimes these books are excellent and would otherwise have remained undiscovered. For example, immediately comes to mind OUTCAST by Jose Latour, which was first published in English by the same publisher as this book. ADIOS MUCHACHOS is a black comedy that also could be considered a noir fiction. Characters are quite wacky and the plot extremely clever.
In Havana, Cuba, Alicia literally pedals her wares as a bicycle hooker. However, she isn???t simply out for money. She views each ???client??? as a prospective ticket out of her poverty-laden life via marriage or a long-term commitment. With the help of her pragmatic mother, Margarita, she seduces her johns with food and drink prior to their sampling of her sexual wares. Into this set up wanders her latest john, Victor King. Victor is involved in hunting for treasures on shipwrecks around the island. The people backing him are extremely wealthy. At first Victor uses Alicia for his own purposes. Later he proposes using her for his plan entailing voyeurism. However, a very unfortunate accident might possibly, with a bit of scheming, leave Alicia and Victor extremely wealthy. The question is, can they pull it off by outwitting the wealthy backers?...
Descripción
Fun, fast and intelligent, this devilishly charming import gives pulp fiction a good name. Hailed as one of the best Latin writers, Uruguayan-born Chavarr¡a is well known throughout Europe as well as in Latin America. He has won literary prizes around the world, including the 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award; this able translation by Carlos Lopez is the first to bring Chavarr¡a to an English-speaking audience. The story, a madcap caper full of twisted sex, devious schemes and high-rolling hijinks, also showcases Chavarr¡a's considerable scholarly research into prostitution. When Alicia, a crafty, bicycle-riding Havana hooker in present-day Cuba, meets Victor, a convicted bank robber masquerading as an upstanding businessman, they quickly realize each other's mutually nefarious motives and wind up in a business pact that leads to larceny, kidnapping and death. Despite the dark subject matter, the winking delivery provides comic surges as reliably as an amusement park ride. Readers are kept off balance by surprise twists and rolling punches but riveted by the sheer force of curiosity and entertainment. Linguistic and cultural tidbits illuminate the intelligence at work behind the bawdy and raw story, while the narrative reveals the exploitative nature of economic forces at work in Cuba. Lines blur between victim and victimizer as Chavarr¡a reveals a symbiosis in which wealthy foreigners exploit the country's resources (from sunken galleons to beautiful women) and the Cubans in turn exploit foreigners' resources. But Chavarr¡a never loses sight of his goal: to deliver an energetic hustle that will leave readers clamoring for more. (June)Forecast: The campy, vintage-style cover painting featuring Alicia posing provocatively on her bicycle will catch the eye of fans of the pulp genre; a dip between the covers will do the rest.
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