Review by Booklist Review
Virtually unknown in the U.S., Uruguayan Benedetti (1920-2009) was a renowned figure in late-twentieth-century Latin American literature. Author of dozens of works of poetry, fiction, and reportage, he helped create the Generación del 45, Uruguay's most influential mid-century literary group, and his social and political activism resulted in his eventual exile to Peru, Cuba, and Spain (he returned to Uruguay in 1983). This novel, originally published in 1982, draws upon Benedetti's life in telling the story of Santiago, a political prisoner in 1970s Montevideo, and those most affected by his imprisonment, his wife Graciela and their child, Beatriz, who have escaped to Buenos Aires. In letters to his wife, Santiago ruminates on his situation and professes his love, while in her chapters Beatriz recounts her new life in urban Argentina, adding levity to the otherwise dire prospects faced by her father. At times, Benedetti interjects his own experiences, blurring the line between memoir and epistolary fiction. Compared to Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes, Benedetti deserves greater recognition stateside, and this will, one hopes, be the first of many of his titles to be translated into English.--Diego Báez Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This rich, heartbreaking novel from the late Uruguayan writer Benedetti (1920-2009) (The Truce), first published in 1982, describes the devastating effects on one family of Uruguay's military dictatorship in the 1970s and '80s. Santiago is a political prisoner in Uruguay, and he passes the time in prison by writing letters to his family. Although, to his surprise, he finds his five years of confinement "bearable," he still yearns for the love of Graciela, his wife, and Beatriz, his young daughter, who've taken exile in Buenos Aires. Graciela, meanwhile, struggles with guilt over how well she's coping ("too well," she says) and how she "still [feels] a great affection for him, but as a fellow revolutionary, not as his wife." More difficult still, she falls in love with Rolando, one of Santiago's close friends. Meanwhile, Beatriz tries to understand the difference between her new life and the home country she can't remember, whereas Don Rafael, Santiago's aging father, knows them all too well. Alternating between these five characters as they await Santiago's release, Benedetti's tender yet unflinching portrait of a family in the crushing straits of history is a welcome addition to the small (and hopefully growing) catalogue of his work that has been translated into English. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A military dictatorship fragments a family in this short novel by the late Uruguayan writer Benedetti (1920-2009; Blood Pact, 1997, etc.), originally published in 1982 and translated into English for the first time.Santiago sits indefinitely in a Uruguayan prison because of his political activism while his wife, Graciela, and their 9-year-old daughter, Beatriz, have lived in exile for the past five years. He exchanges long letters with Graciela and thinks wistfully that "the only proof of god's existence are Graciela's legs." Readers might wonder where he gets all the paperthe letters are that longand nothing in them seems to catch the attention of the censors. Benedetti explores the pain of separation from loved ones, the mix of loneliness, hope and despair in a man who has no idea when he'll be released. Santiago's father, Don Rafael believes that memories of the family may be keeping his son alive. But the confinement will destroy what they have, because, as Graciela says, "The fact is, I don't need Santiago anymore." Prison changes both husband and wife, but her letters do not reveal that she has drifted out of love. Perhaps, she thinks, she is falling in love with Santiago's best friend and fellow leftist, Rolando. She daydreams only of Rolando but she can't bring herself to break the news to Santiago while he is still in prison, as it would destroy him. "I still love him as a wonderful friend," she confides to the sympathetic Don Rafael, "a comrade whose behaviour has been beyond reproach." The language is often beautifully expressive, as when Don Rafael reflects that one day his son "will have to see Graciela through the bars of another man's love." Beatriz adds her own childlike insights, perhaps reflecting a cognitive disability, noting for example that "freedom is a huge word" that "means many things" such as liberty, but her father is at Liberty Prison, which confuses her. One day Uruguay will be transformed, Don Rafael believes, "born in the backroom of the forbidden," but "we'll never again be what we were." This powerful novel evokes the works of Gabriel Garca Mrquez.Vivid characters caught in a repressive regime fuel this powerful novel. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
