The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto- Mario Vergas Llosa

I can't make up my mind about this book. I am staring at it and trying to decide- did I like or didn't I. Let me get the things I am sure about out of the way- Llosa is a genius and I don't like erotica. But  this book cannot be dismissed as just erotica. This book is many things but before we get to that-

The eponymous ( I always wanted to use that word) Rigoberto is an aesthete and an erotomaniac who spends his days as an insurance executive and the nights fantasising about his separated second wife, Lucrecia. whom he still loves passionately. Hi s son Fonchito sets about trying to unite them.Fonchito- innocent boy or a fiend. Fonchito is obsessed with  the Viennese painter Egon Schiele and uses Lucrecia and her maid Justiniana.Very soon you discover that something occurred , something unforgivable between the boy and the step-mother that caused the separation It is never told to you and you are left wondering till  the end.

There are enough erotic scenes described in the book except the one that you desperately want to know about. Yet all that you know is that it happened and in Lucrecia's bed. and you are not sure who was the seducer and who was seduced. Does the boy know what he is saying and doing or is unaware? You never find out.

The couple however do unite and much remains unresolved, much unspoken and others hinted at. As Rigoberto asks in the end- In spite of everything, we are a happy family , are we not and I couldn't decide whether they were or not.

And this is layered with the many letters Rigoberto writes on art, sexuality and sports. and the anonymous letters that are exchanged between the couple. These make the reading rich, funny and erudite.

Now you  see why I can't make up my mind. I would love to know what other readers feel/think.
Oh and just for record- Llosa won the Nobel in 2010.

The Shape of Water- Andrea Camilleri



Of all the books, murder mysteries are the hardest to resist. More so if the blurb talks of ‘wit’,’ high-comedy of corruption’, ‘the landscapes of Sicily’, and ‘delicious meals’. I have set you up for the ‘but’; so now I can talk of other things.


The story- Crime- murder of the powerful Luparello, found in a disgraceful condition in a disgraceful part of the town.

The detective- The honest and street smart cop, Mountalbano.

Suspects- None as the corner’s verdict death from natural causes.

The detective smells something fouler than fish and sets on the trail of truth. There are the usual clutch of corrupt officials, false clues and true testimonies. The story is interesting but not great- this is the first but and the second one - final twist is not really a surprise.

The other buts are that the characters are just a shade above stereotypes and the motives are pedestrian. Oh and the book is a bit too, er, earthy for my palate.

Verdict- Definitely not Christie, read if you want a quick, not entirely boring , murder story.

© Maya,

The Elegance of the Hedgehog- Muriel Barberry

First off, this one is a serious contender for the Best Read of 2010 and it’s only April. Think about the title, what a delicious image. Then later one of the characters talks about it but by then you have already caught on to the metaphor.


Moving on- the characters. Renee, the concierge who is not what she seems or pretends to be. Please, please don’t indulge in common –place thoughts like lurking evil or a double life. She is simply pretends to live up to the stereo-type the residents carry in their heads of a concierge- crass, illiterate and stupid. In reality she reads Kant and Tolstoy, listens to Mozart and can tell you why she prefers the Dutch painters to the Italians.

Then there is the off- the chart- intelligent school girl detests her shallow, empty family and is planning her death when the novel opens. The reflections of the two mirror each other in an almost expected manner. The other characters are exactly what you would expect to find in a posh building in a posh part of Paris. Except for Manuela, a cleaning lady and the only friend of Renee`, who is a closet aristocrat.

The delightful book throws up philosophies, reflections, ideas and erudition that leap off the page And wrap themselves around you and make you pause. All this while being a warm, delightful, engaging read.

Ah, what happens in the book? Well, one resident dies and new one moves in. His arrival throws the existing balance out of skelter. New relationships are formed, dormant issues are resolved and lives are changed forever.

Read- You won’t regret it. I promise.

©Maya

Love Walked in - Marisa de Los Santos

Day 1 and I am hooked, from page one word one and I already love Cornelia, her realist friend and the way she lives her life in series of movie moments and ..er.. movies. and way she warned me not to get too attached to Hayes because he doesn't "figure too much in this story." Then I met Clare and her her mother and I am intrigued. Oh and in case I didn't mention it before Santos writes brilliantly.

Day 2- of the wriitng  The reading has been going for a day more perhaps. Anyway- here's how she writes brilliantly:
As we talked, lights flicked on inside my head; by the end of the night, I was a planetarium.
He laughed his molten laugh, and I felt like the kid at the party who whacks open the pinata. Victorious and with treasures raining down on me.
How come we never meet men like him? A thought which makes me wait for the 'but'.
Let me give you some Clare lines.
Clare lived inside the storm- the black, spinning hurricane of fear.
Such meaness served up in the sweetest of tones, and to someone whose need for love was terrible in its completeness.
No wonder I can't stay away from Love Walked In.

Day Next- Really. No point in numbering the days when they have no real chronological meaning-
Humour. It's there, subtle and making you smile. Not LOL kind, but whatever it is, it works and works very well. And the really deep soulful, soul- searching moments told with simplicity, all the more effective, therfore.
Okay, I caught the ‘but’. I am not going to tell you where I caught it, only that I caught it when it affected something that mattered to me- isn’t that always the case? You may catch earlier or later and if you want, we can discuss separately about where you caught it vis-a-vis where I did. But the fact is that Martin is not a very likeable guy. But you know that Cordelia is going to fall in love with him; that is inevitable. Nothing we can about that.

After that, the book just swept me along with it and I drowned so completely in it that I don’t know who was funny, what was sad and which bit poignant.  Only that Martin is not the hero and there is a hero, a good deserving one. I shut the book, completely shaken; but a good shaken. If you want to be shaken, pick up this book and read it.


© Maya