24 July 2010

Book reviews by country: Argentina

For my series this summer, I am providing selections of book reviews by country. Either the author is from the country named in the post, or the book is set there. 

Argentina-mendoza
First up is Argentina. I've reviewed two books from this region, No-one Loves a Policeman by Guillermo Orsi (translator Nick Caistor) and Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Pinerio (translator Miranda France).

"Thursday Night Widows is written with deceptive lightness, creating a closed world in which I was fascinated, as it is so different from anything I’ve ever experienced. Because the author refuses to judge any of her characters, however unsympathetic, the reader is almost unaware of the grossly distorted morality of these ludicrously pampered women, with their wasted, empty lives bought at the expense of other people."

From No-one Loves a Policeman: “Argentina was like some huge, sleeping beast, a mythical elephant like those the ancients believed held up the world. It had just shaken off a president and all its ministers. It got rid of them because they did not know how to steer it, could only torment it with their absurd decisions on a journey to nowhere.  Today the beast was resting, digesting, occasionally regurgitating its favourite, its only nourishment:madness."

My Argentina reviews.

24 Jul 2010 18:52:00 | Country book reviews

4 Comments

Margot Kinberg

Maxine - What a terrific idea! It'll be so helpful to be able to back through your reviews with such a nice organiser : ).

Posted by: Margot Kinberg | 24 July 2010 at 19:01

Dorte H

Oh Margot, you stole my thunder! :D

Posted by: Dorte H | 24 July 2010 at 20:10

Craig

Great idea Maxine. I'm keen to read some Argentinian crime fiction, given I spent 2+ months there in 07/08. I've heard great things about THURSDAY NIGHT WIDOWS, so will have to try to souce myself a copy.

Posted by: Craig | 25 July 2010 at 03:35

kdurkin@earthlink.net

Am impatiently waiting for the library system to send "Thursday Night Widows," to my branch for me to get. Can't wait and I'm also trying for at least step one of the International Book Challenge.

Thank you for posting that beautiful photo. Although in this awful heat, I'm dreaming of Scandinavian cold and ice, I appreciate that picture.

Posted by: [email protected] | 25 July 2010 at 13:18

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEXT POST
The Darkest Room is winner of this year's International Dagger I am so pleased to read on Euro Crime blog that Johan Theorin's The Darkest Room, superbly translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy, has won the International Dagger award for 2010. I think this book is wonderful, far more than a standard crime book. The author is extremely talented and combines a good plot with a sensitive observation of character, time and place. Although I read the book some time ago, it haunts me still. The other books on the shortlist are all excellent, I recommend them all. For me, Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason came next-closest to winning, but on balance I felt The Darkest Room was a more rounded book - though my own emotional identification with the protagonist in Hypothermia is stronger. My Euro Crime review begins...."THE DARKEST ROOM is a wonderful book, framed as the story of a wooden house, Eel Point, on the coast of the small island of Oland, Sweden - an island where the population is small and the old traditions continue. The house has a long, tragic history associated with the building of the two lighthouses on the nearby rocks, shipwrecks and various residents. The brief stories of these old tragedies are...
PREVIOUS POST
Book reviews by country: Australia For my series this summer, I am providing selections of book reviews by country. Either the author is from the country named in the post, or the book is set there. Today it is the turn of Australia. I've reviewed fourteen books from this region. Some, such as those by Adrian Hyland and Peter Temple, are set there and are replete with "placeism". Others, such as those by Barry Maitland and Helen Fitzgerald, are set elsewhere (England and Scotland, respectively). A few samples: Black Tide by Peter Temple: "All the usual Peter Temple ingredients are here: the writing is fabulous, so evocative of Melbourne life as Jack knows it, poetic and spare in its mourning for the old ways that are fast being swept away by the pseudo-sophisticated and flashy, bland “multiculturalism”. Yet the book isn’t sentimental in its nostalgia – we see how the past wasn’t that great either." The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell: "The police investigation is compelling, with several different divisions coordinating various lines of enquiry as it becomes clearer that certain events must be connected. The question is, how? I really enjoyed the way in which witnesses were interviewed, phone records checked, and evidence gradually...

Maxine

Science editor who likes reading crime fiction

Search

Become a Fan

My Other Accounts

Recent Comments