Thursday, September 3, 2009
This complex and richly layered novel follows a young, gay doctor from Santiago, Chile, to Paris in the late 1950s. Fleeing the repressive, closed society of his native Chile, he is drawn to France by the promise of freedom, culture, and romance—with an attractive but married Frenchman. They begin a passionate affair in Paris, and the Frenchman promises to leave his wife but cannot bring himself to do so. When the Chilean expatriate begins a liaison with the wife of his French lover, complications multiply with tragic results. The elegant voice of the protagonist echoes through this refined and romantic milieu set against a backdrop of grandeur and faded glory. An intriguing cast of impoverished aristocrats, business elite, and art patrons inhabit the wistful narrative based loosely on the author’s youth.