wild, anarchic, shaggydog thriller, An obnoxiously shallow writer of advertisements finds himself drafted in a war between God and the forces of evil, The point of view veers from third person omniscient to first person to second person, a stylistic reflection of the plot, which is continually spinning and off balance, The book bears flavors of Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco, and allusions to Jorge Luis Borges, but Parra is less disciplined, and more interested in drama than in the cool, crystalline thoughtgames of those authors.
The main character's emotions span a spectrum: lust, rage, fear, remorse, love but the emotion that seems to drive Parra's writing is a bitter anger at the permanence of injustice and suffering in the world.
Parts of the novel go on too long, like pointlesslyextended car chase scenes in a movie, The most delicious scene occurs near the middle, when the protagonist enters a nightclub full of people who have produced great works of science, art, or literature, only to find that the same works and all the fame and credit are associated with their doubles in Western Europe.
It's a brilliant conceit, and is the most satisfying articulation of a sense of alienation and futility and the
struggle to overcome it that animates the whole novel, This series is designed to bring to North American readers the onceunheard voices of writers who have achieved wide acclaim at home, but are not recognized beyond the borders of their native lands.
With special emphasis on women writers, Interlink's Emerging Voices series publishes the best of the world's contemporary literature in translation or original English, Marco Antonio de la Parra es un psiquiatra, escritor y dramaturgo chileno, miembro de la Academia de Bellas Artes, Gran parte de sus obras están fuertemente influenciadas por el Régimen Militar de Chile, donde satiriza mediante metáforas la realidad nacional, Es autor de más setenta títulos traducidos a varios idiomas, entre piezas teatrales, novelas, libros de relatos y ensayos, Algunas obras notables son: Lo crudo, lo cocido y lo podrido, Lindo país esquina con vista al mar, King Kong Palace y el exilio de Tarzán,