Family Drama

A novel about a relationship ultimately doomed both by cultural preconceptions and individual expectations. A well written book, capturing the changing flavours of Lima during the late 20th century. I am left wondering if either of the main characters changed at all, or simply passed time together. ( )

Dreadful. Every cliche and then some. ( )

This is a truly outstanding book that captures how infatuation might turn to love and later to hatred. The story begins in 1986 Lima, with the Shining Path guerrilla movement beginning to flex its muscle, which elicits a more acute awareness of class and race differences and the discrepancies of how well "white" Peruvians live compared to their indigenous counterparts. A white, upper class, slightly reprobate, business and family man (Carlos) falls for a girl (Maria) from the slums in a Tango bar. Twenty years later, they're still together but their initial lust and love has turned into something far bitter. Concurrently, the Peruvian government managed to conquer the Shining Path, but nothing much seems to have changed in Peru regarding the way poor, indigenous people are treated. This has implications for how Maria will fare against Carlos; but she also may exact a price from him before their vicious machinations against each other conclude. This book will keep you glued to the pages and guessing to (literally) the last page the outcome of Carlos and Maria. Be prepared to stay up all night. ( )

This book came to me from Elle Magazine and is defiantly not a book that I would pick up. However, that being said, once I got in about 70 pages, I was hooked and really wanted to know what happened with Carlos and Maria.

I had a hard time with the Spanish in this book, but it really added to the book. I just wish that I knew what was being said all the time. I found that I had to just read over it. I'm not familiar with customs and culture, but I found some things in this book to be very different. The fact that people are so prejudiced to others is amazing. I'm sure that this is truly the case in places around the world, but here in the U.S. everyone is so tolerant of mixed race relationships. I guess maybe that was one of the things that I found interesting about the story.

The ending was not at all what I expected. It just seemed to stop. Very suddenly and kind of left the reader to end the book in their own head. It's so hard to explain because there was a little of a conclusion, but it left a lot to the imagination.

Overall, a pretty good book. I'm glad that I had the chance to read it. ( )