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De Betovering Van De Zinnen (2008)

by Marie Arana(Favorite Author)

3.07 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

9047200896 (ISBN13: 9789047200895)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Artemis

review 1: This is not a book I would normally have read, but was recommended to me by a friend in anticipation of an upcoming trip to Peru. That said, it was engrossing, if somewhat uncomfortable. Carlos's motivation for his attraction to Maria in unclear (though that's part of the book's attraction). The 20 year jump to part 2, as well as the style itself, were well-executed. I'm not certain if the book gave me a great deal of insight into Peru, but it was an enjoyable read.
review 2: Carlos Bluhm, a middle-aged Peruvian of German descent, comfortably married to Sophie and father of Rudy and Fritz, enjoys one-night sexual stands from time to time, and outings with his three friends. All come from Lima, from the same German descended background, all are solidly midd... morele class, and all know that indigenous women--Indians--are good for one thing only--casual sex.[return][return]Until one night Carlos meets Maria, a 15 year old Indian girl in a tango bar, and his life is changed forever. [return][return]The novel is a story of the lengths two people are willing to go in order to satisfy sexual obsession and calculating need. A story of 20 years of living together and having no idea of who the other is.[return][return]Arana writes of chasms of non-understanding so deep and so broad that her characters don� t even know where to start to find a bridge. One goes to a shaman, the other to its equivalent in the modern world, a psychiatrist, but in the end, neither witch doctor can help.[return][return]It� s well written, but strangely without emotion, more or less paralleling the lives of the Carlos and Maria themselves. It� s a story that should move, should make a connection but did not do so for me. Arana made the characters so unfathomable to each other that they became, then, equally unfathomable to me, leaving me pretty indifferent to their fates, once I knew what they were. That� s about how I feel about the book, too--indifferent. It was a good try that didn't work. less

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