From Publishers Weekly
Reading this collaboration between artist-father (Francisco) and writer-son (Gabriel) is like seeing coming attractions at the movies: a great many things happen, but the structure behind those events isn't clear. Ana's story is in the existentialist mode--Jean-Paul Sartre is invoked, for no discernible reason, and Simone de Beauvoir, too, plays a rolep. 22 . Unfortunately, this philosophical bent serves only as an excuse to avoid such intrusions as motivation and character. The story takes place in a near-future France on the brink of war, though the reasons for that war are left unclear. Ana, a young woman in search of meaning and heroism, throws a rock at a tank, is imprisoned and raped; her lover Jacques is shot, and the cop who shot him becomes Ana's love slave. Traveling to Mexico, Ana is transformed into a dominatrix who deals drugs and shoots people for kicks; returning to Paris, she becomes a rich industrialist's mistress. Is Ana resisting oppression? Is she taking revenge on men for her rape? Is she an ant in a meaningless cosmos? Francisco's art offers some interesting mixtures of imagination and reality, but overall this work is disappointing.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
