From Publishers Weekly
This crisp translation of the first major novel of Argentine writer Valenzuela, published in 1966 in Spanish, and in an English edition (now out of print) by Harcourt in 1976, is raw, sensuous and stylish as a tango. After her father makes it clear she is no longer welcome at home, country girl Clara comes to Buenos Aires and drifts into a life of prostitution, though all she really wants is to find a husband. During her descent into the city's underworld, Clara encounters such denizens as Don Mario, a fat hotel manager who teaches her the tricks of the trade; Victor, a self-involved refrigerator salesman who is her boyfriend for a while; Tono Cruz, a bank employee with an engaging personality but a face so ugly it reminds her that "the perfect whore shouldn't concern herself with her customers' physical appearance"; impotent tango singer Carlos; Maria Magdalena, a hard-edged old-timer in the profession who offers Clara advice but no affection. Finally, Clara falls in with Alejandro, a magician, who subjects her remorselessly to his will until she is resigned to an endlessly bleak future. A writer renowned for her lyrical, expressionistic exploration of male-dominated Argentine society, Valenzuela here chronicles the bizarre, brutal existence of characters on the fringes, building to a hair-raising climax. Taking the stage name "Aztec Flower," Clara becomes part of Alejandro's magic show, enacting the "decapitated woman... a secret, jealously guarded for millennia since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs." Living literally on the razor's edge, Clara debates whether to finally take her life into her own hands in this harsh, provoking yet graceful tale of exploitation. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Poor, sweet, stupid Clara--her destiny is clear (claro) to everyone, to the men in her life, to the reader, except herself. At 17 she steps off a bus from the Argentine countryside and into the life of a Buenos Aires prostitute who lives with a series of evermore psychologically abusive men. Clara, however, remains almost frighteningly optimistic and sustains herself with two hopes: one to reach the ocean, the other to find a job where she can use her head instead of her body. She is successful only in the latter, as she finds a slot as the bodiless head in a scruffy roadside carnival. In the midst of her sordid life, Clara remains playfully endearing. Although Valenzuela has lived in the United States for many years, she remains one of Latin America's best-known contemporary writers of innovative fiction. Clara was first published as Hay que sonreir in 1966, and first issued in English as part of Clara: Thirteen Short Stories and a Novel (Harcourt, 1976). Valenzuela is best known for The Lizard's Tail; other English translations include Black Novel with Argentines and Symmetries. This modern, picaresque tale is highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.
-Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
