Konfidenz (Latin American Literature Series) [Paperback]

Ariel Dorfman (Author), Andrei Codrescu (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003 | Series: Latin American Literature Series

Told almost exclusively through dialogue, Konfidenz opens with a woman entering a hotel room and receiving a call from a mysterious stranger who seems to know everything about her and the reasons why she has fled her homeland. Over the next nine hours he tells her many disturbing things about her lover (who may be in great danger), the political situation in which they are enmeshed, and his fantasies of her. A terse political allegory that challenges our assumptions about character, the foundations of our knowledge, and the making of history, Konfidenz draws the reader into a postmodern mystery where nothing--including the text itself--is what it seems. First published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1995), most recent paperback Vintage (1998).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The gifted and versatile Dorfman's new novel, written almost entirely in dialogue, develops an almost unbearable intensity as it charts the relationship between its two principal characters in a time setting that is deliberately left vague. A woman, Barbara, has been brought to Paris to see Martin, her lover. At her hotel, she takes a phone call from Leon, who claims to be Martin's friend and informs her that her lover is doing resistance work and could soon be in great danger. During a series of phone calls that lasts for nine hours, alliances shift and the nature of the men's political mission becomes both more and, paradoxically, less clear. Leon, a skilled manipulator, seduces Barbara with words, yet he clearly wants something from her that isn't entirely sexual. By the time their political and personal situations are entirely obvious to the reader, nothing is as it first seemed. A political novel as well as an acute study in character and obsession, complete with interspersed commentary apparently addressed to the reader and the novelist equally, this brief, tightly constructed work addresses multiple themes. Dorfman uses the tension of an unstable political situation to force the reader into questioning his characters' stated truths, as well as their motivations. Exhilarating for its finely tuned unfolding but somber in its conclusions, Konfidenz demands a fundamental reexamination of the nature of trust.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Novels by Chilean exile Dorfman (e.g., Mascara, LJ 9/15/88) have earned warm reviews. But most people probably know him best as the author of the Broadway play Death and the Maiden (LJ 4/15/92), whose screen version-starring Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley-also debuts this January. Here, a woman who has fled her homeland finds that she is being stalked.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 177 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156478293X
• ISBN-13: 978-1564782939
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Many Voices of Konfidenz, October 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Konfidenz: (English language edition) (Paperback)

Not only is this book intriguing in its storyline, but it is also intriguing in its composition: Dorfman uses several different narrative voices with great success. He puts the reader in the position of being the voyeur--watching the characters, as well as himself, the author. He also turns a voyeuristic eye on the reader, making you wonder if you, like the characters, are being watched. The novel raises issues of trust in a society where basic human rights are consistently compromised. "Private life is an illusion in our world, Barbara. When you can torture one person, private life ends for everybody else."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A literate, attention engaging, and multifaceted novel, September 15, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Konfidenz (Latin American Literature Series) (Paperback)

A distinguished work of Latin-American literature written by Ariel Dorfman (who was exiled from his native Chile after the 1973 coup), Konfidenz is an absorbing story, told almost entirely through dialogue, of a woman best with telephone calls from a mysterious stranger who appears to know everything about her -- including her reasons for fleeing her homeland and the peril she and those close to her are in. Konfidenz is recommended as a tense, gripping, literate, attention engaging, and multifaceted novel.

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to be read and reread, August 26, 2010

By 

E. Botella - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Konfidenz (Latin American Literature Series) (Paperback)

Konfidenz is a passionate treatise on love, repression, aesthetics.

The central relationships of the text rip apart the sexuality of government; to start this book requires that you read until you finish it, and read it again many times.

It's not a "hard" read at all--Dorfman's style sometimes borders on austerity, and yet emotionally and intellectually, the work is incredibly challenging. A very poetic sort of prose...