Customer Reviews

An Olympic Death (A Five Star Title)

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Manuel Vazquez Montalbano was an sometimes and author in search of a book. This novel is one of those searches, but I'm not sure if he found what he was looking for. In the summaries and synopsis you read about his ability to turn nothing into something, but here he seems to just wander around old Barcelona as it 'primps' itself getting ready for the 1992 Olympics.

This is a very existentialist, absurdist (where's Edward Albee when you need him) metaphysical journey of a man whose life is becoming redundant, even to him. Carvalho spends way to much time trying to live in his past and finds that much of what he remembers is now changed to fit what he wants to remember as opposed to what actually happened. There is a touch of the Alain Robbe-Grillet, 'nouveau roman' to the whole book that goes along well with the allusions from Barrie' 'Peter Pan'.

This seems to me to be the 'swan song' for Carvalho as the 'devil may care' communist/collaborator/detective, and the maturing of his personality to fit the changes in Spain with the passing of Franco and its' entry into the European Community. Depending on how you read it, it's either a very good book, or just a jumble of attitudes, happenings and words. Your call.

"An Olympic Death" is an unorthodox mystery novel set in Barcelona on the eve of the '92 Olympics. As a portrait of Barcelona, the novel reveals it for what it is -- at once one of the most exciting cities in Europe and a postmodernist pigsty. A hilarious satire on contemporary art, aging hippies, preparations for the Olympics. philosophy, books, gay bars, and even mystery novels themselves, "An Olympic Death" is Manuel Vázquez Montalbán at his best.

The novel's opening scene could have been taken straight from a Peter Sellers movie. Claire Delmas, a eye-boggling French beauty, and her friend the Olympic agent Georges Lebrun, pay a visit to Pepe Carvalho, Barcelona's aging private-eye, gastronome extraordinaire, and repentent Communist. Carvalho (pronounced "car-valyu") is truly an unorthodox figure among private-eyes. Immediately, it is evident that he is much more of a psychiatrist than a private-eye, braving the dangers of his clients' conversation instead of the world of crime. Claire and Lebrun are looking for Alekos, Claire's renegade Greek husband turned homosexual. Their search for him -- chaperoned by Carvalho -- leads them through a motley of comic scenes in Barcelona.

Perhaps uniquely among detective novels, Carvalho is simultaneously at work on a curious, entirely unrelated second "case". Luis Brando, a wealthy publisher (no relation to Marlon), engages him to keep an eye on Beba, his nymphomaniac teenage daughter. Beba is a lusty lass with a penchant for screwing old men. Carried out alongside the search for Alekos, Beba's case leads Carvalho through a riotous labyrinth of crazy characters and a hilarious tour of Barcelona by night.

While I enjoyed the novel immensely and I understand it's largely a satire on "cultural hooliganism" (Carvalho's phrase), I have to admit that there are some trashy scenes. Montalbán could have excluded them and not damaged his story. I'm not a prude, but from time to time he overkilled the sex and profanity. So much so that to be frank, I was ready for the novel to end.

Nevertheless, the book was a fantastic read and I'm eager to find more Montalbán. 5 stars.

In "An Olympic Death," private detective Pepe Carvalho is mourning the changes in his life due to his own aging and the changes coming to his beloved city of Barcelona because of the coming 1992 summer Olympics (the city is in the process of getting a major facelift for the games). It sounds like it could be a mystery with some deeper themes, but in reality it is just more of Pepe Carvalho slogging through the seamy parts of Barcelona and meeting with the decadent people who inhabit them. His clients in this book also are people with few morals and no redeeming aspects.

Unlike some of his previous books, this book does not pound home the author's political views, which might be good in some ways but just leaves us with an aging sensualist protagonist longing to be young and virile again. Pepe is exposed as selfish, self indulgent, self centered, self everything--though that may not be the author's intention.

I must say that Montalban has a way of making even the weak plots in this book somewhat interesting, and so the book was not a total loss. The parts about Pepe's love of gourmet food are always tactilely satisfying also. However, I cannot recommend this book because it is really just about a lot of immoral people doing their thing.