Customer Reviews

The Return of Eva Peron

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This book consists of three seperate essays, written in the 1970s, which analyze historical events in Argentina, Zaire, and Trinidad. The writing is excellent and full of Naipaul's characteristic incisive insights into culture and history, but one needs to start with some interest and knowledge of the areas covered. The first essay, on Argentina in the early 1970s and the cult of Eva Peron is the best and longest. Reading the essay in Argentina last year, I found many of its brilliant insights on Argentine culture and history to still hold true. The weakness of the essay is its unsparingly critical stance. There is a mocking bitterness and that comes through in Naipual's perspective, which shows no sympathy for those who have to pay the consequences for the tragedies of history. For example, the section on Uruguay ends by noting that at the height of emigration, there was graffiti on the wall saying "last one to leave please turn out the lights." The second essay, on Mobutu Sese Seko's corrupt regime in Zaire is much shorter. It is a short, but in no way sweet. Mobutu deserved no less. The third essay, on a spate of violence in Trinidad, (Naipaul's birthplace) is less important and far less interesting. It chronicles the absurd pretentions and bloody deeds of a wanna-be black nationalist and has little larger significance. I did not find it worth reading.

The three main essays in this book are incredible: The story of Michael X, the Return of Eva Peron,and the focus on the (at the time) emerging nation of Zaire--once again The Congo. I'll tell you the truth I was terribly bored with everything I had been reading lately. I couldn't put this book down. I shall now attempt to read anything by Mr. Naipaul, who has a gift, yes a gift of communicating complex ideas without making me feel stupid. . .I suppose I was fortunate to find this book on my shelf as I see it is out of print. You folks out there who consider yourselves internationalists or "third worldists" especially you political radicals, please find this book and read it. You may want to compare the Argentine section to Edwardo Galleano's "Days and Nights in Love and War" . . .

This collection of essays was written at a time when, according to Naipaul, no novels were coming to him. However, when he was through with these three journalistic essays, he found himself with the material (and treatments) for two.

The first essay is the story of Michael X, the half-Portuguese black power man from Trinidad. Naipaul writes frankly about this very complex but ultimately pathetic man. The essay became the kernel for "Guerillas," where the details of Michael X's story, right down to the literary ambitions and the murders, became good fiction.

The second essay is Naipaul's very harsh look at Argentina. South America is a mystery to most North Americans, and Naipaul takes pains to highlight what he considers its lesser history. The reader is left with the sense of a society that never really stopped the foolish quest for El Dorado; one with all the of the guilt of the North American societies (Indian genocides, shameless land grabs) but none of the redeeming triumphs. Particularly astute are his descriptions of Buenos Aires, which he describes as a half-city. Despite this essay's (and the book's) title, there is very little about Eva Peron. Madonna tells that story better than Naipaul.

The last full-length essay is a profile of Zaire, the former Belgian Congo (now known again as the Congo). In reading this essay you will understand why many people believe Naipaul is little more than a sunburned racist. His knack for zeroing in on the pathetic aspects of societies just finding their way is sometimes overdone and in bad taste. But it is honest. I felt guilty, laughing at his anecdotes of this troubled region and its people. Naipaul could learn a thing or two from Nick Carraway, the narrator of Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" ... 'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this word haven't had all the advantages that you've had.' It's a very simple quote, and Naipaul should take it to heart. In any event, this book became the treatment for "Bend in the River," and people familiar with that book will find that much of its fiction is actually fact.

The last essay is a word about Conrad, whom Naipaul only barely praises. After so much literary comparison, I supposed Naipaul felt obligated to write a bit of criticism. It's a postscript, and very forgettable.

This is an eclectic collection of essays, from a long piece on his research for his novel Guerillas to a brilliant literary essay on reading novels and seeking a sense of wonder. They vary in quality, from a far too long impressionsitic piece on Trinidad to the essay on Argentina.

While it doesn't hold together well, Naipal's point of view was always valuable in these early days, when he was becoming world famous. So this is worth reading, as it reflects the preceptiveness of a novelist at his prime, before he descended into his later curmugeon role who complains excessively of smells etc. Of particular interest in his essay on the genisis of A Bend in the River, argubly one of the best and most original novels of the 20C.

I find this book interesting because I am interested in the perception people had of Eva Peron before the musical based on her life was released. But I found that the author's description of Evita, Juan Peron, and Peronism, is distorted. It is well established by now that Juan Peron was not a dictator and was elected by overwhelming majority in three elections. And yet this book called Peron a "dictator" and tells his story in terms of him being a dictator who imposed his will on the unsuspecting and naive Argentine population. I am not defending Juan Peron; what I'm saying is that Peron was much more complicated than the linear perception of him as a dictator, and Argentina is a far more complicated country, with a much more complex history, than this author can convey.

I must take into account that this book was written in the early 1970s; Juan Peron's third wife, Isabel, had been elected Vice President and upon Peron's death she had become the first female President of a nation in the Western Hemisphere. One of the most important things Isabel did in during her tragically short time as President was to return the embalmed body of Eva Peron to Argentina (Evita's body had been in Spain; for elaboration on the story of Evita's body, see SANTA EVITA). Hence the title of the book THE RETURN OF EVA PERON. The author, therefore, takes the "infamy" of such a seemingly bizarre situation - the returning of a corpse to its homeland - and recounts the story in the vein of something of a noir-ish soap opera. In doing so, he commits historical inaccuracies, indulges in cultural insensitivities (death in Hispanic culture is viewed in a different context than in Anglo Saxon nations; the author fails to take account of that fact), and fails to provide any significant insight into Argentine culture. I'm struggling to figure out how to say it, let's see: he reads the whole thing as "concept" and writes like a screenwriter. I'm struggling to avoid the words "racism," "bigotry," etc., but I think that in many instances such terms would be accurate. That's why I think the publication date of this book should be taken into account. The prose and tone is very dated.

Perhaps the most objectionable reference in the book is the author's reference to Evita's death being part of "the passion play of a dictatorship." If you are interested in gaining more accurate insight into the Peronist experience of Evita's death, and the response of the Argentine population (colored by its Hispanic view of, and attitude toward, death), I would recommend reading EVITA: THE REAL LIFE OF EVA PERON and PERON AND THE ENIGMAS OF ARGENTINA. Both books mention that there was no coercion by the Peronist government in terms of the importance of Evita's death. The Argentine population was truly devastated by her death, and the extent of their mourning even exceeded what Juan Peron himself had anticipated. "I never knew they loved her so much," Peron was heard to comment while walking in the funeral procession through downtown Buenos Aires.