The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen Dobyns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A sinuous, strange and utterly beguiling novel of sexual obsession. Set in an opulent villa in the heart of a Latin American city in the throes of revolution, three boyhood friends, now middle-aged, including the narrator, Nicholas Battersby, gather at the home of Dr. Pacheco for a semi-annual dinner party, during the course of which they discover the long-harboured secrets of the house and Pacheco's obsessive imprisonment of the beautiful and enigmatic senora puccini, as well as secrets about their own complusions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dobyns is an accomplished poet (Cemetery Nights) and a popular mystery writer (Saratoga Longshot), and his new book masterfully combines his gift for cliff-hanging narrative with his dark and meditative sensibility. Specifically, the muse of contemporary Latin American literaturethe spirit of magic realismglides through this fascinating tale of power and sexual obsession, self-deception and greed. Storytelling is at the heart of the psychological sorcery of the book. Three middle-aged men gather for a reunion dinner at the home of their fellow schoolmate Dr. Daniel Pacheco, a rich and charismatic surgeon. They have risked their lives to come to this banquet, since civil war boils outside in the streets of this unnamed Latin American country. A photograph of a beautiful young woman in Pacheco's library engages their curiosity. It depicts Antonia Puccini, Dr. Pacheco's housekeeper, now many years older and mysteriously attached to her employer. As Dr. Pacheco tells the story of his curious relationship with Antoniaan unholy bond of power and submissionthe others are moved to tell their own stories, revealing secrets of their shameful and vainglorious pasts. While each man strips away the layers of artifice from his public persona, violence escalates outside. This public brutality echoes the casual violence and private deceits of these four ordinary and doomed individuals. With its sinuous narrative and cool atmosphere of the fantastic, reminiscent of the haunting tales of Jorge Luis Borges, this novel is as spellbinding and resonant as an unsettling dream. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In a war-torn Latin American capital, a group of old friends gather at the home of Dr. Daniel Pacheco for their semiannual reunion. Kept prisoners by an emergency curfew, they wander into revelations of brutality and deception. The evening's centerpiece is the host's gradual disclosure of his obsession with Seora Puccini, whom he met as a young socialite. Now his housekeeper and sexual slave, she quietly serves dinner as Pacheco details the limitless debasement he has forced on them both so that he can possess her physically, though she vows never to love him. The violence in the streets serves as counterpoint to the emotional violence of these refined, prominent men. A dark, existential thriller by the author of the Charlie Bradshaw mysteries. Highly recommended. BOMC alternate.Rob Schmieder, Boston
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140105670
• ISBN-13: 978-0140105674
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,125,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and disturbing, July 30, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Two Deaths of Señora Puccini (Hardcover)

Dobyns is an author I met first as a poet (Cemetery Nights); then I discover he wrote excellent novels and formula mysteries. This book is definately literature not formula mystery.

The story is set in a Latin American city during an uprising. A group of men who've known each other for years meet for a dinner party. The host's relationship with his housekeeper, the Senora Puccini of the title, is dominating and cruel. In the course of the evening his degradation of her becomes more and more cruel as more of the story behind the relationship becomes known - a story of passion, jealousy, love and fidelity. The final revelations are both surprising and believable.

This is an excellent book - a story told so well that you want to read it over and over - a story so disturbing that is forces you to consider man's cruelity to man.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars enthralling, June 10, 2006

By 

Danielle "Danielle" (RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini (Mass Market Paperback)

For a book that covers the events of one single night (and some of the next day) this book doesn't drag at all. Sometimes when authors try to keep the entirety of a novel to one day or one night, it seems like they take forever at it. This is really a fine story, with great twists.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Dark Evening....., August 1, 2008

By 

J. R. Hunt (Kalamazoo, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini (Paperback)

This is a very disturbing book, reveiling the darkness, and evil of the human animal. It is tragic in so many ways that one comes away with the feeling that humankind lives in a cesspool of selfishness, with no chance of redemption or any need for it. The world is as it is, violent and ugly. Pacheo, a surgeon and the central character, is as despicable and amoral character as there has ever been, but he bluntly makes no apologies for what he is or what he has done. He is the narcissistic sociopath extraordinaire, and as this book unravels we see that this surgeon, who publicly is respected, is actually very much more sinister. The story is gripping, and reaches a steadily rising crescendo until the last page. A book worth the read, but get ready for a good dose of human ugliness.