It’s very sad to see a novel that’s so bad that its own author realizes it and tries to explain its meaning in a postscript. Rosa Montero is not one of my favorite writers but I didn’t expect something quite as lousy from her.
The novel’s protagonist is a 60-year-old Soledad, the whiniest, most superficial and entitled character I’ve encountered in a while. I’ll give just one example to illustrate the caliber of this human being. Soledad’s neighbor, a young single mother loses her job and can’t pay her bills. When she shares with Soledad that her electricity has been cut off, the well-off Soledad concludes that the dramas of the unemployed during the economic crisis are nothing compared to the hardship she experiences as a result of being dumped by yet another casual boyfriend.
Montero didn’t even bother doing research for the book. The male prostitute in her book is Russian but he couldn’t behave less Russian if he tried. He doesn’t celebrate New Year’s, speaks several languages fluently in spite of having no education and having been raised in a Russian orphanage, and is desperate to marry a black woman and adopt her child. If this is normal behavior in a Russian electrician / prostitute, I’m Montserrat Caballe.
God, what a shitty, shitty novel.
Clarissa's Blog 
“A 60-year old Soledad”
“A 60-year old named Soledad.”
Thanks for allowing me to play Gallant to your Goofus.
http://the-toast.net/2014/09/19/goofus-gallant-tale-two-protagonists/
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I have no idea what you mean but thanks for being the only person interested in the review!
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“A 60-year old Soledad” isn’t proper English, the last time I checked.
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It isn’t incorrect, merely terser. I understand that Soledad refers to a person so there is no need for the verb in front to tell me that Soledad, in that sentence, is a proper name.
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I think the modification sounds better but then I’ve only been speaking English for the better part of 5 decades. 👽☣🎱
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If you have a problem with how I speak your language, let’s switch to mine.
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Hey, if you can get it into a essay, and get it published unaltered, more power to you, Tovarich.
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What essay??
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Seriously? What are you, three?
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I am not sure what the problem is (other than there should be another hyphen between “year” and “old”). I have seen similar constructions in magazines many times. “A stunning Michele Obama wore a white evening dress” or “A visibly distraught Johnny Depp appeared at the Oscars wearing nothing but a fig leaf.”
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He’s pouting. It happens every once in a while.
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Haha, this post is especially funny in the light of the discussion we had the other day about academic writing being more accessible. The MLA should have a session devoted to brutal reviews.
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What I really love is getting up at a conference and making this kind of comment about a novel everybody thinks is the bee’s knees just because it sold many copies and has been translated into English. People get appalled but can’t help liking the comment. 😆
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Montero didn’t even bother doing research for the book. The male prostitute in her book is Russian but he couldn’t behave less Russian if he tried. He doesn’t celebrate New Year’s, speaks several languages fluently in spite of having no education and having been raised in a Russian orphanage, and is desperate to marry a black woman and adopt her child. If this is normal behavior in a Russian electrician / prostitute, I’m Montserrat Caballe.
I feel like you’re holding back. Maybe he’s a super genius who learned all these languages from Google Translate. Also you forgot to mention he’s vegan to the point of eschewing honey. I’m pretty sure those were in the discarded character notes.
falls over laughing
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Yes, and he hates imperialism, doesn’t touch alcohol and is a huge baseball aficionado. 😆😆😆
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What is the point of the book? The only thing I can imagine is the exploration of a shallow character. Your review kind of reminded me of one of the protagonists of Women of Sand and Myrrh (the rich spoiled one sho thought it was fun to make fun of disabled people with her friends).
The problem with exploring shallow characters is…. they’re shallow and the story is liable to stay there. Women of Sand and Myrrh worked because there was just one super shallow character and she was shallow in a way that fit the context.
Sounds like a weird book.
A few months ago I tried to start a book by Inma Chacón but the first few pages about the life the affluent protagonist was so full of cliches (like a poor person’s fantasy about the lives of the rich and famous) that I didn’t get very far.
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This shallow and boring woman is obsessed with finding younger lovers and fears they won’t want her. 300 pages of that, Lord.
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