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maddie_lewis28's review
2.0
I'm not going to lie I didn't understand everything and was confused a lot and I don't know what to think. This is the third book we've read in my Crime Fiction in Spain and Mecxico class.
alannahherrmann's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
bigdreamer_897's review against another edition
3.0
Le premesse sono interessanti: un ricco uomo d'affari, che da un anno ha lasciato Barcellona per intraprendere un lungo viaggio nei Mari del Sud (come aveva fatto il pittore Gauguin), viene ritrovato cadavere in un cantiere della città che in realtà non aveva mai lasciato. Mentre la polizia brancola nel buio, la vedova ingaggia l'investigatore privato Pepe Carvalho affinchè scopra il colpevole.
Peccato che poi la trama sia fin troppo lineare per un giallo con questo punto di partenza: pochi intrighi (e quelli che ci sono sono presentati in maniera abbastanza frettolosa e poco approfondita), indagine svolta in maniera confusionaria (Poirot mi ha abituato male, lo so) e prima parte del romanzo davvero troppo lenta.
In più: Pepe Carvalho usa i libri per accendere il fuoco del camino.....
Ma WTF!?
Peccato che poi la trama sia fin troppo lineare per un giallo con questo punto di partenza: pochi intrighi (e quelli che ci sono sono presentati in maniera abbastanza frettolosa e poco approfondita), indagine svolta in maniera confusionaria (Poirot mi ha abituato male, lo so) e prima parte del romanzo davvero troppo lenta.
In più: Pepe Carvalho usa i libri per accendere il fuoco del camino.....
Ma WTF!?
alternbruno's review against another edition
3.0
Se supone que es un texto muy edificante de la novela negra, pero a mí no me terminó de convencer. Eso sí, el diseño de personajes está muy bien logrado. La trama es arquetípica de novela policiaca, pero es tan local y dependiente del momento histórico de España a mediados de los 70, que es imposible de leer sin el almanaque de esa época.
Recomiendo para desaburrirse un rato con descripciones puntillosas de comida y una misantropía clásica de protagonista atormentado por la vida cotidiana.
Recomiendo para desaburrirse un rato con descripciones puntillosas de comida y una misantropía clásica de protagonista atormentado por la vida cotidiana.
keefbongo's review against another edition
3.0
The themes of this book and the way it’s written are sadly more interesting than the story itself.
stinajohanns's review
2.0
I really didn't like this book. I've head this author was very popular in his home country and that he has been translated into many languages but he didn't quite reach me. Maybe it's just age. I'm more used to the new kind of crime, the Scandinavian noir, and this was just a bit too full of useless discussions, annoying main characters and to be honest, not so exciting storyline. I seriously doubt I will read another book by this author.
saramarto's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
maria_ivaars's review against another edition
3.0
Ha sido una buena lectura, la verdad, pero ese final... ¿? me he quedado totalmente vacía. Creo que durante toda la novela ha habido una tensión que genera un gran interés; sin embargo, considero que el conflicto se concluye de forma demasiado repentina y, desde mi punto de vista, no ha estado para nada a la altura del resto del libro. A pesar de eso, la forma de escribir de Manuel me ha gustado bastante y la lectura me ha resultado amena.
paulcowdell's review
3.0
I'm always intrigued by attempts to use crime novels as ways of probing political history and developments, whether in a general way (think of the number of land speculators in '30s noir) or specifically (some of Didier Daeninckx's work, for example).
This has that sort of sociological interest, as a snapshot of just how ruined Spanish society was after/because of Franco. Montalban does point to how that fascist legacy was wilfully not erased by the Transition, but the result is probably bleaker in this regard than the author may have intended, because it comes across as absolutely prostrate before that point of history.
The terrific line 'Curiously, none of the election programmes said anything about tearing down what the Franco regime had built. This is the first political change that respects the ruins' is both astute and revealing of the limitations of the Transition. It does give a convincing portrayal of the bleakness (exemplified in the perhaps gratuitous unpleasantness of the last couple of pages), but it also points to the reasons for the fatalism about it. This is probably down to Montalban's own politics, and his affiliation with tendencies that had played a key role first in disarming and hobbling opposition to Franco and then in preventing settling accounts at the end of the dictatorship. (I can't find now it, but there's a throwaway comment about Spain suffering from having arrived at its industrial revolution late: that was the line used by the Communist Party to argue against the revolutionary movement that could have seen a completely different outcome in 1936). All of which rather plays against the book's effectiveness in exposing the brutality of what was left behind by fascism.
This has that sort of sociological interest, as a snapshot of just how ruined Spanish society was after/because of Franco. Montalban does point to how that fascist legacy was wilfully not erased by the Transition, but the result is probably bleaker in this regard than the author may have intended, because it comes across as absolutely prostrate before that point of history.
The terrific line 'Curiously, none of the election programmes said anything about tearing down what the Franco regime had built. This is the first political change that respects the ruins' is both astute and revealing of the limitations of the Transition. It does give a convincing portrayal of the bleakness (exemplified in the perhaps gratuitous unpleasantness of the last couple of pages), but it also points to the reasons for the fatalism about it. This is probably down to Montalban's own politics, and his affiliation with tendencies that had played a key role first in disarming and hobbling opposition to Franco and then in preventing settling accounts at the end of the dictatorship. (I can't find now it, but there's a throwaway comment about Spain suffering from having arrived at its industrial revolution late: that was the line used by the Communist Party to argue against the revolutionary movement that could have seen a completely different outcome in 1936). All of which rather plays against the book's effectiveness in exposing the brutality of what was left behind by fascism.