What do you think?
Rate this book
Goodbye Buenos Aires
Goodbye Buenos Aires is a vivid and earthy celebration of Argentina that chronicles the rise and fall of the British colony in the 20's and 30's through the imaginative biography of one of its charismatic representatives - a hard-drinking, womanizing, emigre Scotsman, who cut his way through the bars and brothels of the city whilst trading with farmers upcountry. It is also the biographical portrait of an errant father by a son and a moving description of Argentina by one of its leading writers and journalists. Andrew Graham-Yooll chronicles his now lost tribe, the Anglos - the British of Argentina - through this, at times harrowing memoir of separation, unpredictable politics, personal loss, and love rediscovered.
222 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
6 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 24, 2018
Well, no one has written a review of this book and it deserves it. Firstly, the introduction explains that this is a mix of biography/history but finally claims to be a novel (probably to avoid libel from relatives of some characters!)
Andrew G-Y has written the story of his father's arrival in Buenos Aires around 1930 through to his death in the 1960s. All the characters are real (and there's a lot of famous people who turn up - including Onassis, Duke of Windsor, Victoria Ocampo, Lawrence Durrell, Witold Gombrowicz, Peron and Evita). There's the seedy/ sordid side of Argentina (brothels, orgies) , the wealth of the ex-pats and the fawning of the foreigners - especially the British, who are then gradually hounded out by Peron.
It's a great story of one ordinary man's life in a time of turbulence, but providing real background information on history and politics of Argentina and the world viewed from Patagonia. The Argentinians managed to keep out of WW2 until 1945, not ever knowing whether to side with the Allies or Hitler, but finally choosing the Allies when it was clear they would win.
At only 200 pages it packs a lot in and is well worth finding and reading !
Andrew G-Y has written the story of his father's arrival in Buenos Aires around 1930 through to his death in the 1960s. All the characters are real (and there's a lot of famous people who turn up - including Onassis, Duke of Windsor, Victoria Ocampo, Lawrence Durrell, Witold Gombrowicz, Peron and Evita). There's the seedy/ sordid side of Argentina (brothels, orgies) , the wealth of the ex-pats and the fawning of the foreigners - especially the British, who are then gradually hounded out by Peron.
It's a great story of one ordinary man's life in a time of turbulence, but providing real background information on history and politics of Argentina and the world viewed from Patagonia. The Argentinians managed to keep out of WW2 until 1945, not ever knowing whether to side with the Allies or Hitler, but finally choosing the Allies when it was clear they would win.
At only 200 pages it packs a lot in and is well worth finding and reading !
March 1, 2022
This is an astonishing book about the life fe and lives of a Scot expat in Argentina. Poignant, bawdy and incredibly moving.
October 29, 2015
an odyssey.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews