What do you think?
Rate this book
Pepe Carvalho #3
La soledad del manager
Un hombre aparece muerto con unas bragas de mujer en el bolsillo. La viuda encarga la investigación del caso a un «huelebraguetas» gallego, un detective privado de complejo pasado. Lo que parecía ser un ajuste de cuentas sexual se convierte en un ajuste de cuentas político que tiene como fondo la sociedad española a medio camino entre la muerte de Franco y el intento de consolidación democrática. Carvalho trata de compensar sus angustias e inhibiciones guisando un salmis de pato a las dos de la madrugada o haciendo el amor con la pasividad de un animal caliente pero escéptico.
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
27 people are currently reading
381 people want to read
About the author
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
281 books349 followersManuel Vázquez Montalbán was a prolific Spanish writer: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humourist, critic, as well as a gastronome and a FC Barcelona supporter.
He studied Philosophy at Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona and was also a member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia. For many years, he contributed columns and articles to the Madrid-based daily newspaper El País.
He died in Bangkok, Thailand, while returning to his home country from a speaking tour of Australia. His last book, La aznaridad, was published posthumously.
He studied Philosophy at Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona and was also a member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia. For many years, he contributed columns and articles to the Madrid-based daily newspaper El País.
He died in Bangkok, Thailand, while returning to his home country from a speaking tour of Australia. His last book, La aznaridad, was published posthumously.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
May 5, 2017
Cuarenta años han pasado desde la publicación de La soledad del manager, el tercer libro del desesperanzado Pepe Carvalho como protagonista pero el segundo ejerciendo ya como detective privado después de Tatuaje. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán seguiría mostrándonos a través de los ojos de Carvalho una mirada crítica y pesimista sobre la sociedad de aquel momento. Corría mediados de los setenta y la ciudad de Barcelona mostraba nerviosismo por el lento cambio en la vida política y social.
En La soledad del manager se recrea lo mejor —para algunos pocos—, y lo peor —para otros muchos—, de aquel tiempo. Una sociedad en la que algunas élites supieron aprovecharse de la debilidad política que marcaba la época. Carvalho, desde su despacho situado al final de las Ramblas, y a través de una panorámica privilegiada desde su ventana para observar lo que acontecía en la ciudad, nos ofrecería en este libro una de las mejores crónicas de aquellos años y los mejores fotogramas de la ciudad. Existe en la parte casi central de la novela un “baile” entre manifestantes y policía preparándose ambos contendientes para el inicio del enfrentamiento donde Montalbán, con gran maestría poética y crítica, refleja de manera excelente aquello que sucedía o bien en las Ramblas, o bien en cualquier otro lugar de la ciudad de Barcelona como podía ser la Gran Vía delante de la Central, casi diariamente.
Un hombre aparecerá muerto con unas bragas de mujer en el bolsillo. Ése hombre es un conocido de Carvalho de los tiempos en que éste fue agente de la CIA. Es un manager de una gran corporación internacional. La viuda... http://www.abrirunlibro.com/2017/03/l...
En La soledad del manager se recrea lo mejor —para algunos pocos—, y lo peor —para otros muchos—, de aquel tiempo. Una sociedad en la que algunas élites supieron aprovecharse de la debilidad política que marcaba la época. Carvalho, desde su despacho situado al final de las Ramblas, y a través de una panorámica privilegiada desde su ventana para observar lo que acontecía en la ciudad, nos ofrecería en este libro una de las mejores crónicas de aquellos años y los mejores fotogramas de la ciudad. Existe en la parte casi central de la novela un “baile” entre manifestantes y policía preparándose ambos contendientes para el inicio del enfrentamiento donde Montalbán, con gran maestría poética y crítica, refleja de manera excelente aquello que sucedía o bien en las Ramblas, o bien en cualquier otro lugar de la ciudad de Barcelona como podía ser la Gran Vía delante de la Central, casi diariamente.
Un hombre aparecerá muerto con unas bragas de mujer en el bolsillo. Ése hombre es un conocido de Carvalho de los tiempos en que éste fue agente de la CIA. Es un manager de una gran corporación internacional. La viuda... http://www.abrirunlibro.com/2017/03/l...
September 2, 2015
review of
Manuel Vazquez Montalban's The Angst-Ridden Executive
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 31, 2015
To read the full review, please go here:
"Franco is dead! THANK GOODNESS!":
https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
Ever since I read Montalban's The Buenos Aires Quintet (my review's here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ) I've been hoping I'd find something else by him in used bk stores &, Lo & Behold!, I finally did in my favorite PGH bookshop last wk. What a treat! I'm in the midst of reading Wyndham Lewis's The Childermass wch is excellent so far but I was glad to get a break from it for Montalban.
According to the brief bio in the Quintet: "Born in Barcelona in 1939, MANUEL VASQUEZ MONTALBAN (1939-2003) was a member of Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC), and was jailed by the Franco government for four years for supporting a miners' strike." His obviously substantial political know-how made the Quintet of deep interest to me & works just as well in Executive.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco was dictator of Spain from 1939 to his death in 1975. He was the main military leader to overthrow the republic in the Spanish Civil War. This bk was originally published in 1977, 2 yrs after Franco's death, & much of it centers around post-Franco conditions in Barcelona.
I was in Barcelona in 1978. There were nervous looking teenagers in uniform standing around w/ machine-guns. It wasn't exactly an atmosphere to inspire confidence & relaxation. I left the next day.
I went to Madrid in 1984. By that time, Madrid, at least, seemed almost like a paradise. People seemed very, VERY glad that the dictator was dead. News kiosks had displays of bks by Gertrude Stein, William S. Burroughs, James Joyce, & Philip K. Dick. At least that's the way I remember it now. I was told that people were openly having sex in the parks.
I went to a restaurant w/ a friend where a diverse crowd of people, a gay couple in black leather, an ordinary family, old women in lace, etc, etc, all sat around eating great food & drinking & joking w/ each other. It was one of the friendliest & most accepting environments I'd ever witnessed. As I recall, I got a huge plate of paella & a bottle of red wine for something like $2. The bars had good beer for something like a nickel & the tapas were free. The one good thing about Franco was how happy people were when he died.
The dedication of this bk is as follows: "One day the member of parliament Sole Barbera asked me: "When are you going to write another of your cops and robbers novels?" I have taken him at his word, and would like to dedicate The Angst-Ridden Executive to him." (p 5) 'Naturally', I had to ask: Who is/was Sole Barbera?: ..&, y'know what?, I didn't find Sole Barbera on the internet. Fancy that. Not even in Spanish.
The Angst-Ridden Executive is basically about Spain transitioning from dictatorship to democracy. When it was written, Spain was in great turmoil.
"'And this is quiet compared with some places, boss. Imagine what things must be like in Bilbao. Or San Sebastian. Or Madrid. The ETA and GRAPO kidnapping people all over the place. The right-wing firing at demonstrators. And the shoot-out at the lawyers' office. That way they're hoping to destablicize the situation.'
"'Destabilize, Biscuter.'
"'What does "destabilize" mean, boss?'
"'Creating a scenario in which the authorities lose control of the situation, and the political system is incapable of guaranteeing order.'
"'And who benefits from this?'
"'Invariably those in power. It gives them an alibi for doing what the hell they want.'" - pp 85-86
Montalban is careful to incriminate both leftist & rightist groups here. I find "'And who benefits from this?'" to be a little out-of-character coming out of Biscuter's mouth but it gives the author the opportunity to say his piece. Think of the burning of the Reichstag & how it assisted w/ the nazi rise to power. Think of the 9/11 attacks & the way it led to a justification of defenestrating civil liberties.
Montalban surprised me by having his recurring protagonist detective, Carvalho, be in the CIA:
"He'd not so much as requested as demanded a window seat. The girl at the Western Air Lines check-in desk looked at the card he flashed, and complied, albeit with an air of puzzlement.
"What reason could there possibly be for a CIA agent to insist on a window seat on a flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco? The girl had heard rumours about special training camps that were supposedly located somewhere in the Mojave Desert, but surely the CIA had their own reconnaissance planes." - p 7
Carvalho in the CIA?! Tell me it ain't so!! Former CIA agent Philip Agee lost his US citizenship by writing & publishing his exposé of the CIA entitled Inside the Company: CIA Diary in 1975. Jeffrey Steinberg, the 1st publisher of the bk, of Stonehill Press died in a suspicious car explosion on May 23, 1981. To quote my own 1984 article on the subject, "The Suspicious Death of Jeffrey Steinberg, Stonehill Press Publisher":
"Inside the Company was an important breakthrough in exposing the actualities of US covert assassinations, misinformation, overthrows, etc as contrasted with the public relations version of US government scruples."
Perhaps Montalban didn't know about Agee's bk when he had Carvalho as a CIA agent - wch must've happened in an earlier bk than this one &, therefore, might've been before Agee's public revelations.
"'Don't you know that it's against the law for a Spanish citizen to enrol in organizations like the CIA without authorization?'
"'I started off giving Spanish lessons, not realizing that it was the CIA. Then I found it amusing, so I carried on. When I left, I clarified my position with two ministries — Foreign Affairs, and the Home Office.'" - p 166
Given Montalban's socialist background, there's more than a little humor to passages like the following:
"[']The only thing that worries me is the idea of a crisis looming, and my having to start acting like a foreman. You know what I mean?'
"'You have the morality of a pinko.'" - p 11
Using the populist tool of detective fiction, what Montalban does is give an analysis of hidden possibilities in Spain's political transitioning & show how an observer might go about systematically researching something inspired by the methodology rendered thru the literary vehicle of his detective character.
"'What does Petnay make?'
"'Perfumes, alcoholic spirits and pharmaceutical products.'
"The German seemed inclined to stop there. Jauma, however, continued the list.
"'Fighter planes, bombers, high-tech communications systems, all highly "sophisticated", as they say...as well as newspapers, magazines, dailies, politicians, and revolutionaries... Petnay makes them all.[']" - pp 22-23
Throughout it all, Franco recurs again & again as a subject of great rancor amongst Spaniards: "'It was only women and good food that saved us all from going mad under Franco.'" (p 23) For those of you w/ short-term memories only &/or little or no understanding of 20th century Spanish history, keep in mind that Franco was dictator for 36 yrs, that he was responsible for concentration camps & the deaths of 100s of 1,000s of people, that he heavily suppressed a popular elected republic, etc, etc.. For such underinformed readers, the author doesn't allow one to forget. Hatred of Franco runs deep here:
"'He's on the way out. He's very ill, poor thing.'
"'He seems well, considering.'
"The wife gave him a look she'd copied from her husband.
"'It's his character. It's his stamina that keeps him going. I think the only reason he's lived this long is because he wanted Franco to die first.'" - p 139
At 1st, in a foreshadowing scene of central importance, Franco isn't dead yet: "By now Rhomberg was sufficiently drunk not to feel embarrassed. He gave three cheers for socialism and drank to the forthcoming downfall of Franco." (p24) Most of the action in the novel takes place a few yrs later after Franco's death.
A recurring fictional character is the fictional detective's employee/friend/cook:
"From the end of Carvalho's sentence to the present day, Biscuter had been in and out of prison many times. He'd been cured of his passion for stealing cars, but his record stuck with him. He would occasionally fall foul of a police round-up, and being unemployed, would find himself charged under the Vagrant Persons Act.
"'If only I could find a job...'
"'How would you fancy working for me? You'd be in charge of a small office. You'll make me a coffee or a potato tortilla every now and then, but apart from that your time's your own.'" - p 32
While there's plenty of sexual stereotyping in Montalban's bks & more explicit sex than there wd've been in Montalban's predecessor writers like Hammett & Chandler ("Charo devoted herself to a detailed foreplay that lasted the entire drive back. Having arrived home, Carvalho made his way, naked, down the darkened hallway of his apartment, and his cock was warmly welcomed, first by her lips and then by her tongue, as it pressed hard against her teeth and her mouth opened to make way for it." - p 170), what's particularly interesting to me is that Carvalho's 'secretary' is not an attractive young woman, as wd've been the case w/ the earlier novelists, but is, instead, an older, somewhat decrepit male ex-con who the detective likes & is trying to help out. On 2nd thought, it's not really that far from the supporting characters in Hammett's "Thin Man" stories.
"At university Pedro Paraa had been known as 'Colonel' Para. He'd been obsessed with the idea of setting up an anti-fascist resistance movement in the mountains." - p 33
&, in fact, there were armed resistance groups called the "Maquis" operating out of the Spanish mountains that were active from the loss of the Civil War in 1939 up 'til at least 1952 if not longer. Consider these excerpts from "Armed resistance to Franco, 1939-1965" by Antonio Téllez:
"Very little has been written about the scale of the armed struggle against Franco following the civil war. It was and still is known to few. A thick blanket of silence has been drawn over the fighters, for a variety of reasons. According to Franco's personal friend Civil Guard Lieutenant-General Camilo Alonso Vega - who was in charge of the anti-guerrilla campaign for twelve years - banditry (the term the Francoists always used to describe the guerrilla activity) was of "great significance" in Spain, in that it "disrupted communications, demoralised folk, wrecked our economy, shattered our unity and discredited us in the eyes of the outside world”.
"Only days before those words were uttered General Franco himself had excused the blanket silence imposed on reports of armed opposition and the efforts mounted to stop it, when he had stated that "the Civil Guard's sacrifices in the years following the Second World War were made selflessly and in silence, because, for political and security reasons it was inappropriate to publicise the locations, the clashes, casualty figures or names of those who fell in performance of their duty, in a heroic and unspoken sacrifice."
"This cover-up has continued right up until our own day. In a Spanish Television (TVE) programme entitled Guerrilla Warfare and broadcast in 1984, General Manuel Prieto Lopez cynically referred to the anti-Francoist fighters as bandits and killers. Not that this should come as any surprise - during the period described as the political transition to democracy (November 1975 to October 1982) all political forces, high financiers, industrialists, the military and church authorities decided that references to the past were inappropriate and that the protracted blood-letting of the Franco era should be consigned to oblivion. That consensus holds firm today*, and historians eager to lift that veil run up against insurmountable obstacles when they try to examine State, Civil Guard or Police archives."
[..]
"An example that sums up the mentality and spirit of the guerrilla movement of the time is provided by a small team of Anarchist guerrillas, led by the veteran fighter Francisco Sabate Llopart (El Quico). On their return to Spain after the end of the Second World War one of their first missions was the 'expropriation' of money and valuables in a series of aggravated robberies of local big-businessmen. On completion of 'business', those 'visited' would be left a note like the following one, left at the home of a wealthy big-store owner, Manuel Garriga:
""We are not robbers, we are libertarian resistance fighters. What we have just taken will help in a small way to feed the orphaned and starving children of those anti-fascists who you and your kind have shot. We are people who have never and will never beg for what is ours. So long as we have the strength to do so we shall fight for for the freedom of the Spanish working class. As for you, Garriga, although you are a murderer and a thief, we have spared you, because we as libertarians appreciate the value of human life, something which you never have, nor are likely to, understand."
"A small example of how, despite the loss of the war, and despite the ruthlessness of the fascist repression, those involved in the resistance still managed to maintain their politics, their humanity, and their self-respect." - https://libcom.org/history/1939-1965-...
I have a Spanish poster for an event honoring the memory of the Maquis that I was fortunate enuf to get from a Spanish anarchist friend displayed in my house. These are people worthy of my respect.
I was pleased to find shades of my own health care philosophy expressed by Biscuter: "[']Look at my brother-in-law. He was feeling a bit rough, so he went to see the doctor. The doctor told him he had cancer. "Don't give me that..." says my brother-in-law. Anyway, three months later he was dead, if you ask me, the reason was just because he knew he had cancer.[']" Ha ha! I'm always saying that my 'cure for cancer' is to not know about it & hope that it kills me quick. I've (almost) made it to 62 so maybe my philosophy isn't a total bust. Live fast, die old. For a taste of my disgust w/ the Kafkaesque protection racket of 'health insurance' in the USA, witness my "HealthCare NightMare" movie here: http://youtu.be/tjB3QBz4LAc .
Reading a Montalban novel cd be an excellent & entertaining educational experience for people willing to pay attn:
"'Rhomberg's indignation reminds me of the eminent geographer Paginal in The Sons of Captain Grant, when he discovers that the British colonial teachers had taught their geography in such a way that the natives believed the whole world was British. The viewpoint of the colonizer and the viewpoint of the colonized. When you work for a big multinational, the world takes on quite different geographical divisions.[']" - p 40
Montalban is careful to explore the various possibilities of character type in the early days of post-Franco Spain: "Nuñez had been a pioneer in the reconstruction of the Left in Barcelona University during the nineteen fifties. After torture, and spells in prison, he had fled to France, where he had embarked on a life that would have made him ideal material for the bureaucracy of his own party, or a doctorate in social science and an assured place in a future democratic Spain. Too cynical to be a bureaucrat and too academic to be an academic, he plumped for the role of an onlooker" (p 53) A part of the reader's 'job' is to decide wch of these characters to trust.
Carvalho moves in a world of criminals & prostitutes. As such, it's a relief to read that he detests pimps: "Carvalho could stomach just about anything, but he drew the line at pimps. For him they were like dog-ticks — loathsome little insects grown fat from feeding on someone else's blood. The athlete had the face of an evil-looking lamb, and the innocence of a micro-electronic computer." (p 67)
It was also a pleasure to see poets in exile get positive play: "While he waited for Parra to return, Carvalho found himself thinking of other poets with unusual jobs. Emilio Prados, in exile, working as a playground supervisor for children in a secondary school in Mexico. Or the poet who ended up teaching infants in a school in Tijuana. Carvalho had met him in a bar at the border, as he was drinking tquila solos, with salt, interspersed with a sip of water and bicarbonate. / 'I'm not coming back,' he had said, 'until Franco's dead. It's a question of dignity. Maybe I am nothing here — but at least I have my pride.[']" (p 72) Montalban is always slipping in details like this that're perfect for inquiring minds like my own.
Manuel Vazquez Montalban's The Angst-Ridden Executive
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 31, 2015
To read the full review, please go here:
"Franco is dead! THANK GOODNESS!":
https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
Ever since I read Montalban's The Buenos Aires Quintet (my review's here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ) I've been hoping I'd find something else by him in used bk stores &, Lo & Behold!, I finally did in my favorite PGH bookshop last wk. What a treat! I'm in the midst of reading Wyndham Lewis's The Childermass wch is excellent so far but I was glad to get a break from it for Montalban.
According to the brief bio in the Quintet: "Born in Barcelona in 1939, MANUEL VASQUEZ MONTALBAN (1939-2003) was a member of Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC), and was jailed by the Franco government for four years for supporting a miners' strike." His obviously substantial political know-how made the Quintet of deep interest to me & works just as well in Executive.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco was dictator of Spain from 1939 to his death in 1975. He was the main military leader to overthrow the republic in the Spanish Civil War. This bk was originally published in 1977, 2 yrs after Franco's death, & much of it centers around post-Franco conditions in Barcelona.
I was in Barcelona in 1978. There were nervous looking teenagers in uniform standing around w/ machine-guns. It wasn't exactly an atmosphere to inspire confidence & relaxation. I left the next day.
I went to Madrid in 1984. By that time, Madrid, at least, seemed almost like a paradise. People seemed very, VERY glad that the dictator was dead. News kiosks had displays of bks by Gertrude Stein, William S. Burroughs, James Joyce, & Philip K. Dick. At least that's the way I remember it now. I was told that people were openly having sex in the parks.
I went to a restaurant w/ a friend where a diverse crowd of people, a gay couple in black leather, an ordinary family, old women in lace, etc, etc, all sat around eating great food & drinking & joking w/ each other. It was one of the friendliest & most accepting environments I'd ever witnessed. As I recall, I got a huge plate of paella & a bottle of red wine for something like $2. The bars had good beer for something like a nickel & the tapas were free. The one good thing about Franco was how happy people were when he died.
The dedication of this bk is as follows: "One day the member of parliament Sole Barbera asked me: "When are you going to write another of your cops and robbers novels?" I have taken him at his word, and would like to dedicate The Angst-Ridden Executive to him." (p 5) 'Naturally', I had to ask: Who is/was Sole Barbera?: ..&, y'know what?, I didn't find Sole Barbera on the internet. Fancy that. Not even in Spanish.
The Angst-Ridden Executive is basically about Spain transitioning from dictatorship to democracy. When it was written, Spain was in great turmoil.
"'And this is quiet compared with some places, boss. Imagine what things must be like in Bilbao. Or San Sebastian. Or Madrid. The ETA and GRAPO kidnapping people all over the place. The right-wing firing at demonstrators. And the shoot-out at the lawyers' office. That way they're hoping to destablicize the situation.'
"'Destabilize, Biscuter.'
"'What does "destabilize" mean, boss?'
"'Creating a scenario in which the authorities lose control of the situation, and the political system is incapable of guaranteeing order.'
"'And who benefits from this?'
"'Invariably those in power. It gives them an alibi for doing what the hell they want.'" - pp 85-86
Montalban is careful to incriminate both leftist & rightist groups here. I find "'And who benefits from this?'" to be a little out-of-character coming out of Biscuter's mouth but it gives the author the opportunity to say his piece. Think of the burning of the Reichstag & how it assisted w/ the nazi rise to power. Think of the 9/11 attacks & the way it led to a justification of defenestrating civil liberties.
Montalban surprised me by having his recurring protagonist detective, Carvalho, be in the CIA:
"He'd not so much as requested as demanded a window seat. The girl at the Western Air Lines check-in desk looked at the card he flashed, and complied, albeit with an air of puzzlement.
"What reason could there possibly be for a CIA agent to insist on a window seat on a flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco? The girl had heard rumours about special training camps that were supposedly located somewhere in the Mojave Desert, but surely the CIA had their own reconnaissance planes." - p 7
Carvalho in the CIA?! Tell me it ain't so!! Former CIA agent Philip Agee lost his US citizenship by writing & publishing his exposé of the CIA entitled Inside the Company: CIA Diary in 1975. Jeffrey Steinberg, the 1st publisher of the bk, of Stonehill Press died in a suspicious car explosion on May 23, 1981. To quote my own 1984 article on the subject, "The Suspicious Death of Jeffrey Steinberg, Stonehill Press Publisher":
"Inside the Company was an important breakthrough in exposing the actualities of US covert assassinations, misinformation, overthrows, etc as contrasted with the public relations version of US government scruples."
Perhaps Montalban didn't know about Agee's bk when he had Carvalho as a CIA agent - wch must've happened in an earlier bk than this one &, therefore, might've been before Agee's public revelations.
"'Don't you know that it's against the law for a Spanish citizen to enrol in organizations like the CIA without authorization?'
"'I started off giving Spanish lessons, not realizing that it was the CIA. Then I found it amusing, so I carried on. When I left, I clarified my position with two ministries — Foreign Affairs, and the Home Office.'" - p 166
Given Montalban's socialist background, there's more than a little humor to passages like the following:
"[']The only thing that worries me is the idea of a crisis looming, and my having to start acting like a foreman. You know what I mean?'
"'You have the morality of a pinko.'" - p 11
Using the populist tool of detective fiction, what Montalban does is give an analysis of hidden possibilities in Spain's political transitioning & show how an observer might go about systematically researching something inspired by the methodology rendered thru the literary vehicle of his detective character.
"'What does Petnay make?'
"'Perfumes, alcoholic spirits and pharmaceutical products.'
"The German seemed inclined to stop there. Jauma, however, continued the list.
"'Fighter planes, bombers, high-tech communications systems, all highly "sophisticated", as they say...as well as newspapers, magazines, dailies, politicians, and revolutionaries... Petnay makes them all.[']" - pp 22-23
Throughout it all, Franco recurs again & again as a subject of great rancor amongst Spaniards: "'It was only women and good food that saved us all from going mad under Franco.'" (p 23) For those of you w/ short-term memories only &/or little or no understanding of 20th century Spanish history, keep in mind that Franco was dictator for 36 yrs, that he was responsible for concentration camps & the deaths of 100s of 1,000s of people, that he heavily suppressed a popular elected republic, etc, etc.. For such underinformed readers, the author doesn't allow one to forget. Hatred of Franco runs deep here:
"'He's on the way out. He's very ill, poor thing.'
"'He seems well, considering.'
"The wife gave him a look she'd copied from her husband.
"'It's his character. It's his stamina that keeps him going. I think the only reason he's lived this long is because he wanted Franco to die first.'" - p 139
At 1st, in a foreshadowing scene of central importance, Franco isn't dead yet: "By now Rhomberg was sufficiently drunk not to feel embarrassed. He gave three cheers for socialism and drank to the forthcoming downfall of Franco." (p24) Most of the action in the novel takes place a few yrs later after Franco's death.
A recurring fictional character is the fictional detective's employee/friend/cook:
"From the end of Carvalho's sentence to the present day, Biscuter had been in and out of prison many times. He'd been cured of his passion for stealing cars, but his record stuck with him. He would occasionally fall foul of a police round-up, and being unemployed, would find himself charged under the Vagrant Persons Act.
"'If only I could find a job...'
"'How would you fancy working for me? You'd be in charge of a small office. You'll make me a coffee or a potato tortilla every now and then, but apart from that your time's your own.'" - p 32
While there's plenty of sexual stereotyping in Montalban's bks & more explicit sex than there wd've been in Montalban's predecessor writers like Hammett & Chandler ("Charo devoted herself to a detailed foreplay that lasted the entire drive back. Having arrived home, Carvalho made his way, naked, down the darkened hallway of his apartment, and his cock was warmly welcomed, first by her lips and then by her tongue, as it pressed hard against her teeth and her mouth opened to make way for it." - p 170), what's particularly interesting to me is that Carvalho's 'secretary' is not an attractive young woman, as wd've been the case w/ the earlier novelists, but is, instead, an older, somewhat decrepit male ex-con who the detective likes & is trying to help out. On 2nd thought, it's not really that far from the supporting characters in Hammett's "Thin Man" stories.
"At university Pedro Paraa had been known as 'Colonel' Para. He'd been obsessed with the idea of setting up an anti-fascist resistance movement in the mountains." - p 33
&, in fact, there were armed resistance groups called the "Maquis" operating out of the Spanish mountains that were active from the loss of the Civil War in 1939 up 'til at least 1952 if not longer. Consider these excerpts from "Armed resistance to Franco, 1939-1965" by Antonio Téllez:
"Very little has been written about the scale of the armed struggle against Franco following the civil war. It was and still is known to few. A thick blanket of silence has been drawn over the fighters, for a variety of reasons. According to Franco's personal friend Civil Guard Lieutenant-General Camilo Alonso Vega - who was in charge of the anti-guerrilla campaign for twelve years - banditry (the term the Francoists always used to describe the guerrilla activity) was of "great significance" in Spain, in that it "disrupted communications, demoralised folk, wrecked our economy, shattered our unity and discredited us in the eyes of the outside world”.
"Only days before those words were uttered General Franco himself had excused the blanket silence imposed on reports of armed opposition and the efforts mounted to stop it, when he had stated that "the Civil Guard's sacrifices in the years following the Second World War were made selflessly and in silence, because, for political and security reasons it was inappropriate to publicise the locations, the clashes, casualty figures or names of those who fell in performance of their duty, in a heroic and unspoken sacrifice."
"This cover-up has continued right up until our own day. In a Spanish Television (TVE) programme entitled Guerrilla Warfare and broadcast in 1984, General Manuel Prieto Lopez cynically referred to the anti-Francoist fighters as bandits and killers. Not that this should come as any surprise - during the period described as the political transition to democracy (November 1975 to October 1982) all political forces, high financiers, industrialists, the military and church authorities decided that references to the past were inappropriate and that the protracted blood-letting of the Franco era should be consigned to oblivion. That consensus holds firm today*, and historians eager to lift that veil run up against insurmountable obstacles when they try to examine State, Civil Guard or Police archives."
[..]
"An example that sums up the mentality and spirit of the guerrilla movement of the time is provided by a small team of Anarchist guerrillas, led by the veteran fighter Francisco Sabate Llopart (El Quico). On their return to Spain after the end of the Second World War one of their first missions was the 'expropriation' of money and valuables in a series of aggravated robberies of local big-businessmen. On completion of 'business', those 'visited' would be left a note like the following one, left at the home of a wealthy big-store owner, Manuel Garriga:
""We are not robbers, we are libertarian resistance fighters. What we have just taken will help in a small way to feed the orphaned and starving children of those anti-fascists who you and your kind have shot. We are people who have never and will never beg for what is ours. So long as we have the strength to do so we shall fight for for the freedom of the Spanish working class. As for you, Garriga, although you are a murderer and a thief, we have spared you, because we as libertarians appreciate the value of human life, something which you never have, nor are likely to, understand."
"A small example of how, despite the loss of the war, and despite the ruthlessness of the fascist repression, those involved in the resistance still managed to maintain their politics, their humanity, and their self-respect." - https://libcom.org/history/1939-1965-...
I have a Spanish poster for an event honoring the memory of the Maquis that I was fortunate enuf to get from a Spanish anarchist friend displayed in my house. These are people worthy of my respect.
I was pleased to find shades of my own health care philosophy expressed by Biscuter: "[']Look at my brother-in-law. He was feeling a bit rough, so he went to see the doctor. The doctor told him he had cancer. "Don't give me that..." says my brother-in-law. Anyway, three months later he was dead, if you ask me, the reason was just because he knew he had cancer.[']" Ha ha! I'm always saying that my 'cure for cancer' is to not know about it & hope that it kills me quick. I've (almost) made it to 62 so maybe my philosophy isn't a total bust. Live fast, die old. For a taste of my disgust w/ the Kafkaesque protection racket of 'health insurance' in the USA, witness my "HealthCare NightMare" movie here: http://youtu.be/tjB3QBz4LAc .
Reading a Montalban novel cd be an excellent & entertaining educational experience for people willing to pay attn:
"'Rhomberg's indignation reminds me of the eminent geographer Paginal in The Sons of Captain Grant, when he discovers that the British colonial teachers had taught their geography in such a way that the natives believed the whole world was British. The viewpoint of the colonizer and the viewpoint of the colonized. When you work for a big multinational, the world takes on quite different geographical divisions.[']" - p 40
Montalban is careful to explore the various possibilities of character type in the early days of post-Franco Spain: "Nuñez had been a pioneer in the reconstruction of the Left in Barcelona University during the nineteen fifties. After torture, and spells in prison, he had fled to France, where he had embarked on a life that would have made him ideal material for the bureaucracy of his own party, or a doctorate in social science and an assured place in a future democratic Spain. Too cynical to be a bureaucrat and too academic to be an academic, he plumped for the role of an onlooker" (p 53) A part of the reader's 'job' is to decide wch of these characters to trust.
Carvalho moves in a world of criminals & prostitutes. As such, it's a relief to read that he detests pimps: "Carvalho could stomach just about anything, but he drew the line at pimps. For him they were like dog-ticks — loathsome little insects grown fat from feeding on someone else's blood. The athlete had the face of an evil-looking lamb, and the innocence of a micro-electronic computer." (p 67)
It was also a pleasure to see poets in exile get positive play: "While he waited for Parra to return, Carvalho found himself thinking of other poets with unusual jobs. Emilio Prados, in exile, working as a playground supervisor for children in a secondary school in Mexico. Or the poet who ended up teaching infants in a school in Tijuana. Carvalho had met him in a bar at the border, as he was drinking tquila solos, with salt, interspersed with a sip of water and bicarbonate. / 'I'm not coming back,' he had said, 'until Franco's dead. It's a question of dignity. Maybe I am nothing here — but at least I have my pride.[']" (p 72) Montalban is always slipping in details like this that're perfect for inquiring minds like my own.
April 29, 2024
Valoración exacta: 6/10
Este libro me deja sensaciones agridulces. Por un lado, la combinación de policial hard boiled (detective privado que es un tipo rudo y anda a los tiros contra los maleantes en un mundo completamente corrupto, dominado por las mafias) y thriller político, me pareció muy interesante, y creo que funciona muy bien.
La forma en que Carvalho va dando un paso tras otro en la resolución del crimen del manager, sumado a esa idea tan propia del hard boiled de que el protagonista sea el único incorruptible en un mundo donde todos están sucios, me parecieron muy bien desarrolladas.
Pero, por otro lado, hay varios aspectos del libro que me obligan a bajarle un poco su valoración. Por empezar, el final. ¿Por qué llegar tan lejos e incluso poner en peligro no solo tu propia vida sino la de aquellos que más te importan si al final vas a dejar el crimen impune? La verdad que no entendí la motivación del protagonista.
Segundo, ¿por qué unos delincuentes que muestran tan pocos pruritos a la hora de eliminar a cualquiera que se ponga en su camino no actúan de la misma manera con el protagonista? ¿Por qué dejar vivo a alguien que no atiende a razones ni acepta sobornos e insiste en descubrirnos? Sobre todo cuando su desaparición llamaría menos la atención y resultaría mucho más fácil de encubrir que la de otros que no tuvimos demasiado empacho en cargarnos?
Son dos aspectos cruciales, que no me cierran.
El tercer punto tiene una naturaleza diferente: la forma en que está narrada la historia. Sin ser lírica, la prosa de Vázquez Montalbán es bastante rebuscada y compleja. Está lejos del estilo simple y directo que predomina en el género policial. Por momentos, su lectura se me hizo demasiado lenta. No lo sufrí, pero tampoco lo disfrute demasiado.
Este libro me deja sensaciones agridulces. Por un lado, la combinación de policial hard boiled (detective privado que es un tipo rudo y anda a los tiros contra los maleantes en un mundo completamente corrupto, dominado por las mafias) y thriller político, me pareció muy interesante, y creo que funciona muy bien.
La forma en que Carvalho va dando un paso tras otro en la resolución del crimen del manager, sumado a esa idea tan propia del hard boiled de que el protagonista sea el único incorruptible en un mundo donde todos están sucios, me parecieron muy bien desarrolladas.
Pero, por otro lado, hay varios aspectos del libro que me obligan a bajarle un poco su valoración. Por empezar, el final. ¿Por qué llegar tan lejos e incluso poner en peligro no solo tu propia vida sino la de aquellos que más te importan si al final vas a dejar el crimen impune? La verdad que no entendí la motivación del protagonista.
Segundo, ¿por qué unos delincuentes que muestran tan pocos pruritos a la hora de eliminar a cualquiera que se ponga en su camino no actúan de la misma manera con el protagonista? ¿Por qué dejar vivo a alguien que no atiende a razones ni acepta sobornos e insiste en descubrirnos? Sobre todo cuando su desaparición llamaría menos la atención y resultaría mucho más fácil de encubrir que la de otros que no tuvimos demasiado empacho en cargarnos?
Son dos aspectos cruciales, que no me cierran.
El tercer punto tiene una naturaleza diferente: la forma en que está narrada la historia. Sin ser lírica, la prosa de Vázquez Montalbán es bastante rebuscada y compleja. Está lejos del estilo simple y directo que predomina en el género policial. Por momentos, su lectura se me hizo demasiado lenta. No lo sufrí, pero tampoco lo disfrute demasiado.
March 25, 2018
The Angst-Ridden Executive, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, is a madcap romp of a mystery, Catalan-style. (Is that a great cover design or what?)
The story bounces from LA and Vegas to Barcelona and its Catalonian environs. Pepe Carvalho met a fellow Spaniard, a bigshot executive, on a flight in the States. Years later, the executive's wife asks Carvalho, ex-communist ex-CIA private investigator, to solve the mystery of his murder.
I wanted to like this novel more than I did, if for no other reason than to set the mood for my visit to Barcelona in a couple weeks. I would not say the streets of the gothic quarter line this novel — that is, the city is not a character in her own right. But there's a (distinctly Catalonian?) lusty grab-life-by-the-balls spirit that envelops the book.
This book has breasts and blowjobs (in a strangely matter-of-fact and completely incidental way), cigars, drink, and food, glorious food. Also poetry (meet Luis Cernuda) and politics. Often all these things in the same breath. It has a frenetic energy that I associate with things Spanish. It's smart and it's funny.
There's the ex-con who works for Carvalho (they once shared a prison cell) — a kind of office manager sidekick. There's the friend obsessed with the idea of setting up an anti-fascist resistance movement in the mountains who acts as research assistant. The boot-black with his ear to the street.
What this book doesn't have a lot of is easy-to-follow plot. But I'll take the blame for this one — maybe it's there, I'm just too distracted of late to find it. I have no idea whodunit. Despite this, I really enjoyed my time with this book. There are some great set pieces — even if I couldn't get the thing to hang as a whole in my currently fuzzy reader brain.
I'm completely open to trying more Montalbán; I just need to find the right headspace for it.
The story bounces from LA and Vegas to Barcelona and its Catalonian environs. Pepe Carvalho met a fellow Spaniard, a bigshot executive, on a flight in the States. Years later, the executive's wife asks Carvalho, ex-communist ex-CIA private investigator, to solve the mystery of his murder.
I wanted to like this novel more than I did, if for no other reason than to set the mood for my visit to Barcelona in a couple weeks. I would not say the streets of the gothic quarter line this novel — that is, the city is not a character in her own right. But there's a (distinctly Catalonian?) lusty grab-life-by-the-balls spirit that envelops the book.
This book has breasts and blowjobs (in a strangely matter-of-fact and completely incidental way), cigars, drink, and food, glorious food. Also poetry (meet Luis Cernuda) and politics. Often all these things in the same breath. It has a frenetic energy that I associate with things Spanish. It's smart and it's funny.
There's the ex-con who works for Carvalho (they once shared a prison cell) — a kind of office manager sidekick. There's the friend obsessed with the idea of setting up an anti-fascist resistance movement in the mountains who acts as research assistant. The boot-black with his ear to the street.
Wide awake and relaxed, he contemplated the bookcase in the corridor, where an irregular array of books was taking up space, sometimes upright and tightly packed, and sometimes falling all over the place, or with their titles the wrong way up. He hunted out Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sholokov's Quietly Flows the Don and Sacristan's Essays on Heine. He went over to the fireplace, tearing up the books with the relaxed expertise of one who is well practised, and arranged the dismembered tomes in a little pile, on top of which he placed dry twigs and kindling wood. The flames caught at once and spread rapidly, and as the printed matter burned it fulfilled its historical mission of fuelling fires that were more real than itself.
What this book doesn't have a lot of is easy-to-follow plot. But I'll take the blame for this one — maybe it's there, I'm just too distracted of late to find it. I have no idea whodunit. Despite this, I really enjoyed my time with this book. There are some great set pieces — even if I couldn't get the thing to hang as a whole in my currently fuzzy reader brain.
I'm completely open to trying more Montalbán; I just need to find the right headspace for it.
April 30, 2012
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán was a prolific Spanish writer. Among his many works was the Pepe Carvalho series, which features a rumpled private detective. Set mostly in Barcelona, the series is interesting because Pepe, like his creator, shares an affinity for Post-Franco left-wing politics. The book is populated with survivors of the opposition to the dictator Francisco Franco. Pepe also loves food and this novel features many interesting meals. The city of Barcelona is also featured in all it's glory and it's seediness. The mystery is not much of a mystery as far as these things go but the journey is highly entertaining. The Carvalho series has not all been translated into English but there are several more available.
Montalban's style is a laconic observation of the foibles of the former radicals. Consider:
Nuñez was one of the old guard, and he remained attached to the vision of moral renewal held by the Left when Franco was alive. His capacity for friendship was immense, in the giving and the taking alike, both of which he executed with a hint of sadism; he was given to verbal aggression when describing friends or enemies, and there was a certain personal angst in his frenetic adjectival acrobatics.
Or Montalban on the joys of cooking:
To begin cooking duck at one in the morning is one of the finest acts of madness that can be undertaken by a human being who is not mad. The duck roasting in the oven, shedding its fat and turning brown as if it was on a simultaneous slimming and tanning course.
Even in translation, great stuff.
Montalban's style is a laconic observation of the foibles of the former radicals. Consider:
Nuñez was one of the old guard, and he remained attached to the vision of moral renewal held by the Left when Franco was alive. His capacity for friendship was immense, in the giving and the taking alike, both of which he executed with a hint of sadism; he was given to verbal aggression when describing friends or enemies, and there was a certain personal angst in his frenetic adjectival acrobatics.
Or Montalban on the joys of cooking:
To begin cooking duck at one in the morning is one of the finest acts of madness that can be undertaken by a human being who is not mad. The duck roasting in the oven, shedding its fat and turning brown as if it was on a simultaneous slimming and tanning course.
Even in translation, great stuff.
December 30, 2017
Intimo, cupo, malinconico
i tre aggettivi del titolo rendono tutto il clima del libro. Pepe Carvalho che questa volta ha a che fare con un intrigo misterioso, con la morte di un manager che aveva conosciuto per caso molti anni prima negli Stati Uniti. L'assassinio è ovviamente orchestrato con una messa in scena che cela una verità più scomoda. Il potere dei forti incombe e appesta le vite dei più e di Pepe in un paese che ancora sanguina per le ferite del franchismo. Tra frasi memorabili e fantasmi mai morti la vicenda si svolge lentamente con flashback dell'incontro statunitense fra Pepe e il manager. La matassa si dipana tra mille sofferenze mentali e fisiche. La verità viene a galla fra il disprezzo dei colpevoli e l'impotenza di chi ha aggiunto soltanto un altro tassello alla follia di questo pazzo mondo degli umani.
i tre aggettivi del titolo rendono tutto il clima del libro. Pepe Carvalho che questa volta ha a che fare con un intrigo misterioso, con la morte di un manager che aveva conosciuto per caso molti anni prima negli Stati Uniti. L'assassinio è ovviamente orchestrato con una messa in scena che cela una verità più scomoda. Il potere dei forti incombe e appesta le vite dei più e di Pepe in un paese che ancora sanguina per le ferite del franchismo. Tra frasi memorabili e fantasmi mai morti la vicenda si svolge lentamente con flashback dell'incontro statunitense fra Pepe e il manager. La matassa si dipana tra mille sofferenze mentali e fisiche. La verità viene a galla fra il disprezzo dei colpevoli e l'impotenza di chi ha aggiunto soltanto un altro tassello alla follia di questo pazzo mondo degli umani.
December 24, 2016
One difference between European and British and American mysteries that is striking is the emphasis on food. This is particularly evident in this book as Pepe Caravalho, the detective is a gourmet who thinks nothing of cooking a duck at one in the morning and waking up a friend to join him for an elegant dinner accompanied by the correct wine. Set in post-Franco Spain, this book is the most political I have read, not only because most of the major characters, including the detective, spent time in jail protesting the Franco regime, but because the way politics motivates much of the plot. There is a fascinating analysis of why corporations incite left wing protests so that the public will accept right-wing dictatorships that will bring order to the chaos. The murders are motivated by the power struggle within a specific world-wide corporation to reinstitute a Franco type government and one of its executives threatens this plot because of the remnants of his youthful idealism. Cavaralho needs to uncover which of his best friends from college engineers his and another murder. The plot is thin, but the atmosphere and setting in Barcelona make up for that as we see the wealthy hire thugs to do their work of killing. At the end, we are left wondering if Pepe will survive to cook another meal as he defies the man behind the murders by pouring the man’s vintage, exotic wine on his rug, an act which seems to the villain more abhorrent than discovering his crime.
August 3, 2013
—¿Le gusta hacer deporte?
—Deportes imaginativos. Comer. Joder.
Y es exactamente lo que hace. Claro, los excesos alimentarios y las miradas largas bajo los escotes profundos son las marcas de destinción de PP Carvalho, no obstante, en "La soledad" el autor no acertó a mezclar estos elementos en la masa del texto de una manera uniforme y balanceada. La harina sale por todas partes, por lugares inapropiados, en situaciones ridículas.
Los capítulos que relatan una parte del pasado de Carvalho no aportan casi nada en el argumento: es peor, pintan un retrato de la víctima poco creíble y no privado de contradicciones. En "El asesinato en el comité central" el autor hizo cosa similar, y de una manera mucho mejor.
La parte final es borrosa y poco satisfactoria. La escena de violencia no impresiona y es redundante: obviamente el autor había querido demasiado untar unas tetas moradas con un linimiento, en vez de dar una bofetada rotunda a estos capítulos (y no a tetas) y botarlos del texto.
En fin, la novela no está mal, y da una dosis buena de Carvalho. Sin embargo, es la peor novela de la serie que he leído.
—Deportes imaginativos. Comer. Joder.
Y es exactamente lo que hace. Claro, los excesos alimentarios y las miradas largas bajo los escotes profundos son las marcas de destinción de PP Carvalho, no obstante, en "La soledad" el autor no acertó a mezclar estos elementos en la masa del texto de una manera uniforme y balanceada. La harina sale por todas partes, por lugares inapropiados, en situaciones ridículas.
Los capítulos que relatan una parte del pasado de Carvalho no aportan casi nada en el argumento: es peor, pintan un retrato de la víctima poco creíble y no privado de contradicciones. En "El asesinato en el comité central" el autor hizo cosa similar, y de una manera mucho mejor.
La parte final es borrosa y poco satisfactoria. La escena de violencia no impresiona y es redundante: obviamente el autor había querido demasiado untar unas tetas moradas con un linimiento, en vez de dar una bofetada rotunda a estos capítulos (y no a tetas) y botarlos del texto.
En fin, la novela no está mal, y da una dosis buena de Carvalho. Sin embargo, es la peor novela de la serie que he leído.
December 16, 2019
Megnéztem, mit is írtam Montalbán másik, magyarul megjelent regényéhez, a Déltengerekhez (ami nálunk korábban jelent meg, de valójában ez a regény időben pont megelőzi azt), és majdnem idekopizhatnám az egészet.
A krimiszál most is vékony erecske, Carvalho nem igazán nyomoz, csupán kavarja a levegőt, hátha valaki lép egy hibásat ijedtében. Kriminél nem illik sokat elárulni a cselekményből, igaz, már az is vita tárgyát képezheti, mennyire krimi ez a regény, főleg a lezárását tekintve. Valójában nem is annyira egy ember, a gyilkos itt a bűnös, hanem a kapitalista rendszer, ami épphogy csak kezdi kiforrni magát a Franco utáni világban. Carvalho kapcsolatba kerül a rendszer minden rangú tagjával, így Montalbánnak remek lehetősége nyílik köszörülni rajtuk a nyelvét.
A regény erőssége most is a szöveg, ami humoros, sokszor találóan szellemes, és ez el is viszi a hátán az egészet, és csak halványan dereng fel néha olvasás közben, hogy ennek egy kriminek kellene lennie, de aztán hamar el is felejti az ember Carvalho aranyköpései és némi főzőcskézés közepette.
A krimiszál most is vékony erecske, Carvalho nem igazán nyomoz, csupán kavarja a levegőt, hátha valaki lép egy hibásat ijedtében. Kriminél nem illik sokat elárulni a cselekményből, igaz, már az is vita tárgyát képezheti, mennyire krimi ez a regény, főleg a lezárását tekintve. Valójában nem is annyira egy ember, a gyilkos itt a bűnös, hanem a kapitalista rendszer, ami épphogy csak kezdi kiforrni magát a Franco utáni világban. Carvalho kapcsolatba kerül a rendszer minden rangú tagjával, így Montalbánnak remek lehetősége nyílik köszörülni rajtuk a nyelvét.
A regény erőssége most is a szöveg, ami humoros, sokszor találóan szellemes, és ez el is viszi a hátán az egészet, és csak halványan dereng fel néha olvasás közben, hogy ennek egy kriminek kellene lennie, de aztán hamar el is felejti az ember Carvalho aranyköpései és némi főzőcskézés közepette.
June 6, 2013
Cuando el manager de una multinacional aparece muerto con una prenda interior femenina en el bolsillo todo hace sospechar de un crimen pasional. Sin embargo, la viuda no se fía y contrata a Pepe Carvalho, que encontrará una trama ligada a la actualidad política del país en transición.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 1, 2016
I remember this book fondly. Very atmospheric, mordant sense of humour and food! I always forget the title - The Angst-Ridden Executive. It's annoying that goodreads lists it under it's spanish name as I can't do a simple search on the one word I remember - "executive"...
April 27, 2022
Aquest sí que m'ha agradat. Ja he superat l'aspecte masclista del personatge perquè l'he situat en l'època en què es va escriure i, deixant això de banda, he pogut gaudir de la lectura.
M'han agradat les reflexions polítiques que l'autor introdueix criticant la realitat d'aquell moment, poc després de la mort del dictador.
I un detall entranyable per mi: en Biscuter, l'ajudant, llegeix Corazón, jo de petita el vaig llegir moltes vegades.
Receptes: fideus a la cassola amb quatre llesques gruixudes de botifarra de bisbe. Salmis d'ànec.
El salmis el cuina de matinada i convida al seu vei, el gestor Fuster, a menjar-lo. Quan acaben són les 4 a.m. i el gestor li diu “Gracias, Pepe. Has devuelto una noche a mi vida. La hubiera pasado tontamente durmiendo y la he llenado de vida”. Ho trobo sublim!
Viatge: Recordat a Las Vegas, San Francisco i El Valle de la Muerte.
Llibres per encendre la llar de foc: La crítica de la razón dialéctica de Lefevbre, Así se templó el acero de Ostrovski i Ensayos sobre Heine de Sacristán i Anatomía del realismo de Alfonso Sastre.
M'han agradat les reflexions polítiques que l'autor introdueix criticant la realitat d'aquell moment, poc després de la mort del dictador.
I un detall entranyable per mi: en Biscuter, l'ajudant, llegeix Corazón, jo de petita el vaig llegir moltes vegades.
Receptes: fideus a la cassola amb quatre llesques gruixudes de botifarra de bisbe. Salmis d'ànec.
El salmis el cuina de matinada i convida al seu vei, el gestor Fuster, a menjar-lo. Quan acaben són les 4 a.m. i el gestor li diu “Gracias, Pepe. Has devuelto una noche a mi vida. La hubiera pasado tontamente durmiendo y la he llenado de vida”. Ho trobo sublim!
Viatge: Recordat a Las Vegas, San Francisco i El Valle de la Muerte.
Llibres per encendre la llar de foc: La crítica de la razón dialéctica de Lefevbre, Así se templó el acero de Ostrovski i Ensayos sobre Heine de Sacristán i Anatomía del realismo de Alfonso Sastre.
October 4, 2018
I casi di Pepe Carvalho vanno giù lisci, fra puttane irriverenti, villain in odor di Hollywood anni ‘50, menzioni di piatti e vini da annotare, il tutto condito con una ironia talvolta spiazzante.
March 12, 2017
El poder y el dinero son primos hermanos; padre e hijo, en otros casos. Son muchos los casos en los que ha quedado demostrada su relación indivisible, y de cómo las personas se han aprovechado de esa especie de simbiosis para lucrarse, saciar su apetito ególatra o dar rienda suela a su psicopatías.
En la literatura los bajos fondos del poder, la cara oculta de las altas esferas y sus intrincadas tramas han dado mucho material para la ficción -y no tanta ficción-; en el caso de Manuel Vázquez Montalbán esa necesidad de explicar ese mundo sórdido y corrupto viene de la mano del detective Pepe Carvalho y sus investigaciones como detective privado. Sus novelas, 18 hasta el momento, sirvieron de ventana a la que asomarse para mirar la cara B de la sociedad, esa que no vemos pero que de algún modo sabemos y siempre hemos sabido que es así.
En La soledad del manager, la segunda aventura tras dejar la CIA, Carvalho se adentra por primera vez en esa realidad alternativa en la que política y dinero van de la mano, se ayudan mutuamente y no tienen dudas en quitarse de en medio cualquier obstáculo que dificulte su situación privilegiada. A través de la investigación criminal de una muerte la novela se sumerge poco a poco en las cloacas de la sociedad, dejando para el final la resolución final y que tienen la virtud de ser sólo un atisbo del cuadro completo; el lector queda con la sensación de estar ante la punta de un iceberg de dimensiones titánicas.
Confieso, a modo de anécdota, que soy un auténtico fanático de los aportes gastronómicos que Vázquez Montalbán salpica las páginas del libro. Alguna que otra receta ha salido de ellas.
En la literatura los bajos fondos del poder, la cara oculta de las altas esferas y sus intrincadas tramas han dado mucho material para la ficción -y no tanta ficción-; en el caso de Manuel Vázquez Montalbán esa necesidad de explicar ese mundo sórdido y corrupto viene de la mano del detective Pepe Carvalho y sus investigaciones como detective privado. Sus novelas, 18 hasta el momento, sirvieron de ventana a la que asomarse para mirar la cara B de la sociedad, esa que no vemos pero que de algún modo sabemos y siempre hemos sabido que es así.
En La soledad del manager, la segunda aventura tras dejar la CIA, Carvalho se adentra por primera vez en esa realidad alternativa en la que política y dinero van de la mano, se ayudan mutuamente y no tienen dudas en quitarse de en medio cualquier obstáculo que dificulte su situación privilegiada. A través de la investigación criminal de una muerte la novela se sumerge poco a poco en las cloacas de la sociedad, dejando para el final la resolución final y que tienen la virtud de ser sólo un atisbo del cuadro completo; el lector queda con la sensación de estar ante la punta de un iceberg de dimensiones titánicas.
Confieso, a modo de anécdota, que soy un auténtico fanático de los aportes gastronómicos que Vázquez Montalbán salpica las páginas del libro. Alguna que otra receta ha salido de ellas.
September 27, 2012
Some distinctly quotable lines--mainly about food--but the story itself was a combination of thin, and confusing. (The latter complaint is partially a fault of the book's design; it's not terribly clear, typographically, when characters or even scenes change.)
That said, though, the plot still seemed almost beside the point, in some ways; the main character's meals are by far the most memorable part of the book. Then again, I don't know that much about post-Franco Spain; maybe if I did the political context would have made more of an impact.
That said, though, the plot still seemed almost beside the point, in some ways; the main character's meals are by far the most memorable part of the book. Then again, I don't know that much about post-Franco Spain; maybe if I did the political context would have made more of an impact.
June 1, 2016
I love reading detective novels from around the globe (this means you, Mwa Ramotswe and Kurt Wallendar). Since they're all more or less engaged in the same work, the detective's mindset and idiosyncrasies can help you gain great insights to the national psyche - and especially to the places they work. I often use them as informal travel guides. I read this novel on the plane to in Barcelona, where detective Pepe Carvalho resides. It made for a better visit and I left wishing he'd invited me over for duck in the middle of the night.
May 30, 2015
Dated mystery but insightful on time period and Barcelona
The Guardian included this title on Top Ten set in Barcelona. It's in the hard boiled detective genre. His Watson is Biscuiter, and both men enjoy cooking. One of my favorite sections describes cooking duck at 1 am. Lots of sex, and some not very pretty. Language may be an issue as it's not PG rated. Graphic descriptions in some cases, but not bad for 35 years on.
The Guardian included this title on Top Ten set in Barcelona. It's in the hard boiled detective genre. His Watson is Biscuiter, and both men enjoy cooking. One of my favorite sections describes cooking duck at 1 am. Lots of sex, and some not very pretty. Language may be an issue as it's not PG rated. Graphic descriptions in some cases, but not bad for 35 years on.
April 5, 2010
Turbios asuntos de una multinacional norteamericana que derriba y erige Gobiernos a golpe de talonario, por el bien común, siempre por el bien común.
Ciudades: San Francisco, Las Vegas
Libros quemados: La crítica de la razón dialéctica, de Lefevbre; Así se templó el acero, de Ostrovski; Ensayos sobre Heine, de Sacristán; Anatomía del realismo, de Sastre.
Ciudades: San Francisco, Las Vegas
Libros quemados: La crítica de la razón dialéctica, de Lefevbre; Así se templó el acero, de Ostrovski; Ensayos sobre Heine, de Sacristán; Anatomía del realismo, de Sastre.
January 18, 2016
Private detective Pepe Carvahlo is a man of large appetites, especially for food and for women. The author's descriptions of food make your mouth water (well, sometimes they make you say yuk); the descriptions of women are coarse. There are fun glimpses of post-Franco Barcelona throughout.
Currently reading
June 9, 2007Set in Barcelona.
November 15, 2010
Bello! Montalban non si smentisce, anche se questa volta mi ha un po' spiazzato, con un finale enigmatico!
August 27, 2011
Another enjoyable thriller, with interesting insights into post-Franco Catalonia/Spain. Pepe the Private Investigator is an engagingly flawed human being with a healthy interest in good food...
December 19, 2011
Histoire en fait assez vide, descriptions inutiles qui servent à exprimer surtout une position politique. L'impression que l'ensemble manque de cohérence.
June 14, 2012
Didn't end up reading - it was wrongly selected as a book club pic. No one liked it.
March 6, 2013
Well, I read this in English, obviously, but the meal descriptions and references to Spanish history and philosophy outnumber the aspects of the mystery- which was thin enough.
June 29, 2013
Sorry, it was boring. I will loose this book somewhere... Maybe somebody will like it.
January 30, 2015
Probablemente no fuera su mejor libro, pero se deja leer.
March 19, 2017
"Suelo encender la chimenea con libros trascendentales. Cuanto más pretensión de trascendentalidad, más culpabilidad. Seguro que han conseguido engañar a alguien". Pepe Carvalho.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews