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Cayetano Brulé #6
The Neruda Case
Un Pablo Neruda anciano y enfermo acaba de regresar a Chile después de dejar su cargo como embajador del gobierno de Salvador Allende en París. De su vida –llena de éxitos– le queda solo un misterio por desvelar. Una duda profunda que lo atormenta cuando percibe el final de su existencia. En el invierno de 1973 conoce al cubano Cayetano Brulé, a quien involucra en una investigación que cambiará la vida de éste para siempre. Mientras tanto, en Chile el poeta espera impaciente, en medio de un ambiente tenso por el inminente golpe militar contra el Gobierno. Una novela en la que se conjugan la intriga, la poesía, las pasiones amorosas y el fin de una era.
www.elcasoneruda.cl
www.elcasoneruda.cl
340 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2008
62 people are currently reading
1049 people want to read
About the author
Roberto Ampuero
41 books126 followersRoberto Ampuero is a Chilean author, columnist, and a university professor.
In Chile his works have sold more than 40 editions. Ampuero now resides in Iowa where he is a professor at the University of Iowa in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.He was a columnist of La Tercera and the New York Times Syndicate and since March of 2009 has been working as a columnist for El Mercurio.
In Chile his works have sold more than 40 editions. Ampuero now resides in Iowa where he is a professor at the University of Iowa in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.He was a columnist of La Tercera and the New York Times Syndicate and since March of 2009 has been working as a columnist for El Mercurio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
October 5, 2014
first: I bought a real copy of this book, so this ARC is yours if you want it. You have to live in the US and be the first to leave a comment. I'll pay postage.
second: the review:
Had I done my homework, as I usually do when I come across a new author, I would have learned that Roberto Ampuero is the author of an entire series featuring detective Cayetano Brulé. Beginning in 1993 with ¿Quién mató a Cristián Kustermann? (Who Killed Christian Kustermann?) Brulé has been involved in several cases; The Neruda Case is the latest to be written but it seems to be a prequel that explains how Brulé got his start in the detective biz. To be brutally honest, as I sat down to read this book, I was concerned that having Pablo Neruda as a character in a detective novel might be a cheap ploy. Although the main character spends a lot of time and energy traveling around and pursuing answers on Neruda's behalf, the book turns out to be an homage of sorts to the Nobel-winning poet rather than your standard detective novel. It's also a commentary on the betrayal and death of ideals.
The author notes that as a boy he lived near Neruda's home La Sebastiana in Valparaíso, where
"on three separate occasions, I went to La Sebastiana, in my school uniform and carrying my briefcase full of notebooks, and stood at the door to the poet's garden..." All I wanted to do was to talk to the poet. But all three times I was petrified...not daring to knock and ask to enter the realm where Neruda dwelt with his secrets."
Now, Ampuero’s Cayetano Brulé has the honor of entering that house, where the author’s “boyhood shyness” kept him from doing the same.
Sitting in the Cafe del Poeta in Valparaiso one day in 1990, Cayetano Brulé sees a photo of Pablo Neruda on the back of his menu and flashes back to his very first case back in the 70s, “the most closely guarded secret of his life,” that began at party his wife Ángela had made him attend at the home of the city’s mayor. Not feeling like mingling with the bigwigs, Brulé hides out in the library. His peace is shattered when another man walks into the room and they begin talking. It is only when Ángela comes in to tell the stranger that he’s wanted at the party that Cayetano realizes he’s been spending time with Pablo Neruda, who invites him to his home at La Sebastiana. It isn’t long until Brulé is welcomed into Neruda’s home that the poet gets to the point of the invitation: he is dying of cancer, he’s seeking an oncologist, Dr. Ángel Bracamonte, and he wants Cayetano to do some detective work to locate him. After a trip to Mexico city that produces more questions than answers, Neruda explains the real reason behind his search: it seems that Bracamonte’s wife, Beatriz, was once one of the poet’s many lovers; he needs to know if the daughter she gave birth to is his. Time is running out -- and Neruda, plagued by his memories of all the women he's betrayed in the name of poetry, wants to know for sure before the end comes. Cayetano’s search will take him from Mexico to Cuba, to East Germany and Bolivia where he realizes that the utopian ideals promised by revolution have all but collapsed and have become something else entirely. It will also place him in the company of some well-known figures of the times, including Neruda’s friend Salvador Allende, whose tenure as president of Chile is on its last legs.
If you want to look at this book simply as the series prequel that explains how Cayetano Brulé first got into the private eye business, there are a couple of entertaining moments: Neruda’s advice to Brulé about using the novels of Georges Simenon as a guide to becoming a detective, his “Maigret del Caribe,” Brulé’s narrow escape from East Germany, and a few other scenes featuring the hapless newbie detective. But of greater interest to me was the political backdrop against which this book is set, during the last gasps of the Allende government prior to the US-backed coup that placed Pinochet in power. And aside from the sillier moments where Brulé is initiated into the detective trade, there is a much more serious exploration of different idealistic visions that got lost somewhere along the way.
Very much recommended, especially if you are interested in Latin American history or revolutionary history in general. I hope this book does well; perhaps it will create some interest in translating Ampuero's other novels into English.
second: the review:
Had I done my homework, as I usually do when I come across a new author, I would have learned that Roberto Ampuero is the author of an entire series featuring detective Cayetano Brulé. Beginning in 1993 with ¿Quién mató a Cristián Kustermann? (Who Killed Christian Kustermann?) Brulé has been involved in several cases; The Neruda Case is the latest to be written but it seems to be a prequel that explains how Brulé got his start in the detective biz. To be brutally honest, as I sat down to read this book, I was concerned that having Pablo Neruda as a character in a detective novel might be a cheap ploy. Although the main character spends a lot of time and energy traveling around and pursuing answers on Neruda's behalf, the book turns out to be an homage of sorts to the Nobel-winning poet rather than your standard detective novel. It's also a commentary on the betrayal and death of ideals.
The author notes that as a boy he lived near Neruda's home La Sebastiana in Valparaíso, where
"on three separate occasions, I went to La Sebastiana, in my school uniform and carrying my briefcase full of notebooks, and stood at the door to the poet's garden..." All I wanted to do was to talk to the poet. But all three times I was petrified...not daring to knock and ask to enter the realm where Neruda dwelt with his secrets."
Now, Ampuero’s Cayetano Brulé has the honor of entering that house, where the author’s “boyhood shyness” kept him from doing the same.
Sitting in the Cafe del Poeta in Valparaiso one day in 1990, Cayetano Brulé sees a photo of Pablo Neruda on the back of his menu and flashes back to his very first case back in the 70s, “the most closely guarded secret of his life,” that began at party his wife Ángela had made him attend at the home of the city’s mayor. Not feeling like mingling with the bigwigs, Brulé hides out in the library. His peace is shattered when another man walks into the room and they begin talking. It is only when Ángela comes in to tell the stranger that he’s wanted at the party that Cayetano realizes he’s been spending time with Pablo Neruda, who invites him to his home at La Sebastiana. It isn’t long until Brulé is welcomed into Neruda’s home that the poet gets to the point of the invitation: he is dying of cancer, he’s seeking an oncologist, Dr. Ángel Bracamonte, and he wants Cayetano to do some detective work to locate him. After a trip to Mexico city that produces more questions than answers, Neruda explains the real reason behind his search: it seems that Bracamonte’s wife, Beatriz, was once one of the poet’s many lovers; he needs to know if the daughter she gave birth to is his. Time is running out -- and Neruda, plagued by his memories of all the women he's betrayed in the name of poetry, wants to know for sure before the end comes. Cayetano’s search will take him from Mexico to Cuba, to East Germany and Bolivia where he realizes that the utopian ideals promised by revolution have all but collapsed and have become something else entirely. It will also place him in the company of some well-known figures of the times, including Neruda’s friend Salvador Allende, whose tenure as president of Chile is on its last legs.
If you want to look at this book simply as the series prequel that explains how Cayetano Brulé first got into the private eye business, there are a couple of entertaining moments: Neruda’s advice to Brulé about using the novels of Georges Simenon as a guide to becoming a detective, his “Maigret del Caribe,” Brulé’s narrow escape from East Germany, and a few other scenes featuring the hapless newbie detective. But of greater interest to me was the political backdrop against which this book is set, during the last gasps of the Allende government prior to the US-backed coup that placed Pinochet in power. And aside from the sillier moments where Brulé is initiated into the detective trade, there is a much more serious exploration of different idealistic visions that got lost somewhere along the way.
Very much recommended, especially if you are interested in Latin American history or revolutionary history in general. I hope this book does well; perhaps it will create some interest in translating Ampuero's other novels into English.
August 8, 2014
Není to detektivka, není to román, není to životopis, není to o politice a revoluci (nejen té chilské), není to o východním bloku, není to o lásce. A všechno to to je. Od každého malý kousek. Jediné, o čem to opravdu není, je Jan Neruda (kdyby si jako někdo podle názvu myslel).
Není to špatné, není to geniální. Je to dobré. Dost dobré a zajímavé na to, abyste si to přečetli.
Člověk, který není detektiv, je básníkem najat jako soukromý detektiv, aby se vydal hledat lékaře, který asi není lékař a vlastně to ani není ten, koho básník hledá. Zjistí detektiv, který není detektiv, jestli ten, koho skutečně hledá, je tím, kým možná je? Ale ne, není to tak složité :)
Není to špatné, není to geniální. Je to dobré. Dost dobré a zajímavé na to, abyste si to přečetli.
Člověk, který není detektiv, je básníkem najat jako soukromý detektiv, aby se vydal hledat lékaře, který asi není lékař a vlastně to ani není ten, koho básník hledá. Zjistí detektiv, který není detektiv, jestli ten, koho skutečně hledá, je tím, kým možná je? Ale ne, není to tak složité :)
April 15, 2020
The beloved hypocritical bourgeois ‘Communist’ with multiple mansions, the ‘romantic’ who hated women if they wanted to be anything but disposable sex objects, and admitted rapist, the poet Pablo Neruda is the subject of this well written and engaging mystery.
Set in the few years that culminated in the CIA backed coup in Chile on Sept 11, 1973 that killed thousands, including the democratically elected President Salvador Allende and Victor Jara - and restored capitalism! And brought on Pinochet! whose government continued to murder, torture and disappear many thousands, for decades.
Our nascent detective Cayetano, a Cuban/American expat, is found by Neruda, already sick with cancer, and hired to find the answer to a question for him. This takes Cayetano around the world in search of an illusive person from Pablo’s past. These journeys are accompanied by the poet’s imagined memories of some of his more substantial affairs (including 3 wives) and rife with his abuses of them all.
It is a good story. The author intended to explore Neruda's human complexity but i found myself unable to find much sorrow at the death of this manipulative, mean, toddler of a “man”. Shallow "complexity" indeed, like a dry tide pool, dead, after Pablo sucked up all the water.
“I like it when you’re silent because it’s as if you were absent.”
Women, of course, should be docile passive animals, like well-behaved cattle en route to slaughter. And silent, even when deserted in Nazi occupied Holland, while the poet takes credit for helping thousands of Republican refugees escape to Chile after the Spanish civil war (when really it was the work of his new, rich lover). Worse (as remembered by Pablo):
“I used my diplomatic connections to keep (them) from evacuating to Chile with my compatriots.”
They were his wife, and his only child (who he hated because she had hydrocephaly). Well, duh - females are only valuable when perfect looking.
Swell. Real romantic, eh? Regular Oskar Schindler. What a schmuck.
I am reminded of a recent convo with a GR compatriot (Quo) about valuing the artistic product while you hate who the artist is/was. Wagner? Evelyn Waugh? Picasso? Gloria Estefan? Would it be better if we didn’t know who they really were?
Can you enjoy Neruda's "love poems" when you know they were written to himself?
“The casualties of our good fortune are a terrible thing...But the road to personal happiness is paved with the pain of others.”
said like a regular Donald Jezebel Trump.
It was a diverting story and I enjoyed meeting the detective. If only my teeth gnashing when Neruda was present had been a tad less. I wish someone would explore the complex humanity of the Tamil woman he proudly raped, and wrote about. How did she feel when he was awarded the Nobel Prize? Now that would be deep.
Set in the few years that culminated in the CIA backed coup in Chile on Sept 11, 1973 that killed thousands, including the democratically elected President Salvador Allende and Victor Jara - and restored capitalism! And brought on Pinochet! whose government continued to murder, torture and disappear many thousands, for decades.
Our nascent detective Cayetano, a Cuban/American expat, is found by Neruda, already sick with cancer, and hired to find the answer to a question for him. This takes Cayetano around the world in search of an illusive person from Pablo’s past. These journeys are accompanied by the poet’s imagined memories of some of his more substantial affairs (including 3 wives) and rife with his abuses of them all.
It is a good story. The author intended to explore Neruda's human complexity but i found myself unable to find much sorrow at the death of this manipulative, mean, toddler of a “man”. Shallow "complexity" indeed, like a dry tide pool, dead, after Pablo sucked up all the water.
“I like it when you’re silent because it’s as if you were absent.”
Women, of course, should be docile passive animals, like well-behaved cattle en route to slaughter. And silent, even when deserted in Nazi occupied Holland, while the poet takes credit for helping thousands of Republican refugees escape to Chile after the Spanish civil war (when really it was the work of his new, rich lover). Worse (as remembered by Pablo):
“I used my diplomatic connections to keep (them) from evacuating to Chile with my compatriots.”
They were his wife, and his only child (who he hated because she had hydrocephaly). Well, duh - females are only valuable when perfect looking.
Swell. Real romantic, eh? Regular Oskar Schindler. What a schmuck.
I am reminded of a recent convo with a GR compatriot (Quo) about valuing the artistic product while you hate who the artist is/was. Wagner? Evelyn Waugh? Picasso? Gloria Estefan? Would it be better if we didn’t know who they really were?
Can you enjoy Neruda's "love poems" when you know they were written to himself?
“The casualties of our good fortune are a terrible thing...But the road to personal happiness is paved with the pain of others.”
said like a regular Donald Jezebel Trump.
It was a diverting story and I enjoyed meeting the detective. If only my teeth gnashing when Neruda was present had been a tad less. I wish someone would explore the complex humanity of the Tamil woman he proudly raped, and wrote about. How did she feel when he was awarded the Nobel Prize? Now that would be deep.
June 28, 2012
The problem for Latin American language authors is that people have a tendency to compare to some pretty heavy hitters, like Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, or Luis Borges. That is patently unfair of course, but people will carry with them these expectations into the book.
So the beginning of The Neruda Case was somewhat unpromising. Not very dramatic, somewhat pedestrian and actually kind of slow. In the middle of the beginning paragraph, I started to wonder whether it was the translation that was problem or whether it was Ampuero that was the problem.
As I got further into the book, the narrative was good enough to hold my interest without making the reading seem like a chore, the writing got better and the story became far more interesting. Of particular interest were the narratives which was written in Neruda's own voice. Ampuero pulled off the feat of writing in two distinct styles. Although the majority of the narrative was written in the third person subjective voice, and was less than engaging.
The novel weaves itself around the life of Pablo Neruda towards the end of his life. The entire narrative hangs itself on Neruda's female conquests, but the end of Neruda's life is also wrapped around the 1973 coup in Chile which saw the legitimately elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende be deposed by Agosto Pinochet and the Nixon White House. That part of the narrative seemed to be more interesting, and Ampuero was seemingly eager to explore that line of narrative. And he did for a time, but he kept returning to the Neruda story because that was the mechanism by which he chose to tell his story.
The story got better, the writing got better, and my interest got more piqued as I worked my way through the story. I doubt I would have kept going through the rough parts if it weren't for those narratives written in Neruda's voice.
In the end, it was a decently satisfactory story with a fairly satisfactory ending. My interest is piqued enough to try some of Ampuero's other novels.
If this seems like a mild review, that is because it is. I am glad I read it, but there was nothing exceptional about the story or the writing.
So the beginning of The Neruda Case was somewhat unpromising. Not very dramatic, somewhat pedestrian and actually kind of slow. In the middle of the beginning paragraph, I started to wonder whether it was the translation that was problem or whether it was Ampuero that was the problem.
As I got further into the book, the narrative was good enough to hold my interest without making the reading seem like a chore, the writing got better and the story became far more interesting. Of particular interest were the narratives which was written in Neruda's own voice. Ampuero pulled off the feat of writing in two distinct styles. Although the majority of the narrative was written in the third person subjective voice, and was less than engaging.
The novel weaves itself around the life of Pablo Neruda towards the end of his life. The entire narrative hangs itself on Neruda's female conquests, but the end of Neruda's life is also wrapped around the 1973 coup in Chile which saw the legitimately elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende be deposed by Agosto Pinochet and the Nixon White House. That part of the narrative seemed to be more interesting, and Ampuero was seemingly eager to explore that line of narrative. And he did for a time, but he kept returning to the Neruda story because that was the mechanism by which he chose to tell his story.
The story got better, the writing got better, and my interest got more piqued as I worked my way through the story. I doubt I would have kept going through the rough parts if it weren't for those narratives written in Neruda's voice.
In the end, it was a decently satisfactory story with a fairly satisfactory ending. My interest is piqued enough to try some of Ampuero's other novels.
If this seems like a mild review, that is because it is. I am glad I read it, but there was nothing exceptional about the story or the writing.
August 27, 2012
Chile. The 1970s. The beloved but flawed Allende government falls to the infamously repressive Pinochet government. But just before this, Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet-in-residence, tasks Cayetano Brulé, Cuban exile, to find an early lover…to see if the child she bears shortly after their Mexican love affair is indeed his own. This 2012 translation of a work published in 2008 gives us an intimate, if fictional, portrait of Pablo Neruda. Author Ampuero, in an afterword to the novel, speaks of his idolization of the artist in Santiago as a child, which grew into a fascination with Neruda’s life. Ampuero wanted to show Neruda as he was—a complicated man of great contradictions.
I favor a nuanced view of great artists and leaders. Ian McEwan wrote of a fictional Nobel Prize-winning scientist in Solar, and managed the nuance mixed much ribaldry but did not base his work on just one man.
An interview with Ampuero in the online magazine The Daily Beast states that Neruda was in fact a serial monogamist, just as he is depicted in the novel. Neruda actually had, and left, three or four wives. I think it is safe to assume that a man who can write movingly about love has experienced it in spades. Great men often have great appetites. Ampuero wanted to show the man as he was, not just as he is imagined to be.
My interest in this novel is the South American-ness of it: the point of view, the seasons, the food, the language. The literature and music spoken of in the book, for whatever reason, is generally what Europeans and North Americans were reading or listening to at the time. Occasionally Ampuero speaks of bolero and carimba, but as now when we read of detectives based in Europe or Africa, oftentimes they are listening to something America or Europe has produced.
Towards the end of this novel, my mind began to wander. I wanted things to progress faster, but I think Ampuero was intent on placing Neruda’s life in its historical context. Despite my impatience with the slow unfolding of the mystery, I appreciated the fullness of the story by the end. I read elsewhere that there are five books in the Detective Cayetano Brulé series, of which this is not the first. Ampuero apparently now works out of the University of Iowa, where he attended the Iowa Workshop.
I favor a nuanced view of great artists and leaders. Ian McEwan wrote of a fictional Nobel Prize-winning scientist in Solar, and managed the nuance mixed much ribaldry but did not base his work on just one man.
An interview with Ampuero in the online magazine The Daily Beast states that Neruda was in fact a serial monogamist, just as he is depicted in the novel. Neruda actually had, and left, three or four wives. I think it is safe to assume that a man who can write movingly about love has experienced it in spades. Great men often have great appetites. Ampuero wanted to show the man as he was, not just as he is imagined to be.
My interest in this novel is the South American-ness of it: the point of view, the seasons, the food, the language. The literature and music spoken of in the book, for whatever reason, is generally what Europeans and North Americans were reading or listening to at the time. Occasionally Ampuero speaks of bolero and carimba, but as now when we read of detectives based in Europe or Africa, oftentimes they are listening to something America or Europe has produced.
Towards the end of this novel, my mind began to wander. I wanted things to progress faster, but I think Ampuero was intent on placing Neruda’s life in its historical context. Despite my impatience with the slow unfolding of the mystery, I appreciated the fullness of the story by the end. I read elsewhere that there are five books in the Detective Cayetano Brulé series, of which this is not the first. Ampuero apparently now works out of the University of Iowa, where he attended the Iowa Workshop.
April 26, 2015
A really compelling mystery by an amazing writer. A detective hired by Pablo Neruda, who encourages him to read Maigret novels for his training set against a backdrop of political upheaval in Chile on the eve of Pinochet's rise to power, intrigue, communists and more.
June 2, 2013
"The Neruda Case" is a great book is a mystery that stars the famous poet (and one of my very favorite poets personally), Pablo Neruda. I love his poetry so much (my husband and I actually had one of his poems read at our wedding as one of the readings) so I was very excited to get a fictional glimpse of what the man was actually like.
Mysteries are not my usual fare but I really enjoyed this one. Through Cayetano taking on Pablo Neruda's case, we get to learn more about Pablo Neruda and the politics of 1970s Chile, which was a very tumultuous but fascinating time in the country. I really liked how Ampuero was able to weave all of these elements together in order to create a story that will appeal to so many different readers.
The book also has a fantastic setting. Throughout the book, Cayetano travels in order to solve Neruda's case. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but back in college, I had a focus in Latin American politics so that area of the world is absolutely fascinating to me. I loved seeing Chile, Mexico, and Cuba through the eyes of the characters. I thought you got a very good sense of what was going on in each country. This book definitely makes for good armchair traveling!
Mysteries are not my usual fare but I really enjoyed this one. Through Cayetano taking on Pablo Neruda's case, we get to learn more about Pablo Neruda and the politics of 1970s Chile, which was a very tumultuous but fascinating time in the country. I really liked how Ampuero was able to weave all of these elements together in order to create a story that will appeal to so many different readers.
The book also has a fantastic setting. Throughout the book, Cayetano travels in order to solve Neruda's case. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but back in college, I had a focus in Latin American politics so that area of the world is absolutely fascinating to me. I loved seeing Chile, Mexico, and Cuba through the eyes of the characters. I thought you got a very good sense of what was going on in each country. This book definitely makes for good armchair traveling!
May 29, 2015
Literary tourism? See the locations of the book here - link: Booktrail of Neruda case
A mystery set against the backdrop of the Chilean 1973 coup which paints an interesting portrait of the poet Pablo Neruda
Story in a nutshell
Cayetano Brulé, is Cuban but lives in Valparaiso, Chile. At a dinner party one evening he comes across the poet Pablo Neruda who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, just two years previously. As they talk, Neruda provides him with a challenge – to find a man he has not seen for many many years.
He hands him a pile of Simenon’s Maigret detective novels and tells him that these will help give him all the detective skills he needs. The only important thing is that he finds this man – Neruda is dying of cancer and this is his final wish.
Cayetano finds that this mission takes him away from Chile, to Mexico, Cuba, East Germany, and Bolivia, where he meets a wide range of people and situations. On the trail for one man – Dr. Angel Bracamonte, a researcher on the medicinal properties of native plants, but Neruda does not want to find Bracamonte for his medical skills. There are more personal reasons at stake.
Valparaiso Chile – the home of Pablo Neruda and a key location for watching events of Chilean history unfold. From the days following the opening of the Panama Canal to the coup of Salvador Allende, this novel is a tale of one poet, Chile’s most well known and his search for secrets, during his final days in his beloved homeland.
The backdrop of the history and landscape of Chile run parallel to the story and form a large and informed picture of a country in turmoil.
In the 1970s, Cayetano, his wife, and Neruda watch the consequences of the political landscape play out right in front of their eyes –
The attempted coup came live and direct over the radio, like in the American movies, turning the country into a passive spectator
The media buzz and the fear and excitement of the people show a country on the edge where tension is the order of the day. This is a country going through some troubling times.
With each section of the book named after one of Neruda’s women, each takes the story further and explains a side to the man not seen in the western world. Pablo Neruda has three houses, the most famous of which is La Sebastiana and his poetry dots the literary landscape here giving a unique view of the man sitting in the armchair he names La Nube. A man who loves women as much as words and whose life was filled with both grandeur and meanness.
The trail from Chile to Mexico, Cuba, East Germany, and Bolivia, is one of danger , Chilean history and expat frustration. Revolution is coming and Chile is a country which will feel the full force of this drastic change. With such a thrilling backdrop, the story of Neruda and his mystery search shows a side to Chile never seen before and a poet and his life which takes centre stage.
Bookish musings
If you are interested in the poet Neruda and want to learn a little about Chilean history, this is a fine way to do it. A slow plot in parts and one which develops over the whole book but what this leaves you with is a full and immersive impression of Chile, its history, and its people.
I knew a little of Neruda having studied him for A level Spanish and then again at university but never had I seen him like this before. Some of it fictional yes, but this still gives an interesting view of him in his own surroundings.
To me this took centre stage and the story took a back seat but this didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the book. A potted cultural, poetic and political study of Chile for despite the many locations, Chile takes centre stage, but when the history is this fascinating, this is no bad thing.
A very interesting and immersive read
A mystery set against the backdrop of the Chilean 1973 coup which paints an interesting portrait of the poet Pablo Neruda
Story in a nutshell
Cayetano Brulé, is Cuban but lives in Valparaiso, Chile. At a dinner party one evening he comes across the poet Pablo Neruda who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, just two years previously. As they talk, Neruda provides him with a challenge – to find a man he has not seen for many many years.
He hands him a pile of Simenon’s Maigret detective novels and tells him that these will help give him all the detective skills he needs. The only important thing is that he finds this man – Neruda is dying of cancer and this is his final wish.
Cayetano finds that this mission takes him away from Chile, to Mexico, Cuba, East Germany, and Bolivia, where he meets a wide range of people and situations. On the trail for one man – Dr. Angel Bracamonte, a researcher on the medicinal properties of native plants, but Neruda does not want to find Bracamonte for his medical skills. There are more personal reasons at stake.
Valparaiso Chile – the home of Pablo Neruda and a key location for watching events of Chilean history unfold. From the days following the opening of the Panama Canal to the coup of Salvador Allende, this novel is a tale of one poet, Chile’s most well known and his search for secrets, during his final days in his beloved homeland.
The backdrop of the history and landscape of Chile run parallel to the story and form a large and informed picture of a country in turmoil.
In the 1970s, Cayetano, his wife, and Neruda watch the consequences of the political landscape play out right in front of their eyes –
The attempted coup came live and direct over the radio, like in the American movies, turning the country into a passive spectator
The media buzz and the fear and excitement of the people show a country on the edge where tension is the order of the day. This is a country going through some troubling times.
With each section of the book named after one of Neruda’s women, each takes the story further and explains a side to the man not seen in the western world. Pablo Neruda has three houses, the most famous of which is La Sebastiana and his poetry dots the literary landscape here giving a unique view of the man sitting in the armchair he names La Nube. A man who loves women as much as words and whose life was filled with both grandeur and meanness.
The trail from Chile to Mexico, Cuba, East Germany, and Bolivia, is one of danger , Chilean history and expat frustration. Revolution is coming and Chile is a country which will feel the full force of this drastic change. With such a thrilling backdrop, the story of Neruda and his mystery search shows a side to Chile never seen before and a poet and his life which takes centre stage.
Bookish musings
If you are interested in the poet Neruda and want to learn a little about Chilean history, this is a fine way to do it. A slow plot in parts and one which develops over the whole book but what this leaves you with is a full and immersive impression of Chile, its history, and its people.
I knew a little of Neruda having studied him for A level Spanish and then again at university but never had I seen him like this before. Some of it fictional yes, but this still gives an interesting view of him in his own surroundings.
To me this took centre stage and the story took a back seat but this didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the book. A potted cultural, poetic and political study of Chile for despite the many locations, Chile takes centre stage, but when the history is this fascinating, this is no bad thing.
A very interesting and immersive read
December 19, 2015
Tak tahle kniha mě trochu zklamala, podle anotace jsem očekávala něco jiného, ale jako detektivka to bylo dost nedotažené, ploché a způsob, jak se to nakonec vše rozřešilo byl absolutní podpásovka a ulehčení si života autora, který už asi nevěděl, jak dál. Kniha mi přijde dost autobiografická - část osudů Beatriz kopíruje osud autora (Kuba, NDR, návrat do Chile), část osudu pak konvenuje s osudem Cayetanovým (odchod za milovanou ženou do ciziny, odchod do SRN), takže reálie jsou popsané docela dobře a věrohodně, ale celkově je tolik lokací a dějových zvratů na tak malém prostoru nutně příliš zjednodušených. Ostatně autor sám se v knize přímo objeví - jako syn sousedů Cayetana ve Valparaisu, který chce být spisovatelem a setká se s Nerudou (byť v reálu v doslovu autor přiznává, že se nikdy nepotkali). Reálie Latinské Ameriky jsem si musela dohledat na Wikipedii - jména, data, historie Chile a život Pabla Nerudy, min. v tomto to bylo přínosné, ale samotný děj mi prostě přišel nedotažený a byť autor neustále poukazuje na fakt, že Latinoameričané jsou jiní než Evropané (kontrast s Maigretem), tak základní žánrová pravidla platí pro všechny.
Poměrně brzo mi naskočila asociace s nedávno vyšlou knihou Doživotí, která má být také detektivkou a stojí na životě jiného slavného autora (Kundera) - ta je všeobecně vnímána jako parazitování na autorovi a tohle je pro mě prostě ten samý případ, byť samotná kniha je asi o něco lepší než je podle recenzí Doživotí (zatím jsem to nečetla). Ne náhodou je tohle první titul od autora přeložený do angličtiny (a pak dalších jazyků) - nebýt Pabla Nerudy, tak to téhle knížce asi moc psů neštěkne.
A mimochodem - je opravdu možné stvořit člověka (Cayetano detektiv, Beatriz co vlastně?) a byli by ochotní v jedné firmě jako majitelé koexistovat dva dříve úhlavní nepřátelé?
Kontext: E-výpůjčka z LBC KV přes eReading, čteno na mobilu, výplň v holeovské sérii (čekám, až vyjde Přízrak)
První věta: "Copak asi mají na srdci majitelé firmy Almagro, Ruggiero & Asociados, že mě požádali, abych se tak kvapně dostavil?"
Poslední věta: " "Ale nejdřív mi pověz, Cayetano, dal by sis dobrou Chivas Regal s ledem?!" "
Poměrně brzo mi naskočila asociace s nedávno vyšlou knihou Doživotí, která má být také detektivkou a stojí na životě jiného slavného autora (Kundera) - ta je všeobecně vnímána jako parazitování na autorovi a tohle je pro mě prostě ten samý případ, byť samotná kniha je asi o něco lepší než je podle recenzí Doživotí (zatím jsem to nečetla). Ne náhodou je tohle první titul od autora přeložený do angličtiny (a pak dalších jazyků) - nebýt Pabla Nerudy, tak to téhle knížce asi moc psů neštěkne.
A mimochodem - je opravdu možné stvořit člověka (Cayetano detektiv, Beatriz co vlastně?) a byli by ochotní v jedné firmě jako majitelé koexistovat dva dříve úhlavní nepřátelé?
Kontext: E-výpůjčka z LBC KV přes eReading, čteno na mobilu, výplň v holeovské sérii (čekám, až vyjde Přízrak)
První věta: "Copak asi mají na srdci majitelé firmy Almagro, Ruggiero & Asociados, že mě požádali, abych se tak kvapně dostavil?"
Poslední věta: " "Ale nejdřív mi pověz, Cayetano, dal by sis dobrou Chivas Regal s ledem?!" "
June 18, 2012
Notified May 31 that I have won a First Reads copy--hooray!
My uncorrected proof copy arrived this afternoon--June 7--let the reading begin.
English language readers finally have the opportunity to read the writing of Roberto Ampuero and what an opportunity it is! Ampuero is an internationally acclaimed and translated writer and his Maigret wannabe detective, Cayetano Brule, has been entertaining readers for years. We first meet Brule as he answers a summons from the supremely admired poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda is seriously ill and asks Brule to find a doctor he knew years before who may provide help, or so we initially are led to believe. Cayetano has no experience as a detective but Neruda cajoles him to begin the search and suggests he read the Simenon books starring the fictional detective Maigret for guidance in the art of detection. And so begins a journey which takes Brule and the reader from Chile to Mexico to Cuba to East Germany, then Bolivia and finally back to Chile. The main action takes place in 1973 against the chaotic and real events surrounding the fall of Allende and rise of Pinochet in Chile. In each country, Ampuero supplies the reader with such detail that you feel you can actually taste the medianoche sandwich, hear the music of Irakere, smell the cigars being smoked, visualize the architecture all while being enveloped in the noir atmosphere. There are many references, some sly or humorous, to Golden Age detectives, art, writers, TV and radio programs and other cultural markers of the early seventies. And you also learn much about the life of the great Pablo Neruda. Does Brule, wearing his trademark lavender and green guyano tie, adjust his eyeglasses, stroke his mustache and finally succeed in tracking down the person Neruda needs to find? Read this wonderfully translated thriller to find out and don't be surprised to realize that you will want to travel with Cayetano Brule wherever he goes next.
Thanks, First Reads/Good Reads for my opportunity to meet the Cuban Maigret!
My uncorrected proof copy arrived this afternoon--June 7--let the reading begin.
English language readers finally have the opportunity to read the writing of Roberto Ampuero and what an opportunity it is! Ampuero is an internationally acclaimed and translated writer and his Maigret wannabe detective, Cayetano Brule, has been entertaining readers for years. We first meet Brule as he answers a summons from the supremely admired poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda is seriously ill and asks Brule to find a doctor he knew years before who may provide help, or so we initially are led to believe. Cayetano has no experience as a detective but Neruda cajoles him to begin the search and suggests he read the Simenon books starring the fictional detective Maigret for guidance in the art of detection. And so begins a journey which takes Brule and the reader from Chile to Mexico to Cuba to East Germany, then Bolivia and finally back to Chile. The main action takes place in 1973 against the chaotic and real events surrounding the fall of Allende and rise of Pinochet in Chile. In each country, Ampuero supplies the reader with such detail that you feel you can actually taste the medianoche sandwich, hear the music of Irakere, smell the cigars being smoked, visualize the architecture all while being enveloped in the noir atmosphere. There are many references, some sly or humorous, to Golden Age detectives, art, writers, TV and radio programs and other cultural markers of the early seventies. And you also learn much about the life of the great Pablo Neruda. Does Brule, wearing his trademark lavender and green guyano tie, adjust his eyeglasses, stroke his mustache and finally succeed in tracking down the person Neruda needs to find? Read this wonderfully translated thriller to find out and don't be surprised to realize that you will want to travel with Cayetano Brule wherever he goes next.
Thanks, First Reads/Good Reads for my opportunity to meet the Cuban Maigret!
February 14, 2016
Cayetano Brulé, Roberto Ampuero'nun romanda Pablo Neruda tarafından ünlü Belçika'lı polisiye yazarı
Georges Simenon
'un kitaplarını okumaya teşvik ederek dedektifliğe başlamasını sağlayan karakteri. Simenon'un Jules Maigret'si gibi Cayetano Brulé'de Ampuero'nun polisiye romanlarının kahramanı.
Roman '73 darbesinin yaklaştığı zamanlarda Neruda'nın ağırlaşan hastalığının da etkisiyle geçmişindeki bir sırrı açıklığa kavuşturmak istemesini konu alıyor. Cayetano Brulé bir yandan Neruda'nın geçmişindeki bu sırrı aydınlatmaya çalışırken diğer yandan şairin geçmişindeki aşkların etik tarafını sorguluyor. Bölümleri oluşturan kadınların üzerine yazılan kısımlar Neruda'nın aşklarının acı bir özeti niteliğinde:
"Bizim mutluluğumuzun yol açtığı ölümler korkunçtur Cayetano. Ama Kişisel mutluluğa giden yol, diğerlerinin acılarıyla döşenmiştir."
(s. 118)
"Mutluluğumun kurbanlarından özür diliyorum. Josie Bliss ve María Antonieta'dan, Delia ve Beatriz'den ve Matilde'den de, dizelerimle beslenen illüzyonlar okyanusunda boğulan bütün kadınlardan özür diliyorum."
(s. 223)
Roman '73 darbesinin yaklaştığı zamanlarda Neruda'nın ağırlaşan hastalığının da etkisiyle geçmişindeki bir sırrı açıklığa kavuşturmak istemesini konu alıyor. Cayetano Brulé bir yandan Neruda'nın geçmişindeki bu sırrı aydınlatmaya çalışırken diğer yandan şairin geçmişindeki aşkların etik tarafını sorguluyor. Bölümleri oluşturan kadınların üzerine yazılan kısımlar Neruda'nın aşklarının acı bir özeti niteliğinde:
"Bizim mutluluğumuzun yol açtığı ölümler korkunçtur Cayetano. Ama Kişisel mutluluğa giden yol, diğerlerinin acılarıyla döşenmiştir."
(s. 118)
"Mutluluğumun kurbanlarından özür diliyorum. Josie Bliss ve María Antonieta'dan, Delia ve Beatriz'den ve Matilde'den de, dizelerimle beslenen illüzyonlar okyanusunda boğulan bütün kadınlardan özür diliyorum."
(s. 223)
March 26, 2018
You can read my review at http://world-of-sleuths.blogspot.com/....
June 12, 2017
As a fan of Pablo Neruda, I was quite eager to read this book but I was very disappointed when I did.
A Nobel-prize-winning, key Chilean revolutionary and friend of Chilean President Salvador Allende (who died during a CIA-backed coup led by the criminal General Augusto Pinochet), Gabriel García Márquez once called Neruda "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language" and Harold Bloom cited Neruda among 26 writers central to the Western tradition in his book "The Western Canon."
So I was hoping for much more from Ampuero's really quite pathetic and highly misleading novel.
"The Neruda Case" is deeply flawed, unless you can remain very aware that Roberto Ampuero's fictional "Neruda" is nothing more than Ampuero's highly misleading, imaginary interpretation of a "Pablo Neruda" who exists only in the author's mind, not about the actual man or his real life, as the book's description promises us.
If the novel is taken as historical realism (partially based on fact), any semblance of an authentic look into Neruda's later years, or the life and loves of the world's most important Latin American poet during the 1950's 60's & 70's, this book is certainly seriously problematic.
In my opinion, this book comes very close to being libelous of Pablo Neruda.
While avoiding spoilers, this fiction centers on what the author represents as Pablo Neruda's dying wish: to locate a mysterious woman with whom he had an important life-changing relationship to find out the answer to a secret that only she knows. So Neruda hires a young man who he judges to have aptitude as a potential detective (Ampuero's fictional detective Cayatano Brule's very first case) to search for the elusive woman.
In fact, the whole novel revolves around Brule's search for the woman in various centers of left-socialism throughout the world (initial experiments that Ampuero clearly judges to be laughable failures with little merit) and the detective's (entirely fictional but deeply judgemental) conversations with the great poet about his views on life as well as Brule's own confusions and critiques of Neruda's misguided "egoism" as he travels to socialist countries where Brule experiences highly stereotypical people and events.
But while this book claims to offer "...a glimpse into the life of Pablo Neruda as death approaches..." in reality Neruda never actually had a relationship with any woman like Ampuero's entirely fictional "woman" whom Ampuero places at the center of the author's spurious idea of Neruda's last wish: this is the entire plot of the novel which actually functions as a literary smokescreen for Ampuero's delivery of his none-to-subtle biases about Neruda and socialism in general.
Throughout his story, Ampuero fashions a sort of paper-mache-Neruda who is easy to poke holes in, all the while claiming to admire the real man. It's amazing to me that Ampuero has the audacity to take such very serious liberties with such a heroic figure as Neruda, attributing totally fictitious words, feelings , thoughts, regrets, behaviors, events and relationships to Neruda! One can only conclude that Ampuero's apparent intention is defamation and vilification of the great poet, philosopher, diplomat and politician.
Nowhere does this author justify this essentially magical thinking about Neruda or the manner in which Neruda is portrayed in his novel. Even in his epilogue where Ampuero talks about how and why he wrote the book, he fails to even suggest that the poet ever had a similar relationship or such a dying wish, or even had serious misgivings about his own relationships with women--as the words and thought's that Ampero places in Neruda's mouth and mind would lead readers to believe.
Given that the novel hinges on this plot, you'd think there would be some evidence offered from the poet's own words or poems or memoir to at least validate the storyline, but no...nothing. There are absolutely zero original sources of credible information cited by the author to give readers any reason to believe that Neruda had such a "dying wish" or in fact had any of the various thoughts, feelings, regrets, or other misgivings that Ampuero attributes to Neruda.
Ampero's qualifications to put words in Neruda's mouth: as a child, the author lived near Neruda and saw him on the street about three times. In fact, Ampuero's brief epilogue alludes to his own mysterious inside knowledge; pretty fantastic for a neighbor-boy who actually admits that he never even spoke to Neruda! yet, claiming great respect for this inspiring man, Ampero ends his epilogue by telling us that he wrote the novel--inventing a completely fictional and misleading "Neruda" for his own purposes--because Neruda somehow deserves Ampero's novel mode of defamation.
Obviously Ampuero is welcome to have his feelings, analyses and critiques about Neruda's socialism as well as what this author apparently believes was Neruda womanizing and sexist egoism. But to represent this imagined "Neruda" as "a glimpse into the life of" the real Pablo Neruda is completely disrespectful and feels to me like a misrepresentation of reality, at best.
Far from "a glimpse into the life of Pablo Neruda as death approaches," at worst, Ampero's fiction comes off like a posthumous hit-piece on this important, world-famous, inspiring poet and communist...and lucky for Ampuero, Neruda isn't even around to defend himself, answer Ampuero's indictment, or say: "Roberto, you're full of shit! You're deluded and so clearly enamored of the "new democracy" in Chile, as you call the current neo-liberal government of which you are a member (as Chile's current ambassador to Mexico)--BTW, a ruling-elite which came to power in 1990 after Pinochet's fascists overthrew the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende, murdering thousands of Chilean-leftists and destroying the dreams of millions in the CIA-backed coup of 1973--that you are either unable or unwilling to see the truth about Neruda or about the socialist governments you find so flawed! While I get that you have some liberal misgivings about the methods of your fascist predecessors, it's also understandable that you wish to rationalize our successful and democratically-elected socialist government in Chile (and other similar revolutions around the world) through the eyes of the current ruling liberal elites--the main beneficiaries of that fascist coup: as naive pipe-dreamers and idealists whose hopes and activism on behalf of making a better world were simply doomed to failure, rather than forced from power at the point of a gun by similar types at the helm of the US empire. Honestly Roberto, you come off like a very comfortable second-guessing cynic who wasn't old enough to know what was happening around you and who wishes to rationalize and re-interpret the history of Chile in order to justify your own position and your neo-liberal world view!"
Yes, anyone can put meaningful words in Neruda's mouth, but it doesn't make them true, despite Ampuero's pretense!
Further, Ampuero's extremely arrogant approach to Neruda's "life" also gives him license to present his own highly prejudiced, but fictional, versions of Neruda's first-person-voice reflections on the nature of his relationship with each of his wives, set aside from the main story in special wholly italicized chapters, as though Neruda himself had written them. Then Ampuero claims, in his epilogue, that it's all based on tales told to him by unnamed sources (sounds like something straight out of todays corporate-state news coverage...doesn't it?); stories about Neruda's alleged bad behavior in relationship to women, as well as his political naivete, all of which amounts to unsubstantiated rumors and gossip. But gee, it still makes for a mediocre but misleading novel.
While I'm sure Neruda was no saint and most certainly had issues with various women with whom he had relationships--after all he is a Latin American male in the 1950's 60's and 70's and many today are aware of the valid and important feminist critiques of the male-female culture--especially sexist and chauvinist behaviors--prevalent in various leftist movements during that era, still, there are two sides to every story but Ampuero only gives us one of them.
I object to the author's pretense of providing an actual glimpse into the life of the real Neruda when in actuality, we are only receiving a glimpse into Ampuero's own extreme egoism in believing that he can get away with putting his own words, interpretations and biases into the mouth of Neruda, a world-class poet whose actual words and life impacted, and still inspire, millions around the planet.
Ampuero does offer readers superficial views into many historic events, but leaves out a wealth of key contextual information that could have enriched his novel. For example, Ampuero provides a scene where Neruda is hospitalized with cancer at the time of the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet and simply returns home after five days and dies. Ampuero makes no mention of the fact that Neruda suspected a doctor of injecting him in the stomach with an unknown substance for the purpose of murdering him at the order of Pinochet. Neruda died in his house in Isla Negra on 23 September 1973 six and a half hours after that injection.
for readers who'd like to gain an understanding of the rich life of the real Pablo Neruda, I'd suggest taking a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_N... and toss Ampuero's libelous book into the nearest trash can.
Though it's a quick read, I found it pretty boring. "The Neruda Case" is certainly not world-class literature or an important book for fans of Latin American fiction. Likewise, as an outsider's view, Ampuero's novel doesn't offer much insight or other valued context about this important period of Chilean history. Otherwise, Brule and most other characters seem unidimensional: Brule was prone to falling into spurious and unmotivated flirtations and romantic relationships--speaking of sexist. Ampuero's writing is passable (while not rich or particularly evocative, much less poetic) but the translation (by Carolina De Robertis --"The Invisible Mountain" which IS a wonderful read...) seems better than most. Still, overall, I can't recommend this novel.
A Nobel-prize-winning, key Chilean revolutionary and friend of Chilean President Salvador Allende (who died during a CIA-backed coup led by the criminal General Augusto Pinochet), Gabriel García Márquez once called Neruda "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language" and Harold Bloom cited Neruda among 26 writers central to the Western tradition in his book "The Western Canon."
So I was hoping for much more from Ampuero's really quite pathetic and highly misleading novel.
"The Neruda Case" is deeply flawed, unless you can remain very aware that Roberto Ampuero's fictional "Neruda" is nothing more than Ampuero's highly misleading, imaginary interpretation of a "Pablo Neruda" who exists only in the author's mind, not about the actual man or his real life, as the book's description promises us.
If the novel is taken as historical realism (partially based on fact), any semblance of an authentic look into Neruda's later years, or the life and loves of the world's most important Latin American poet during the 1950's 60's & 70's, this book is certainly seriously problematic.
In my opinion, this book comes very close to being libelous of Pablo Neruda.
While avoiding spoilers, this fiction centers on what the author represents as Pablo Neruda's dying wish: to locate a mysterious woman with whom he had an important life-changing relationship to find out the answer to a secret that only she knows. So Neruda hires a young man who he judges to have aptitude as a potential detective (Ampuero's fictional detective Cayatano Brule's very first case) to search for the elusive woman.
In fact, the whole novel revolves around Brule's search for the woman in various centers of left-socialism throughout the world (initial experiments that Ampuero clearly judges to be laughable failures with little merit) and the detective's (entirely fictional but deeply judgemental) conversations with the great poet about his views on life as well as Brule's own confusions and critiques of Neruda's misguided "egoism" as he travels to socialist countries where Brule experiences highly stereotypical people and events.
But while this book claims to offer "...a glimpse into the life of Pablo Neruda as death approaches..." in reality Neruda never actually had a relationship with any woman like Ampuero's entirely fictional "woman" whom Ampuero places at the center of the author's spurious idea of Neruda's last wish: this is the entire plot of the novel which actually functions as a literary smokescreen for Ampuero's delivery of his none-to-subtle biases about Neruda and socialism in general.
Throughout his story, Ampuero fashions a sort of paper-mache-Neruda who is easy to poke holes in, all the while claiming to admire the real man. It's amazing to me that Ampuero has the audacity to take such very serious liberties with such a heroic figure as Neruda, attributing totally fictitious words, feelings , thoughts, regrets, behaviors, events and relationships to Neruda! One can only conclude that Ampuero's apparent intention is defamation and vilification of the great poet, philosopher, diplomat and politician.
Nowhere does this author justify this essentially magical thinking about Neruda or the manner in which Neruda is portrayed in his novel. Even in his epilogue where Ampuero talks about how and why he wrote the book, he fails to even suggest that the poet ever had a similar relationship or such a dying wish, or even had serious misgivings about his own relationships with women--as the words and thought's that Ampero places in Neruda's mouth and mind would lead readers to believe.
Given that the novel hinges on this plot, you'd think there would be some evidence offered from the poet's own words or poems or memoir to at least validate the storyline, but no...nothing. There are absolutely zero original sources of credible information cited by the author to give readers any reason to believe that Neruda had such a "dying wish" or in fact had any of the various thoughts, feelings, regrets, or other misgivings that Ampuero attributes to Neruda.
Ampero's qualifications to put words in Neruda's mouth: as a child, the author lived near Neruda and saw him on the street about three times. In fact, Ampuero's brief epilogue alludes to his own mysterious inside knowledge; pretty fantastic for a neighbor-boy who actually admits that he never even spoke to Neruda! yet, claiming great respect for this inspiring man, Ampero ends his epilogue by telling us that he wrote the novel--inventing a completely fictional and misleading "Neruda" for his own purposes--because Neruda somehow deserves Ampero's novel mode of defamation.
Obviously Ampuero is welcome to have his feelings, analyses and critiques about Neruda's socialism as well as what this author apparently believes was Neruda womanizing and sexist egoism. But to represent this imagined "Neruda" as "a glimpse into the life of" the real Pablo Neruda is completely disrespectful and feels to me like a misrepresentation of reality, at best.
Far from "a glimpse into the life of Pablo Neruda as death approaches," at worst, Ampero's fiction comes off like a posthumous hit-piece on this important, world-famous, inspiring poet and communist...and lucky for Ampuero, Neruda isn't even around to defend himself, answer Ampuero's indictment, or say: "Roberto, you're full of shit! You're deluded and so clearly enamored of the "new democracy" in Chile, as you call the current neo-liberal government of which you are a member (as Chile's current ambassador to Mexico)--BTW, a ruling-elite which came to power in 1990 after Pinochet's fascists overthrew the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende, murdering thousands of Chilean-leftists and destroying the dreams of millions in the CIA-backed coup of 1973--that you are either unable or unwilling to see the truth about Neruda or about the socialist governments you find so flawed! While I get that you have some liberal misgivings about the methods of your fascist predecessors, it's also understandable that you wish to rationalize our successful and democratically-elected socialist government in Chile (and other similar revolutions around the world) through the eyes of the current ruling liberal elites--the main beneficiaries of that fascist coup: as naive pipe-dreamers and idealists whose hopes and activism on behalf of making a better world were simply doomed to failure, rather than forced from power at the point of a gun by similar types at the helm of the US empire. Honestly Roberto, you come off like a very comfortable second-guessing cynic who wasn't old enough to know what was happening around you and who wishes to rationalize and re-interpret the history of Chile in order to justify your own position and your neo-liberal world view!"
Yes, anyone can put meaningful words in Neruda's mouth, but it doesn't make them true, despite Ampuero's pretense!
Further, Ampuero's extremely arrogant approach to Neruda's "life" also gives him license to present his own highly prejudiced, but fictional, versions of Neruda's first-person-voice reflections on the nature of his relationship with each of his wives, set aside from the main story in special wholly italicized chapters, as though Neruda himself had written them. Then Ampuero claims, in his epilogue, that it's all based on tales told to him by unnamed sources (sounds like something straight out of todays corporate-state news coverage...doesn't it?); stories about Neruda's alleged bad behavior in relationship to women, as well as his political naivete, all of which amounts to unsubstantiated rumors and gossip. But gee, it still makes for a mediocre but misleading novel.
While I'm sure Neruda was no saint and most certainly had issues with various women with whom he had relationships--after all he is a Latin American male in the 1950's 60's and 70's and many today are aware of the valid and important feminist critiques of the male-female culture--especially sexist and chauvinist behaviors--prevalent in various leftist movements during that era, still, there are two sides to every story but Ampuero only gives us one of them.
I object to the author's pretense of providing an actual glimpse into the life of the real Neruda when in actuality, we are only receiving a glimpse into Ampuero's own extreme egoism in believing that he can get away with putting his own words, interpretations and biases into the mouth of Neruda, a world-class poet whose actual words and life impacted, and still inspire, millions around the planet.
Ampuero does offer readers superficial views into many historic events, but leaves out a wealth of key contextual information that could have enriched his novel. For example, Ampuero provides a scene where Neruda is hospitalized with cancer at the time of the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet and simply returns home after five days and dies. Ampuero makes no mention of the fact that Neruda suspected a doctor of injecting him in the stomach with an unknown substance for the purpose of murdering him at the order of Pinochet. Neruda died in his house in Isla Negra on 23 September 1973 six and a half hours after that injection.
for readers who'd like to gain an understanding of the rich life of the real Pablo Neruda, I'd suggest taking a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_N... and toss Ampuero's libelous book into the nearest trash can.
Though it's a quick read, I found it pretty boring. "The Neruda Case" is certainly not world-class literature or an important book for fans of Latin American fiction. Likewise, as an outsider's view, Ampuero's novel doesn't offer much insight or other valued context about this important period of Chilean history. Otherwise, Brule and most other characters seem unidimensional: Brule was prone to falling into spurious and unmotivated flirtations and romantic relationships--speaking of sexist. Ampuero's writing is passable (while not rich or particularly evocative, much less poetic) but the translation (by Carolina De Robertis --"The Invisible Mountain" which IS a wonderful read...) seems better than most. Still, overall, I can't recommend this novel.
June 16, 2017
A successful Chilean detective remembers his first case in 1973, when the great poet Pablo Neruda hired him to find a doctor he knew in Mexico in the 1940s. The case takes him from socialist Chile under President Salvador Allende, to various other countries experiencing the Cold War, and back to Chile for the fateful events of September 1973.
October 17, 2024
More than a mystery novel with Cayetano Brulé taking on his first case as a detective, this book for me was a stroll down memory lane. The premise of the book is Pablo Neruda, the poet who gained international notoriety after winning the Nobel Prize for his poetry, has asked Cayetano to find Beatriz, a former lover who he thinks might have had a daughter who could be Neruda’s. This takes Cayetano to Mexico, Cuba, Eastern Germany, Bolivia and back to Chile – all during 1973, a time of extreme turmoil in Chile.
More than a mystery, the book walks us through the last months of the Allende regime in Chile, fraught with food shortages, strikes, long queues for food and a total disruption of a country that, prior to 1970, had been peaceful, safe and stable. He also gives us a less than endearing picture of Pablo Neruda as a man, a person with the gift of poetry and at the same time, a womanizer who used, abused and discarded women at will. A man who said he was a Communist revolutionary, but who had a hefty bank account outside Chile in dollars, and several very well appointed homes within Chile. Whose tastes ran towards expensive and exclusive whiskey and the good things in life.
Regarding coffee: “the unpalatable brew served by Chileans.” Yes indeed – they use Nescafé almost exclusively and love it.
Bolivia: “Where the rich make their social standing crystal clear through cars and clothing.”
Actually, this applies to Chile and most of South America.
“Poor Allende, he thought. He was caught between a rock and a hard place: on one side the right wing and the United States denounced him as a radical revolutionary trying to build another Cuba, and on the other side, the far left of his own nation called him a mere reformist of the Chilean capitalist system. While he worked around the clock at his house on Thomáw Moro Street to strengthen his peaceful revolution, behind his back in Havana others were plotting a people’s war drawn from manuals as distant from the reality of Chile as the streets, bars and bistros of George Simenon’s novels.”
Actually, Ampuero doesn’t account for the huge numbers of Christian Democrats protesting daily, clanging their empty pots and pans at night asking for Allende to be taken down before the country became another Cuba.
“The news cameras covered the widespread food shortage, the long queues, chaos on the streets, terrorist attacks from the right, factories taken over by workers, and land taken over by peasants, and die-hard protests on the left and right. Almost all the buses and trucks in the entire country were parked in a coastal area north of Valparaiso. There they slumbered, deprived of essential parts by strikes so that no one would be able to drive them.”
The truckers were in Reñaca where I lived. I was a Junior in high school at the time. My mother and I made numerous huge pots of food and bread and would walk the 3 or 4 blocks up to these truckers to keep them fed.
I walked many of the streets in Valparaiso, drove by Tomas Moro many times and in general lived through and remember the events vividly of those time.
More than a mystery, the book walks us through the last months of the Allende regime in Chile, fraught with food shortages, strikes, long queues for food and a total disruption of a country that, prior to 1970, had been peaceful, safe and stable. He also gives us a less than endearing picture of Pablo Neruda as a man, a person with the gift of poetry and at the same time, a womanizer who used, abused and discarded women at will. A man who said he was a Communist revolutionary, but who had a hefty bank account outside Chile in dollars, and several very well appointed homes within Chile. Whose tastes ran towards expensive and exclusive whiskey and the good things in life.
Regarding coffee: “the unpalatable brew served by Chileans.” Yes indeed – they use Nescafé almost exclusively and love it.
Bolivia: “Where the rich make their social standing crystal clear through cars and clothing.”
Actually, this applies to Chile and most of South America.
“Poor Allende, he thought. He was caught between a rock and a hard place: on one side the right wing and the United States denounced him as a radical revolutionary trying to build another Cuba, and on the other side, the far left of his own nation called him a mere reformist of the Chilean capitalist system. While he worked around the clock at his house on Thomáw Moro Street to strengthen his peaceful revolution, behind his back in Havana others were plotting a people’s war drawn from manuals as distant from the reality of Chile as the streets, bars and bistros of George Simenon’s novels.”
Actually, Ampuero doesn’t account for the huge numbers of Christian Democrats protesting daily, clanging their empty pots and pans at night asking for Allende to be taken down before the country became another Cuba.
“The news cameras covered the widespread food shortage, the long queues, chaos on the streets, terrorist attacks from the right, factories taken over by workers, and land taken over by peasants, and die-hard protests on the left and right. Almost all the buses and trucks in the entire country were parked in a coastal area north of Valparaiso. There they slumbered, deprived of essential parts by strikes so that no one would be able to drive them.”
The truckers were in Reñaca where I lived. I was a Junior in high school at the time. My mother and I made numerous huge pots of food and bread and would walk the 3 or 4 blocks up to these truckers to keep them fed.
I walked many of the streets in Valparaiso, drove by Tomas Moro many times and in general lived through and remember the events vividly of those time.
February 5, 2025
En términos muy escuetos, en esta novela, el vate Pablo Neruda le encarga al personaje principal, Cayetano Brulé, un detective privado que vive un poco a “salto de mata”, como es habitual en el oficio, una investigación que lo hace recorrer varios países, con un presupuesto proveniente de los fondos del laureado premio Nobel y con el recurso de diversos contactos de círculos y esferas políticas chilenos y extranjeros. Se trata de autentificar el hecho de una presunta hija de Neruda, para lo cual debe encontrarse con la madre y de ser posible con la hija.
Aunque se usa el nombre del vate en el título de una novela policial, puede que el término irreverencia que usamos en el título de esta nota no sea adecuado, porque la novela de Ampuero nos presenta más bien a un Pablo Neruda humano, o humanizado, ya que para los panegiristas de las figuras geniales, sobre todo cuando se han vuelto emblemáticas, toda mácula o debilidad humana les parecerá irreverencia, aún peor y para estar acordes a los tiempos que corren, una blasfemia. El elemento que da unidad a esta representación del vate es su relación con las mujeres, sus compañeras, que marcarían las distintas etapas de su vida, lo que se refuerza en la novela con capítulos en cursiva en la voz de un narrador en primera persona, el poeta, dedicados a Josie Bliss, María Antonieta Hagenaar Volgelzang, Delia del Carril y Matilde Urrutia. Esta novela podría calificarse como de suspenso político y es creemos, el inicio de las peripecias del detective cubano residente en Chile Cayetano Brulé, a quien “Un título de detective, otorgado por un oscuro instituto de estudios a distancia de Miami, le salvaría más tarde, pues atraería a gente que deseaba encargarle investigaciones de poca monta” (P17). Este personaje principal se presenta como medio indolente, gastrónomo en la medida de sus posibilidades, sin compromisos políticos, preocupado básicamente de subsistir, mujeriego si se presenta la ocasión, relativamente frecuente, y con una mirada aguda y hasta cierto punto desencantada sobre los procesos sociales y sus protagonistas. Sin embargo posee una integridad básica, pese a su ocasional oportunismo, lo que queda de manifiesto en sus opiniones, o su observación, de los hechos sociales y políticos que contextualizar esta novela que culmina en el golpe del 73. La narración es el cuerpo de un racconto, en que el personaje principal sostiene una entrevista con figuras acomodadas del período del “retorno a la democracia”, antes en trincheras políticas opuestas, pero ahora unidos en una sociedad anónima floreciente. Esta visión es ambigua no por partidismo ni pesimismo escéptico, sino por su imparcialidad respecto a las circunstancias por las que atraviesa el país “Además, no tengo nada que ver con la política”, manifiesta Brulé en la página 207.
La relativa ajenidad y marginalidad del protagonista en la sociedad en que vive y los conflictos que la aquejan no es algo nuevo en el género novelesco y se remonta a sus orígenes. La posibilidad de presentar una perspectiva crítica o irónica creíble, distanciada, aumenta si se echa mano a un personaje principal de alguna ajeno a la sociedad de que se trate, pero que vive en su seno. Así, las ambigüedades y contradicciones, tan propias del mundo real, aparecen muy verosímiles desde la perspectiva de este antihéroe, lo que no hubiera sido posible si el narrador personaje se hubiera por así decir abanderizado con alguno de los bandos en que se dividía—y se divide—la sociedad chilena, y acaso mundial. Esto se convierte en un hábil instrumento en Ampuero a través de la perspectiva de Brulé, que “Debió ocultarse de los izquierdistas, que lo despreciaban como gusano de Miami, y de los derechistas, que lo desdeñaban como un infiltrado castrista” (P.17) .
La figura de Neruda se nos representa como la de un hombre de gran talento que dedica su vida a su obra poética, dotado de gran sensualidad y agobiado un poco por la culpa de los sacrificios de que ha hecho objeto a sus sucesivas compañeras en pos de esta vocación. Difícil tarea y lograda, ya que el lector primero se asombra del desparpajo de que alguien pueda incluso titular “El caso Neruda” a una novela, sobre todo de este género, después va aceptando esa figura ambivalente, que va entregando Cayetano Brulé, él mismo oscilando entre la absolución y la condena, pero al fin reconociendo la totalidad humana del ser del vate al que esta humanización creemos que en lugar de disminuir, más bien ha enriquecido.
En la novela, Neruda se revela como quien orienta a Brulé por el camino del detectivismo privado, ya que lo incita a la lectura de las novelas de Georges Simenon y la familiaridad con Jules Maigret, el maduro y corpulento héroe belga, sedentario, casado por décadas, enemigo del cambio, que opera en un país europeo occidental. El reverso de lo que es Brulé. Las alusiones al género policial y su contraste tanto con las circunstancias de la vida diaria como con las condiciones reales de la investigación en la América Latina—aún y a pesar de todo— tercermundista, es otra versión de la metanovela o metanarrativa ya presentes desde el Quijote. Un poco la distancia entre Amadís de Gaula y Alonso de Quijano es la que existe entre Brulé y Maigret, entre el detective del mundo desarrollado en un entorno racional, organizado, y este otro que opera, mal que bien, en Chile: “tuvo la sensación de que se iba convirtiendo en un Maigret caribeño” (P.280); “—Desde luego que no. Ya te lo dije hace tiempo. Él es parisino, Cayetano, como Monsieur Dupin, no un latinoamericano de tomo y lomo como tú. Tú eres diferente, auténtico, nuestro, un detective con sabor a empanadas y vino tinto, como diría Salvador, o a tacos y tequila, o a congrí y ron”, le dice Neruda a Cayetano Brulé en la página 240.” . Esta es una manifestación más de la distancia entre los patrones rectores de los géneros literarios y sus personajes arquetípicos o canónicos metropolitanos y las variantes del nuevo mundo, o en general, la realidad. “Los detectives de la ficción se convertían en héroes con facilidad, pero los de carne y hueso no pasaban nunca de su condición de proletarios de la investigación”, (P.202). Esa distancia está presente en la manera cómo se vive en relación a modelos que se nos enfrentan desde el mundo alternativo de la representación, que pese a no existir concretamente puede tener más significado que la realidad de todos los días: “..mirando la torre de Televisión que descollaba al final de Unter den Linden esbelta e iluminada, como la Torre Eiffel en las novelas de Simenón por encima de los techos de París” (p.200). Esta distancia o diferencia entre la versión metropolitana (desarrollada) y la periférica (en desarrollo) no se nos presenta en esta novela desde la reflexión o la indagación en la subjetividad, el yo y la identidad patentes por ejemplo magistralmente en el Obsceno pájaro de la noche, de José Donoso, o en la distancia insalvable entre el paradigma de cultura pop norteamericana y su recepción mitificada y atrasada en la periferia argentina de Manuel Puig en su Traición de Rita Hayworth. Aparece entreverada como un elemento más en esta novela que no se quiere seria y sin embargo es profunda. Lectura fácil y rápida, con personajes que tienden ocasionalmente al estereotipo o al personaje esquemático, funcional para la trama—el lector no se espera las angustias y disquisiciones de un Karamanzov o un Roquentin—porque sus expectativas son otras en esta novela que se enmarca en su género a la postre policial, subgénero o paraliteratura para algunos, y que, sin embargo, entrega esa visión ambivalente y compleja de otros, por ejemplo del personaje ficticio, que lo es a pesar de todo, del vate.
Aunque se usa el nombre del vate en el título de una novela policial, puede que el término irreverencia que usamos en el título de esta nota no sea adecuado, porque la novela de Ampuero nos presenta más bien a un Pablo Neruda humano, o humanizado, ya que para los panegiristas de las figuras geniales, sobre todo cuando se han vuelto emblemáticas, toda mácula o debilidad humana les parecerá irreverencia, aún peor y para estar acordes a los tiempos que corren, una blasfemia. El elemento que da unidad a esta representación del vate es su relación con las mujeres, sus compañeras, que marcarían las distintas etapas de su vida, lo que se refuerza en la novela con capítulos en cursiva en la voz de un narrador en primera persona, el poeta, dedicados a Josie Bliss, María Antonieta Hagenaar Volgelzang, Delia del Carril y Matilde Urrutia. Esta novela podría calificarse como de suspenso político y es creemos, el inicio de las peripecias del detective cubano residente en Chile Cayetano Brulé, a quien “Un título de detective, otorgado por un oscuro instituto de estudios a distancia de Miami, le salvaría más tarde, pues atraería a gente que deseaba encargarle investigaciones de poca monta” (P17). Este personaje principal se presenta como medio indolente, gastrónomo en la medida de sus posibilidades, sin compromisos políticos, preocupado básicamente de subsistir, mujeriego si se presenta la ocasión, relativamente frecuente, y con una mirada aguda y hasta cierto punto desencantada sobre los procesos sociales y sus protagonistas. Sin embargo posee una integridad básica, pese a su ocasional oportunismo, lo que queda de manifiesto en sus opiniones, o su observación, de los hechos sociales y políticos que contextualizar esta novela que culmina en el golpe del 73. La narración es el cuerpo de un racconto, en que el personaje principal sostiene una entrevista con figuras acomodadas del período del “retorno a la democracia”, antes en trincheras políticas opuestas, pero ahora unidos en una sociedad anónima floreciente. Esta visión es ambigua no por partidismo ni pesimismo escéptico, sino por su imparcialidad respecto a las circunstancias por las que atraviesa el país “Además, no tengo nada que ver con la política”, manifiesta Brulé en la página 207.
La relativa ajenidad y marginalidad del protagonista en la sociedad en que vive y los conflictos que la aquejan no es algo nuevo en el género novelesco y se remonta a sus orígenes. La posibilidad de presentar una perspectiva crítica o irónica creíble, distanciada, aumenta si se echa mano a un personaje principal de alguna ajeno a la sociedad de que se trate, pero que vive en su seno. Así, las ambigüedades y contradicciones, tan propias del mundo real, aparecen muy verosímiles desde la perspectiva de este antihéroe, lo que no hubiera sido posible si el narrador personaje se hubiera por así decir abanderizado con alguno de los bandos en que se dividía—y se divide—la sociedad chilena, y acaso mundial. Esto se convierte en un hábil instrumento en Ampuero a través de la perspectiva de Brulé, que “Debió ocultarse de los izquierdistas, que lo despreciaban como gusano de Miami, y de los derechistas, que lo desdeñaban como un infiltrado castrista” (P.17) .
La figura de Neruda se nos representa como la de un hombre de gran talento que dedica su vida a su obra poética, dotado de gran sensualidad y agobiado un poco por la culpa de los sacrificios de que ha hecho objeto a sus sucesivas compañeras en pos de esta vocación. Difícil tarea y lograda, ya que el lector primero se asombra del desparpajo de que alguien pueda incluso titular “El caso Neruda” a una novela, sobre todo de este género, después va aceptando esa figura ambivalente, que va entregando Cayetano Brulé, él mismo oscilando entre la absolución y la condena, pero al fin reconociendo la totalidad humana del ser del vate al que esta humanización creemos que en lugar de disminuir, más bien ha enriquecido.
En la novela, Neruda se revela como quien orienta a Brulé por el camino del detectivismo privado, ya que lo incita a la lectura de las novelas de Georges Simenon y la familiaridad con Jules Maigret, el maduro y corpulento héroe belga, sedentario, casado por décadas, enemigo del cambio, que opera en un país europeo occidental. El reverso de lo que es Brulé. Las alusiones al género policial y su contraste tanto con las circunstancias de la vida diaria como con las condiciones reales de la investigación en la América Latina—aún y a pesar de todo— tercermundista, es otra versión de la metanovela o metanarrativa ya presentes desde el Quijote. Un poco la distancia entre Amadís de Gaula y Alonso de Quijano es la que existe entre Brulé y Maigret, entre el detective del mundo desarrollado en un entorno racional, organizado, y este otro que opera, mal que bien, en Chile: “tuvo la sensación de que se iba convirtiendo en un Maigret caribeño” (P.280); “—Desde luego que no. Ya te lo dije hace tiempo. Él es parisino, Cayetano, como Monsieur Dupin, no un latinoamericano de tomo y lomo como tú. Tú eres diferente, auténtico, nuestro, un detective con sabor a empanadas y vino tinto, como diría Salvador, o a tacos y tequila, o a congrí y ron”, le dice Neruda a Cayetano Brulé en la página 240.” . Esta es una manifestación más de la distancia entre los patrones rectores de los géneros literarios y sus personajes arquetípicos o canónicos metropolitanos y las variantes del nuevo mundo, o en general, la realidad. “Los detectives de la ficción se convertían en héroes con facilidad, pero los de carne y hueso no pasaban nunca de su condición de proletarios de la investigación”, (P.202). Esa distancia está presente en la manera cómo se vive en relación a modelos que se nos enfrentan desde el mundo alternativo de la representación, que pese a no existir concretamente puede tener más significado que la realidad de todos los días: “..mirando la torre de Televisión que descollaba al final de Unter den Linden esbelta e iluminada, como la Torre Eiffel en las novelas de Simenón por encima de los techos de París” (p.200). Esta distancia o diferencia entre la versión metropolitana (desarrollada) y la periférica (en desarrollo) no se nos presenta en esta novela desde la reflexión o la indagación en la subjetividad, el yo y la identidad patentes por ejemplo magistralmente en el Obsceno pájaro de la noche, de José Donoso, o en la distancia insalvable entre el paradigma de cultura pop norteamericana y su recepción mitificada y atrasada en la periferia argentina de Manuel Puig en su Traición de Rita Hayworth. Aparece entreverada como un elemento más en esta novela que no se quiere seria y sin embargo es profunda. Lectura fácil y rápida, con personajes que tienden ocasionalmente al estereotipo o al personaje esquemático, funcional para la trama—el lector no se espera las angustias y disquisiciones de un Karamanzov o un Roquentin—porque sus expectativas son otras en esta novela que se enmarca en su género a la postre policial, subgénero o paraliteratura para algunos, y que, sin embargo, entrega esa visión ambivalente y compleja de otros, por ejemplo del personaje ficticio, que lo es a pesar de todo, del vate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2012
Ampuero, an award winning writer from Chile and currently a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, has written some five novels involving the detective, Cayetano Brulé. The Neruda Case (which was originally published in 2008) was not the first published in the series, but chronicles how Brulé set out on the path to become a private eye.
The book's narrative begins circa 2008, but is almost an entirely a flashback to several weeks in 1973, when the most famous Spanish poet of his day, Pablo Neruda, hired the twenty-something Brulé to search for someone.
The book contains so much local color of the times, in Chile, Mexico, Cuba, and East Germany (places where the author had lived as a young man) that I was deeply grateful for the existence of the Internet to clarify names of persons, food and drink, and places.
This local color might be a turn-off for some American readers. Yet imagine a Latin American reader reading a translation of Kurt Andersen masterful (even magisterial) novel of American college students in the 1960s, True Believers; how much would be lost or misunderstood?
As I think of it, the book has some interesting parallels to True Believers that I shall not discuss here, lest I deprive a future reader of the delight of surprise.
The spirit and flavor of Neruda's "voice" pervade the novel. So often Ampuero caught Neruda in all his artistry and his contradictions.
Ampuero's highly personal afterword contextualizes his youth in Valparaiso, Chile in the 1960s and early 1970s - an essay alone worth the price of the book.
I found the book thoroughly delightful and look forward to reading the other Cayetano Brulé mysteries, for which Ampuero has won prizes.
But I especially want to read the non-fiction account of his life in Cuba, published in 1999, Nuestros años verde olivo ("Our Olive Green Years", which continues to appear in black-market editions in Cuba and was slated to made into a film).
(I do have one personal recollection of Neruda. In the autumn of 1963, as a freshman at Georgetown University, I (and all other students studying Spanish) were required to attend a reading given by Neruda in the Copley Lounge on one Friday night. All I recall was that Neruda spoke so softly that I could barely hear, let alone understand a word. But the greatest contradiction of the night that stuck in my mind was the head of the Spanish Department, an ultra-conservative admirer of Generalisimo Francisco Franco, embracing and kissing Neruda, an compromising and committed Stalinist Communist. Ars Omnia Vincit?)
The book's narrative begins circa 2008, but is almost an entirely a flashback to several weeks in 1973, when the most famous Spanish poet of his day, Pablo Neruda, hired the twenty-something Brulé to search for someone.
The book contains so much local color of the times, in Chile, Mexico, Cuba, and East Germany (places where the author had lived as a young man) that I was deeply grateful for the existence of the Internet to clarify names of persons, food and drink, and places.
This local color might be a turn-off for some American readers. Yet imagine a Latin American reader reading a translation of Kurt Andersen masterful (even magisterial) novel of American college students in the 1960s, True Believers; how much would be lost or misunderstood?
As I think of it, the book has some interesting parallels to True Believers that I shall not discuss here, lest I deprive a future reader of the delight of surprise.
The spirit and flavor of Neruda's "voice" pervade the novel. So often Ampuero caught Neruda in all his artistry and his contradictions.
Ampuero's highly personal afterword contextualizes his youth in Valparaiso, Chile in the 1960s and early 1970s - an essay alone worth the price of the book.
I found the book thoroughly delightful and look forward to reading the other Cayetano Brulé mysteries, for which Ampuero has won prizes.
But I especially want to read the non-fiction account of his life in Cuba, published in 1999, Nuestros años verde olivo ("Our Olive Green Years", which continues to appear in black-market editions in Cuba and was slated to made into a film).
(I do have one personal recollection of Neruda. In the autumn of 1963, as a freshman at Georgetown University, I (and all other students studying Spanish) were required to attend a reading given by Neruda in the Copley Lounge on one Friday night. All I recall was that Neruda spoke so softly that I could barely hear, let alone understand a word. But the greatest contradiction of the night that stuck in my mind was the head of the Spanish Department, an ultra-conservative admirer of Generalisimo Francisco Franco, embracing and kissing Neruda, an compromising and committed Stalinist Communist. Ars Omnia Vincit?)
December 9, 2022
Inesperado, pero me gustó bastante.
El telón de fondo me llamó especialmente la atención, aunque estoy segura que se me pasaron muchos detalles ya que no conozco mucho la historia de Chile.
En cuanto a personajes, Cayetano Brúle me parece fue el mejor, esta vez no por el sello característico del personaje, sino de por la inocencia de un hombre mucho más joven que inicia con su carrera de detective, evidentemente inesperto pero dispuesto a a encontrar la verdad, haciendo uso de la literatura como un referente para su carrera y encontrándose que la realidad de un londres de maigret no es el mismo que un escenario real latinoamericano.
Para el personaje de Neruda, debo decir que personalmente no me gustó, pero no me refiero a haya sido mal construido, hay que estar dispuesto a reconocer que fue un buen personaje. Me refiero a la personalidad de él, ahora no sé qué tanto sea verdad de la persona, ya que si bien esta basado en el hombre real, habría que tener en mente que algo de él es ficción.
Ampuero es un experto en traernos un catálogo de personajes muy variados, cada uno con un propósito, no es poner por poner.
Aunque la historia es mucho más fácil de llevar, si bien uno de los puntos claves para leer a Ampuero es saber que va a ser una lectura pesada, esto porque le da un peso más grande al contexto histórico, Caso Neruda me pareció mucho menos complicado y más llevadero. Aunque recomiendo todos los demás, por supuesto.
El primer capítulo y el último, en comparación con todos los demás, son el claro ejemplo de un antes y un después, de cuando era un principiante al ya conocido detective muchos años después.
El telón de fondo me llamó especialmente la atención, aunque estoy segura que se me pasaron muchos detalles ya que no conozco mucho la historia de Chile.
En cuanto a personajes, Cayetano Brúle me parece fue el mejor, esta vez no por el sello característico del personaje, sino de por la inocencia de un hombre mucho más joven que inicia con su carrera de detective, evidentemente inesperto pero dispuesto a a encontrar la verdad, haciendo uso de la literatura como un referente para su carrera y encontrándose que la realidad de un londres de maigret no es el mismo que un escenario real latinoamericano.
Para el personaje de Neruda, debo decir que personalmente no me gustó, pero no me refiero a haya sido mal construido, hay que estar dispuesto a reconocer que fue un buen personaje. Me refiero a la personalidad de él, ahora no sé qué tanto sea verdad de la persona, ya que si bien esta basado en el hombre real, habría que tener en mente que algo de él es ficción.
Ampuero es un experto en traernos un catálogo de personajes muy variados, cada uno con un propósito, no es poner por poner.
Aunque la historia es mucho más fácil de llevar, si bien uno de los puntos claves para leer a Ampuero es saber que va a ser una lectura pesada, esto porque le da un peso más grande al contexto histórico, Caso Neruda me pareció mucho menos complicado y más llevadero. Aunque recomiendo todos los demás, por supuesto.
El primer capítulo y el último, en comparación con todos los demás, son el claro ejemplo de un antes y un después, de cuando era un principiante al ya conocido detective muchos años después.
June 11, 2012
I received this advance copy as a winner in a Goodreads First Reads drawing.
Seeing it is the first novel of a long-running series, I certainly hope that they take the time to translate more, because the book was highly enjoyable. It features a detective, Cayetano Brule, who is introduced to the profession in an unusual way, and goes on what is truly a far-reaching trek across the Atlantic and throughout the Southern Hemisphere in search of his clues for his mysterious new client.
The book gave me a chance to brush up on my Spanish and Geography, as well as see the world as events unfolded in the early 70's through the eyes of a young man caught up in the revolution at the time. The book is a page-turner, I ended up starting it late at night and reading through until the morning when I finished. People familiar with different Latin cultures will find the cultural references comforting with the various mentions of food and beverages scattered throughout the book. I often found myself licking my own lips while reading about some of the meals enjoyed in the novel.
I'm looking forward to seeing the sequels translated into English, so I can pick them up. Definitely a worthwhile read, and while the character is already known internationally, Cayetano is a welcome and unique addition to the world of mystery and crime filled with too many of the same mold of detectives/cops/forensic specialists et al.
Seeing it is the first novel of a long-running series, I certainly hope that they take the time to translate more, because the book was highly enjoyable. It features a detective, Cayetano Brule, who is introduced to the profession in an unusual way, and goes on what is truly a far-reaching trek across the Atlantic and throughout the Southern Hemisphere in search of his clues for his mysterious new client.
The book gave me a chance to brush up on my Spanish and Geography, as well as see the world as events unfolded in the early 70's through the eyes of a young man caught up in the revolution at the time. The book is a page-turner, I ended up starting it late at night and reading through until the morning when I finished. People familiar with different Latin cultures will find the cultural references comforting with the various mentions of food and beverages scattered throughout the book. I often found myself licking my own lips while reading about some of the meals enjoyed in the novel.
I'm looking forward to seeing the sequels translated into English, so I can pick them up. Definitely a worthwhile read, and while the character is already known internationally, Cayetano is a welcome and unique addition to the world of mystery and crime filled with too many of the same mold of detectives/cops/forensic specialists et al.
May 5, 2019
"El caso Neruda" de Rafael Ampuero es una novela de trama detectivesca en la que su investigador, Cayetano Brulé, (realmente un detective principiante) por encargo del poeta Neruda trata de localizar a una mujer de su pasado con la que tuvo una relación amorosa y posiblemente una hija.
Brulé nos transporta al pasado donde se reviven los meses previos al fatídico golpe de estado a Salvador Allende (1973) hasta la época contemporánea en Chile. Es también un viaje en el que mientras sigue la huella de la mujer que busca nos revela algunos datos históricos del mismo periodo en México, Cuba, Alemania Oriental e incluso Bolivia.
La novela es interesante y polémica; sin embargo, deja al lector con una imagen bastante estropeada del poeta. Aunque creo que la intención del autor era mostrarnos a un Neruda más humano, el vate es tratado de forma casi irreverente y nos lo da a conocer como un ser oportunista en especial en su trato con las mujeres (sus compañeras de la vida), a quienes según él les sacaba provecho y las abandonaba a su suerte sin mayor dificultad, y a un padre que rechaza a su hija debido a su enfermedad (hidrocefalia). Pinta a Neruda sin lugar a dudas como un genio que vivió dedicado a su obra poética y a causas políticas, pero con muchas carencias en lo personal. Un Neruda que se encuentra al final de sus días, acabado y triste, y quizá un poco agobiado por la culpa. "Pido perdón a las víctimas de mi felicidad".
Su lectura es fácil y rápida.
Brulé nos transporta al pasado donde se reviven los meses previos al fatídico golpe de estado a Salvador Allende (1973) hasta la época contemporánea en Chile. Es también un viaje en el que mientras sigue la huella de la mujer que busca nos revela algunos datos históricos del mismo periodo en México, Cuba, Alemania Oriental e incluso Bolivia.
La novela es interesante y polémica; sin embargo, deja al lector con una imagen bastante estropeada del poeta. Aunque creo que la intención del autor era mostrarnos a un Neruda más humano, el vate es tratado de forma casi irreverente y nos lo da a conocer como un ser oportunista en especial en su trato con las mujeres (sus compañeras de la vida), a quienes según él les sacaba provecho y las abandonaba a su suerte sin mayor dificultad, y a un padre que rechaza a su hija debido a su enfermedad (hidrocefalia). Pinta a Neruda sin lugar a dudas como un genio que vivió dedicado a su obra poética y a causas políticas, pero con muchas carencias en lo personal. Un Neruda que se encuentra al final de sus días, acabado y triste, y quizá un poco agobiado por la culpa. "Pido perdón a las víctimas de mi felicidad".
Su lectura es fácil y rápida.
May 14, 2014
Plus Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia and East Berlin. How often do you find a novel that rolls through all these geographic locations? “The Neruda Case,” by Roberto Ampuero is a thriller of sorts by an established Chilean novelist. This is the first of his books to be translated into English.
The absolutely unusual aspect of this book is that–from a feminist perspective–it deconstructs the personal choices of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet. To find a Cuban doctor who might be able to cure his cancer, Neruda hires a young Cuban guy who is hanging around Valparaiso, a southern Chilean city of hills and cold weather. The search turns from a man to a woman and child. Internally, very serious pressure is mounting on Allende, who, nonetheless, visits by helicopter to talk with his favorite poet. The characters in each city are on the left, before the fall of the Soviet Union.
The prose—or is it the translation?—is awkward at times. And the novel overall lacks the smooth polished Iowa Writers Workshop quality, so emblematic of popular American literary fiction these days. Yet I enjoyed this book. Why?
1. Neruda’s love life as it relates to his poetry.
2. Chile right before Allende falls.
3. Cuba from the impoverished intelligentsia’s perspective.
4. A brief love affair in East Berlin.
5. A marriage on the rocks due to the intense politics of the time.
6. The thrill of the hunt.
The absolutely unusual aspect of this book is that–from a feminist perspective–it deconstructs the personal choices of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet. To find a Cuban doctor who might be able to cure his cancer, Neruda hires a young Cuban guy who is hanging around Valparaiso, a southern Chilean city of hills and cold weather. The search turns from a man to a woman and child. Internally, very serious pressure is mounting on Allende, who, nonetheless, visits by helicopter to talk with his favorite poet. The characters in each city are on the left, before the fall of the Soviet Union.
The prose—or is it the translation?—is awkward at times. And the novel overall lacks the smooth polished Iowa Writers Workshop quality, so emblematic of popular American literary fiction these days. Yet I enjoyed this book. Why?
1. Neruda’s love life as it relates to his poetry.
2. Chile right before Allende falls.
3. Cuba from the impoverished intelligentsia’s perspective.
4. A brief love affair in East Berlin.
5. A marriage on the rocks due to the intense politics of the time.
6. The thrill of the hunt.
June 23, 2012
I received an uncorrected proof of this book as a winner in a Goodreads First Reads drawing.
The occasionally beautiful narration, the fact that I love the setting, and my love of Neruda's poetry kept me reading as long as I did. Regarding the setting, I am fascinated by Chile during the time of Salvador Allende, and I studied abroad in Cuba.
I really wanted to read it, but I was unable to finish this book. It may have been a lost in translation issue or a personal style quibble on my part, or even just a first book in a series syndrome sufferer, but I wasn't drawn into the story. Often it was difficult to determine which character was speaking/doing something, and I wasn't interested in the characters. Additionally, the present-day scene at the beginning felt forced and the time shift to the past was jarring.
Also, it's hard to write a historical figure as a character in a novel, and often awkward. I found myself uncertain about many of those scenes. As a reader, I was not able to suspend my disbelief with Neruda as a character.
The history is amazing, and the writing is lovely in places. But I can't get into the story, and I don't know that I'll ever finish it.
The occasionally beautiful narration, the fact that I love the setting, and my love of Neruda's poetry kept me reading as long as I did. Regarding the setting, I am fascinated by Chile during the time of Salvador Allende, and I studied abroad in Cuba.
I really wanted to read it, but I was unable to finish this book. It may have been a lost in translation issue or a personal style quibble on my part, or even just a first book in a series syndrome sufferer, but I wasn't drawn into the story. Often it was difficult to determine which character was speaking/doing something, and I wasn't interested in the characters. Additionally, the present-day scene at the beginning felt forced and the time shift to the past was jarring.
Also, it's hard to write a historical figure as a character in a novel, and often awkward. I found myself uncertain about many of those scenes. As a reader, I was not able to suspend my disbelief with Neruda as a character.
The history is amazing, and the writing is lovely in places. But I can't get into the story, and I don't know that I'll ever finish it.
June 13, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed The Neruda Case, set primarily in Chile around the 1973 coup. Pablo Neruda, nearing the end of his life, meets the main character, Cayetano Brulé, and convinces him to look for someone from his past for him. Cayetano has no experience as a PI, so Neruda hands him a stack of Georges Simenon novels and tells him to go to work, which I found hilarious.
The book was beautifully written. I've read so many mediocre novels lately, that this was a breath of fresh air. The historical aspect was especially interesting to me, since I don't know much about Chilean history. I hope the rest of Ampurero's novels are translated into English soon.
*I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
The book was beautifully written. I've read so many mediocre novels lately, that this was a breath of fresh air. The historical aspect was especially interesting to me, since I don't know much about Chilean history. I hope the rest of Ampurero's novels are translated into English soon.
*I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
January 31, 2017
I did not read this in Spanish but I could not find the recent English translation on Goodreads.
The Neruda Case is set against the backdrop of the waning days and fall of the Chilean government of President Allende. Ceytano, our hero and inexperienced private detective, is hired by the dying Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda to solve a mystery.
Trail of the mystery sets Ceytano on trips in South America, Cuba, and East Germany. Well written and engaging, Ampuero's characters come to life. You see Neruda as a morally flawed poetic genius. This novel is the first in a series of detective novels. I hope more are translated into English.
The Author's note at the end is priceless and concerns his inspiration for the novel growing up in Chile near one of Neruda's homes.
The Neruda Case is set against the backdrop of the waning days and fall of the Chilean government of President Allende. Ceytano, our hero and inexperienced private detective, is hired by the dying Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda to solve a mystery.
Trail of the mystery sets Ceytano on trips in South America, Cuba, and East Germany. Well written and engaging, Ampuero's characters come to life. You see Neruda as a morally flawed poetic genius. This novel is the first in a series of detective novels. I hope more are translated into English.
The Author's note at the end is priceless and concerns his inspiration for the novel growing up in Chile near one of Neruda's homes.
June 17, 2012
Yay, it is here in my hot little hands, waiting to be read.
In the middle of another book, but soon. It does look very good. (this was a first reads win)
So, rushed through previouss books to read this. It is such a multilayered and interesting book, by turns witty and suspenseful. I used the word "sly" midway in my status updates, but it is also nostalgic, and audacious, taking the poet and looking at his life through the women he loved or betrayed, real and fictional, and looking at the period through which he lived, the politics and posturings, the succession of disguises people don...for fun, for love, for survival. And finally...very strangely moving. I liked it a great deal.
In the middle of another book, but soon. It does look very good. (this was a first reads win)
So, rushed through previouss books to read this. It is such a multilayered and interesting book, by turns witty and suspenseful. I used the word "sly" midway in my status updates, but it is also nostalgic, and audacious, taking the poet and looking at his life through the women he loved or betrayed, real and fictional, and looking at the period through which he lived, the politics and posturings, the succession of disguises people don...for fun, for love, for survival. And finally...very strangely moving. I liked it a great deal.
March 14, 2017
I found this an ambitious book which combines literary and political tropes to good effect. Roberto Ampuero captures the emotions that ran high in the early 1970s in Chile and elsewhere in South America. There is a good international angle to the story and the characters. If you can buy into the original premise that a Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda would hire a young man with no experience other than from his reading of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret novels, you will be carried along. If you want not stop action, mayhem, murder, psychopaths with chain saws in dark alleyways, then you will likely find this fine novel boring.
March 6, 2014
Loved this literary thriller for its quick pace, beautiful imagery, vivid characters (not least Neruda) and zigzagging plot. The subplot about the turmoil of 1970s Chile becomes a bit obtuse at times; I needed a history book to connect some of the dots that ultimately led to Pinochet's coup. And I sensed a few plot devices tossed in to wrap things up just a little too conveniently. But overall it's a fun, meaty read.
January 4, 2026
Me gustó bastante, genera interés por conocer más de la historia de Neruda , pero lo mejor es que R.Ampuero nos aporta más detalle de la vida de su personaje estrella Cayetano Brulé , más todavía cuando deja de manifiesto que sus características permiten que el tipo de casos encomendados no podrían ser resueltos por otros como Sherlock Holmes o Monsier Poirot.
November 6, 2013
If you are a Neruda fan, this fictionalized account of his last days is really spectacular. From the last days of the Allende government to the Pinochet takeover, this mystery covers a lot of historic ground as well as tidbits into the heart and soul of Neruda and his love for country.
November 19, 2012
What a great caper of a novel. While I was drawn to the literary aspect, the novel itself was a fast-paced interview-laced investigation a la Simenon and Columbo.
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