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Pepe Carvalho #5
Assassinato no Comité Central
A reunião do Comité Central do Partido Comunista Espanhol está prestes a começar, numa sala de um grande hotel de Madrid, quando, de repente, todas as luzes se apagam. Momentos mais tarde, quando tudo volta ao normal, Fernando Garrido jaz sobre a mesa, apunhalado n o coração.Quem foi o responsável pela sua morte? Um membro da direcção do Partido? Um homem que combateu o franquismo durante mais de trinta anos? Ao estilo dos melhores policiais ingleses, há uma sala cheia de suspeitos e todos têm um motivo. É então que o Partido encarrega Pepe Carvalho - ex-comunista e ex-agente da CIA - de investigar o caso. A acção decorre em Madrid, envolvendo-nos nos círculos mais restritos do Partido Comunista, um mundo fechado, com as suas próprias leis.
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
39 people are currently reading
881 people want to read
About the author
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
282 books351 followersManuel Vázquez Montalbán was a prolific Spanish writer: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humourist, critic, as well as a gastronome and a FC Barcelona supporter.
He studied Philosophy at Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona and was also a member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia. For many years, he contributed columns and articles to the Madrid-based daily newspaper El País.
He died in Bangkok, Thailand, while returning to his home country from a speaking tour of Australia. His last book, La aznaridad, was published posthumously.
He studied Philosophy at Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona and was also a member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia. For many years, he contributed columns and articles to the Madrid-based daily newspaper El País.
He died in Bangkok, Thailand, while returning to his home country from a speaking tour of Australia. His last book, La aznaridad, was published posthumously.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
June 17, 2019
In quasi tutti i romanzi di Vázquez Montalbán è presente la critica sociale con numerosi riferimenti al mondo della politica, ma in questo (il quinto della serie di Pepe Carvalho) si fa veramente uso del "gioco politico" e l'autore mostra la sua conoscenza al dettaglio del PCE (Partito Comunista Spagnolo).
Viene assassinato il segretario generale del PCE in piena riunione del Comitato Centrale e Carvalho viene ingaggiato per scoprire l'assassino, come Poirot e Maigret nei gialli della Christie e di Simenon.
Ma parlare di "giallo" con Montalbán è sempre sbagliato: sigari, sesso, enogastronomia, politca, donne, notte, insonnia, in breve: noir.
Il finale mi ha riservato una bella sorpresa, un mini saggio sulla cucina argentina, ovvero come tagliare e cucinare la carne, l'asado, la tira, la tapa de bife, entrañas, chimi-churri, in breve: la mia infanzia e gioventù.
Metto in coda il prossimo romanzo della serie di Pepe Carvalho, perché ormai so già che con Manuel Vázquez Montalbán la buona lettura è assicurata.
Viene assassinato il segretario generale del PCE in piena riunione del Comitato Centrale e Carvalho viene ingaggiato per scoprire l'assassino, come Poirot e Maigret nei gialli della Christie e di Simenon.
"– Il caso tipico di un assassinio in una stanza chiusa dal didentro e senza possibilità di uscita. Ma nei gialli inglesi l’assassinato è l’unico che c’è nella stanza. In questo caso invece è in compagnia di centotrentanove compagni. Sembra più una barzelletta di cinesi o di scozzesi che un romanzo poliziesco inglese."
Ma parlare di "giallo" con Montalbán è sempre sbagliato: sigari, sesso, enogastronomia, politca, donne, notte, insonnia, in breve: noir.
Il finale mi ha riservato una bella sorpresa, un mini saggio sulla cucina argentina, ovvero come tagliare e cucinare la carne, l'asado, la tira, la tapa de bife, entrañas, chimi-churri, in breve: la mia infanzia e gioventù.
Metto in coda il prossimo romanzo della serie di Pepe Carvalho, perché ormai so già che con Manuel Vázquez Montalbán la buona lettura è assicurata.
August 29, 2025
Não é um livro sobre política, não é sobre a história de Espanha, ou sobre a guerra civil espanhola. Não é um livro sobre o partido comunista espanhol, ou sobre regionalismo espanhol, nem sobre o eurocomunismo. Também não é sobre literatura, ou gastronomia. Não é um policial, nem um ensaio e, contudo, é isso tudo e com muita qualidade. Recomendo
April 20, 2017
Murder in the Central Committee
كنت في مكتبة برشلونية أفتش عن كتاب برشلوني، وهو تقليد جميل! أن تقتني كتاباً يعبر بشكل أو بآخر عن المدينة التي تزورها – نعم الناس تعود من سفرها بتحف صغيرة وأنا أعود بكتب -، كنت أفكر حينها بكتاب روبرت هيوز عن تاريخ برشلونة، أو ربما كتاب ديفونسو فالكونيز (كاتدرائية البحر) والذي يتناول بناء كاتدرائية سانتا ماريا ديل مار، ولكني لم أجد في كل مكتبة زرتها إلا كتب كارلوس رويث زافون، وبما أن كتب زافون حظت وستحظى بترجمات عربية ممتازة فلا معنى لاقتناء النسخة الإنجليزية منها، ثم وقعت على هذه الرواية البوليسية البرشلونية لمانويل فاسكيز مونتالبن، طبعاً نكتشف بعد صفحات قليلة أن المحقق البرشلوني بيبي كارفالو سيغادر برشلونة إلى مدريد ليحقق في جريمة مقتل سكرتير الحزب الشيوعي الإسباني، فلذا الرواية ليست برشلونية تماماً ولكن هذا لا يهم لأن مونتالبن يكتب رواية بوليسية غير تقليدية كما يقدم شخصية محقق غير تقليدي فكارفالو الشيوعي السابق لم يعد مهتماً بالمثل والأفكار والنضال، لقد طلق هذا كله بل صار يستمتع بحرق الكتب أكثر من قراءتها، اهتمامات كارفالو تتلخص حالياً - إلى جانب عمله كمحقق خاص - في الطعام والنساء، هكذا يخصص مونتالبن قسم لا بأس منه من الكتاب في تعريفنا بالمطبخ المدريدي ومقارنته بالمطبخ البرشلوني، وبين هذا كله يقوم كارفالو بلقاءاته بالمشتبه بهم من أعضاء الحزب الشيوعي، كما تتم مطاردته من رجال غامضين، وإغوائه من امرأة فاتنة، هذا غير اختطافه وتهديده بالقتل مراراً، رواية طريفة جداً وممتعة.
كنت في مكتبة برشلونية أفتش عن كتاب برشلوني، وهو تقليد جميل! أن تقتني كتاباً يعبر بشكل أو بآخر عن المدينة التي تزورها – نعم الناس تعود من سفرها بتحف صغيرة وأنا أعود بكتب -، كنت أفكر حينها بكتاب روبرت هيوز عن تاريخ برشلونة، أو ربما كتاب ديفونسو فالكونيز (كاتدرائية البحر) والذي يتناول بناء كاتدرائية سانتا ماريا ديل مار، ولكني لم أجد في كل مكتبة زرتها إلا كتب كارلوس رويث زافون، وبما أن كتب زافون حظت وستحظى بترجمات عربية ممتازة فلا معنى لاقتناء النسخة الإنجليزية منها، ثم وقعت على هذه الرواية البوليسية البرشلونية لمانويل فاسكيز مونتالبن، طبعاً نكتشف بعد صفحات قليلة أن المحقق البرشلوني بيبي كارفالو سيغادر برشلونة إلى مدريد ليحقق في جريمة مقتل سكرتير الحزب الشيوعي الإسباني، فلذا الرواية ليست برشلونية تماماً ولكن هذا لا يهم لأن مونتالبن يكتب رواية بوليسية غير تقليدية كما يقدم شخصية محقق غير تقليدي فكارفالو الشيوعي السابق لم يعد مهتماً بالمثل والأفكار والنضال، لقد طلق هذا كله بل صار يستمتع بحرق الكتب أكثر من قراءتها، اهتمامات كارفالو تتلخص حالياً - إلى جانب عمله كمحقق خاص - في الطعام والنساء، هكذا يخصص مونتالبن قسم لا بأس منه من الكتاب في تعريفنا بالمطبخ المدريدي ومقارنته بالمطبخ البرشلوني، وبين هذا كله يقوم كارفالو بلقاءاته بالمشتبه بهم من أعضاء الحزب الشيوعي، كما تتم مطاردته من رجال غامضين، وإغوائه من امرأة فاتنة، هذا غير اختطافه وتهديده بالقتل مراراً، رواية طريفة جداً وممتعة.
July 4, 2019
Όταν ήρθα πρώτη φορά σε επαφή με το έργο του Μονταλμπάν ήταν με τις εξαιρετικές "Θάλασσες του Νότου", όπου μου έγιναν δύο μεγάλες αποκαλύψεις, 1: ότι η Μεσόγειος είναι μια θάλασσα που ενώνει όχι μόνο τις ακτές αλλά και τις ψυχές των ανθρώπων της, με αποτέλεσμα να νιώθω σα να διαβάζω για Έλληνες και όχι για Ισπανούς (ούνα φάτσα-ούνα ράτσα όμως), και 2: πως ναι, κάποιος μπορεί να γράψει πολιτικό νουάρ και να το κάνει σωστά, χωρίς να το παρακάνει. Σίγουρα στα επόμενα χρόνια γνώρισα και άλλους συγγραφείς που μπορούσαν να ισορροπήσουν την πολιτική αλληγορία με την αστυνομική αφήγηση (Σγεβάλ-Βαλλέ, Μανσέτ, Τάιμπο ΙΙ, Ιζζό), όμως η έκπληξη του Μονταλμπάν πάντα θα επισκιάζει τις υπόλοιπες.
Και να που, όμως, ο τύπος γράφει εδώ ένα βιβλίο που μοιάζει να έχει πραγματικάαρχίδια κότσια, μιας και η αιχμή του Μονταλμπάν είναι το ίδιο το Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα, το οποίο και υποστήριζε. Η δολοφονία του Γενικού Γραμματέα φέρνει τον ντετέκτιβ Πέπε Καρβάλιο στην Μαδρίτη προκειμένου να βρει τον δράστη για λογαριασμό του Κόμματος, όμως δεν είναι ο μόνος που ενδιαφέρεται για την ταυτότητα του. Και όσο περισσότερο χώνεται μέσα στην υπόθεση άλλο τόσο ξύνει τον πάτο του βαρελιού για να βγάλει σκουριά, για να δει τα "φαντάσματα" του Ισπανικού Εμφυλίου και της δικτατορίας του Φράνκο να πλανώνται πάνω από την καθόλου φιλική Μαδρίτη.
Παρότι προσπαθεί να μείνει όσο πιο ουδέτερος μπορεί, ο Μονταλμπάν παρουσιάζει με σκληρή ειλικρίνεια τον τρόπο με τον οποίο λειτουργεί το ΚΚΙ και τα μέλη του. Από τα κόμπλεξ και τις τάσεις διάσπασης μέχρι τους κοινούς αγώνες και την όποια συλλογική σκέψη, η εικόνα που μας δίνεται μοιάζει αρκετά σαφής και ρεαλιστική, σαρκαστική και ανθρώπινη. Βλέπουμε, πάνω απ' όλα, τις πληγές της ιστορίας πάνω στους ανθρώπους και την προσπάθειά τους να επιβιώσουν με κάθε κόστος.
Σίγουρα αυτό το βιβλίο είχε περισσότερη δράση από τα προηγούμενα που διάβασα με τον ήρωα, όμως δεν έχει και μεγάλη σημασία αυτό καθαυτό. Η αφήγηση του Μονταλμπάν είναι που σε κρατά και σε μαγεύει, παρέα με τις γεύσεις από τα φαγητά και το πραγματικό ενδιαφέρον που σου γεννά για τον ήρωά του που σαν άλλος Μάρλοου κινδυνεύει, ερωτεύεται και απογοητεύεται.
Δεν χρειάζεται να συνοψίσω, νομίζω.
Και να που, όμως, ο τύπος γράφει εδώ ένα βιβλίο που μοιάζει να έχει πραγματικά
Παρότι προσπαθεί να μείνει όσο πιο ουδέτερος μπορεί, ο Μονταλμπάν παρουσιάζει με σκληρή ειλικρίνεια τον τρόπο με τον οποίο λειτουργεί το ΚΚΙ και τα μέλη του. Από τα κόμπλεξ και τις τάσεις διάσπασης μέχρι τους κοινούς αγώνες και την όποια συλλογική σκέψη, η εικόνα που μας δίνεται μοιάζει αρκετά σαφής και ρεαλιστική, σαρκαστική και ανθρώπινη. Βλέπουμε, πάνω απ' όλα, τις πληγές της ιστορίας πάνω στους ανθρώπους και την προσπάθειά τους να επιβιώσουν με κάθε κόστος.
Σίγουρα αυτό το βιβλίο είχε περισσότερη δράση από τα προηγούμενα που διάβασα με τον ήρωα, όμως δεν έχει και μεγάλη σημασία αυτό καθαυτό. Η αφήγηση του Μονταλμπάν είναι που σε κρατά και σε μαγεύει, παρέα με τις γεύσεις από τα φαγητά και το πραγματικό ενδιαφέρον που σου γεννά για τον ήρωά του που σαν άλλος Μάρλοου κινδυνεύει, ερωτεύεται και απογοητεύεται.
Δεν χρειάζεται να συνοψίσω, νομίζω.
December 27, 2014
Questo libro è stato scritto da Montalban nel 1981, quando la Spagna era uscita da poco dalla dittatura franchista. Dalla amata Barcellona, che rappresenta l’ancoraggio della Spagna all’Europa, il detective Pepe Carvalho è costretto a trasferirsi a Madrid, la capitale che ancora porta i segni del franchismo. L’incarico è quello, conferitogli dal partito comunista spagnolo, di portare avanti un’indagine parallela a quella della polizia –che è guidata da Fonseca, un poliziotto che all’epoca di Franco guidava la feroce repressione degli oppositori al regime- per scoprire il colpevole dell’assassinio, avvenuto all’interno della stanza in cui era riunito il Comitato Centrale del partito, in pochi minuti in cui la luce è andata via, del Segretario Generale Fernando Garrido. La trama gialla è secondaria rispetto agli elementi tipici dell’hard boiled (violenza, sesso, inseguimenti, sparatorie), ma la finalità primaria dello scrittore è quella di celebrare, attraverso l’episodio del pugnalamento di Garrido, la “morte” del vecchio partito comunista spagnolo, il cui Comitato Centrale raccoglie protagonisti della lotta eroica dell'antifascismo, personaggi torturati, carcerati, condannati alla prigione sotto il regime franchista: un partito nato come espressione della lotta di classe, poi immerso nella guerra al fascismo in clandestinità, e finalmente emerso alla vita politica regolare con l’avvento della democrazia, che si porta dietro, senza riuscire a superarla, la “mania di persecuzione” e una “cultura di catacomba”.
E’ il primo Montalban che leggo e non mi ha pienamente soddisfatto: la sua scrittura è frizzante e scoppiettante, fin troppo per i miei gusti, tant’è che in diverse occasioni sono stata colta impreparata dai bruschi cambiamenti di situazioni e di discorsi, che mi hanno costretto a rileggere alcune pagine; il finale non mi è piaciuto del tutto, in particolare perché Montalban ha scelto un finale che non privilegia lo sviluppo della trama gialla, bensì riflessioni sociopolitiche, alle quali sembra molto più interessato. Pepe Carvalho però mi piace, un investigatore gourmet dedito ai piaceri della vita (non solo la cucina), in aperta lotta con la cultura letteraria, che “separa dalla vita” fornendo emozioni artificiali, lotta che combatte bruciando i libri, gravati da tale responsabilità. Un intellettuale “sui generis”.
E’ il primo Montalban che leggo e non mi ha pienamente soddisfatto: la sua scrittura è frizzante e scoppiettante, fin troppo per i miei gusti, tant’è che in diverse occasioni sono stata colta impreparata dai bruschi cambiamenti di situazioni e di discorsi, che mi hanno costretto a rileggere alcune pagine; il finale non mi è piaciuto del tutto, in particolare perché Montalban ha scelto un finale che non privilegia lo sviluppo della trama gialla, bensì riflessioni sociopolitiche, alle quali sembra molto più interessato. Pepe Carvalho però mi piace, un investigatore gourmet dedito ai piaceri della vita (non solo la cucina), in aperta lotta con la cultura letteraria, che “separa dalla vita” fornendo emozioni artificiali, lotta che combatte bruciando i libri, gravati da tale responsabilità. Un intellettuale “sui generis”.
April 8, 2017
A few years after the death of Franco and the return to Spain of a form of democracy, the venerable Secretary General of the Communist Party, a hero of the Civil War, is murdered in circumstances that would seem to have made murder impossible. (It's not actually a locked-room mystery, although the characters and many readers describe it as such.) Barcelona PI Pepe Carvalho, himself an ex-communist who was imprisoned by Franco, is called to Madrid to investigate, the Party committee members having little confidence in the cop who's been put in charge of the case, a brutal enforcer during the Franco years.
I spotted the gimmick of the murder early on, and was startled that Carvalho and everyone else chose willfully to ignore it almost for the duration. Aside from that, though, I spent large tracts of the novel feeling as if I were lost and flailing, uncertain of what was going on and why it was going on. There were extensive digressions on communist theory and communism's Spanish history, and these I quite enjoyed, as I did those on literature and food. There were some extraordinarily bizarre pieces of imagery, far from all of which seemed to me to work:
I've no idea if my sense of continuing confusion and ungroundedness came from a cultural gulf of which I'm unaware between the conventions of Spanish fiction and those of Anglophone fiction -- although I've read other translated Spanish novels without problem -- or if it's something particular to this novel (or this author). Whatever the case, I came to the end of Murder in the Central Committee with the feeling that one of Pepe Carvalho's gourmand meals had been laid out appetizingly in front of me, then whipped away just as my fork was poised.
I spotted the gimmick of the murder early on, and was startled that Carvalho and everyone else chose willfully to ignore it almost for the duration. Aside from that, though, I spent large tracts of the novel feeling as if I were lost and flailing, uncertain of what was going on and why it was going on. There were extensive digressions on communist theory and communism's Spanish history, and these I quite enjoyed, as I did those on literature and food. There were some extraordinarily bizarre pieces of imagery, far from all of which seemed to me to work:
"Santos spoke with passion; even, one might have said, with a moist warmth in those eyes which harboured the immortal remains of his friend and comrade Fernando Garrido."
"The car stopped and they kissed, Carvalho’s tongue on the edge of the abyss, hers lightly perched on the railings."
"As Gladys jumped out of bed, all her orbs visually jingled like bells."
"The joke came from a brunette wearing seamed stockings and a mole beside her mouth."
I've no idea if my sense of continuing confusion and ungroundedness came from a cultural gulf of which I'm unaware between the conventions of Spanish fiction and those of Anglophone fiction -- although I've read other translated Spanish novels without problem -- or if it's something particular to this novel (or this author). Whatever the case, I came to the end of Murder in the Central Committee with the feeling that one of Pepe Carvalho's gourmand meals had been laid out appetizingly in front of me, then whipped away just as my fork was poised.
July 21, 2013
Tras leer "Los mares del sur" y boztezar cada tres minutos por los mezquinos y banales problemitas de la clase privilegiada, el "Asesinato" me da en la mandíbula un fuerte golpe de puño lleno de líos políticos, amargos recuerdos y las llamas de luchas clandestinas recientes, que siguen no extinguidos definitivamente.
Una gran parte de la novela es un viaje por el pasado de Carvalho, y gracias a esto, el autor acierta a profundizar muchos de los personajes. De hecho, la madurez y el tamaño de los carácteres es uno de los encantos principales del trabajo que sobresalen el misterio mismo del crimen.
Me han decepcionado: (1) el desarollo lento del argumento que parece la marca del autor (por lo menos es gradual sin zancadas); (2) la obsesión con la comida: entiendo que es un rasgo muy profundo del la personalidad de Pepe, pero el leer sobre callos y vinos entre cada disparo de pistola y cada choque de cojones es cada vez más penoso. Carvalho compara su predilección por llenar la barriga con las adicciones de Holmes: entonces, Holmes no pasa todos los cuentos barajando jeringas de cocaína con puñados de tabaco, están presentes, son mencionadas, claro, pero no ocupan 40% de los textos. Espero que otras entregas de la serie sean más moderadas en este aspecto.
Una gran parte de la novela es un viaje por el pasado de Carvalho, y gracias a esto, el autor acierta a profundizar muchos de los personajes. De hecho, la madurez y el tamaño de los carácteres es uno de los encantos principales del trabajo que sobresalen el misterio mismo del crimen.
Me han decepcionado: (1) el desarollo lento del argumento que parece la marca del autor (por lo menos es gradual sin zancadas); (2) la obsesión con la comida: entiendo que es un rasgo muy profundo del la personalidad de Pepe, pero el leer sobre callos y vinos entre cada disparo de pistola y cada choque de cojones es cada vez más penoso. Carvalho compara su predilección por llenar la barriga con las adicciones de Holmes: entonces, Holmes no pasa todos los cuentos barajando jeringas de cocaína con puñados de tabaco, están presentes, son mencionadas, claro, pero no ocupan 40% de los textos. Espero que otras entregas de la serie sean más moderadas en este aspecto.
September 21, 2020
Un assassinat durant la celebració d'una reunió del Comitè Central del PCE és l'excusa de Vázquez Montalbán per endinsar-se en la realitat política dels anys de la Transició, amb un Carvalvho que deixa per uns pocs dies la seva estimada Barcelona per traslladar-se a Madrid. Una novel·la on la pròpia investigació del cas comparteix protagonisme amb la descripció de les relacions polítiques, personals i clientelars en el sí d'un ficcionat Partit Comunista d'Espanya. I com sempre, amb una petita dosi de paràgrafs gastronòmics. Distret i interessant, però per sota de l'entrega que em va agradar més, Los mares del sur.
April 30, 2024
Il segretario generale del Partito Comunista Spagnolo viene assassinato durante una riunione del Comitato Centrale. Chi può essere stato? Qualche compagno di partito o qualcuno con interesse a destabilizzare la neonata democrazia spagnola di fine anni ‘70?
Un bel romanzo poliziesco, che mischia al crimine nozioni e fatti in un’ambientazione che fa rivivere con fedeltà la Spagna dell’epoca.
Un bel romanzo poliziesco, che mischia al crimine nozioni e fatti in un’ambientazione che fa rivivere con fedeltà la Spagna dell’epoca.
May 5, 2017
Siguiendo con mi periplo de re-lectura de Manuel Vázquez Montalbán con las preciosas ediciones en color amarillo, vuelvo a quedarme una vez más enganchada al estilo punzante y poético de MVM y, sobre todo, a su crónica social tan certera y aguda.
Corre 1980, Madrid, y en una reunión del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de España en la sala de un hotel y después de un breve apagón de luz, aparecerá asesinado su secretario general, Fernando Garrido. (¿Recuerda la fonética al nombre de un secretario general del PCE?).
Es necesario repetir que el cambio que se produce en la narrativa del autor y en la organización de las tramas de las novelas de Carvalho, a partir de la tercera entrega con Los mares del sur —Premio Planeta 1979 y premio Le Grand Prix de littérature policière en 1981—, es francamente evidente y presenta una gran mejora. MVM se convierte ... http://www.abrirunlibro.com/2017/05/a...
Corre 1980, Madrid, y en una reunión del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de España en la sala de un hotel y después de un breve apagón de luz, aparecerá asesinado su secretario general, Fernando Garrido. (¿Recuerda la fonética al nombre de un secretario general del PCE?).
Es necesario repetir que el cambio que se produce en la narrativa del autor y en la organización de las tramas de las novelas de Carvalho, a partir de la tercera entrega con Los mares del sur —Premio Planeta 1979 y premio Le Grand Prix de littérature policière en 1981—, es francamente evidente y presenta una gran mejora. MVM se convierte ... http://www.abrirunlibro.com/2017/05/a...
January 29, 2016
Quite a different story; a mystery set in Spain, with communist party dialectics, murder, food.. I wasn't sure about the translation at times, but I think it's just the style of writing of the author and the translating from Spain to English, quite different languages. There was humour, an interesting mystery; noir style; complications from various factions, but ultimately a satisfying ending. I'm not sure if it's quite worth a 4, but more than a 3. I will read more to find out more about Pepe Carvallho, ex Spanish Communist and US CIA operative.
November 1, 2022
Muy entretenida la caracterización que hace este buen hombre del pce y de la transición, yo personalmente lo he leído por eso, que el deje policiaco me daba un poco igual y me he perdido un poco. Críticas muy veladas e irónicas por lo que lo hace aún más entretenido que el mero supuesto de que matasen al colega santiago carrillo (fernando garrido!). reflexiones buenas. descripciones de mujeres que daban verdadera angustia, así que el Personaje como tal me ha caído bastante mal, un poco fantasmón. Hacía tiempo había visto una entrevista al escritor y me pareció muy inteligente, cosa confirmada con el libro, aunque sea el tipo de Inteligente Desencantao que me cansa un poco. en fin libro chulo.
March 19, 2019
review of
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Murder in the Central Committee
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 16-18, 2019
According to the brief author's bio on the 1st page of this bk, Montalbán was "A leading member of the Catalan Communist Party". His fictional hero, however, the detective Pepe Carvalho, is an ex-communist who doesn't necessarily look kindly on the Communist Party. This creates an interesting tension when he's hired to find out who murdered their General Secretary at a closed-door meeting where only communists were in attendance.
I've praised the political acuity of everything that I've read by Montalbán so far but I remember particularly loving the 1st thing I read by him, The Buenos Aires Quintet (read my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ), & this one has probably joined that one in my high esteem.
Montalbán depicts the comrades of the central committee as having endured extreme hardships during the time of Franco-ruled Spain. At the same time, he shows how things changed once Franco was gone.
"'In my time people gave their life to be on the central committee. Now they haggle over every weekend.'
"Santos smiled at Julian Mir, the chief steward.
"'I wouldn't go back to those times.'
"'No, Santos, nor would I. But I get sore when I see how inconsiderate certain comrades can be. Some travel seven hundred kilometres by train to come to the meeting, while others stay put in Argüelles, half an hour away by taxi.'" - p 1
"Garrido made a special stop to receive the crushing embrace of Harguindey, twenty-one years and a day served in prison with the superhuman obstinacy of the time. Garrido survived Harguindey's slap on the shoulder. He told a joke to Helena Subirats that produced a roar of laughter more like an ovation.
"We still can't believe that we are able to meet, Santos thought; that Fernando is here, that a van-load of policemen are protecting the side-entrance to the hotel." - p 4
For those of you not familiar w/ the history, General Franco was the military leader in charge of suppressing the democratically-elected Spanish Republic in the time known at the Spanish Civil War. Franco ruled from 1939 until his death in 1975. Communists & anarchists wd've lived in hiding during those times. Many were killed or put in prison. Murder in the Central Committee was copyrighted in 1981, a mere 6 yrs after Franco's death. It was published in 1984. I went to Barcelona in 1978 but left the next day upon seeing the nervous teenagers w/ machine guns guarding places. I went to Madrid in 1984 where I found a generally convivial atmosphere, still celebrating Franco's demise 9 yrs later.
In the story, the general secretary of the central committee is assassinated in the dark.
"'What do you make of the appointment of Superintendent Fonseca to head the official investigation?'
"'It's a bad joke. Fonseca is still remembered by communists as one of Franco's choice hangmen.'" - p 10
"Thousands of madileños had already passed in front of Fernando Garrdio's mortal remains, while the impressive police presence had been backed up by a deployment of troops in the outer suburbs.
"'Excuse me, an opinion-poll for Radio Nacional. What do you put the murder down to?'
"'To international fascism — what else?'
"'But how do you explain that he was killed in a closed place, where the only people present were communists, members of the central committee?'
"'In the only way a good communist can explain it. It was international fascism.'" - p 11
Indeed. As the communists approach Carvalho to take the job of finding Garrida's murderer, they express concern about having interrupted his breakfast.
"He had never heard him say anything so cheap. Carvalho remembered him twenty-two years earlier, standing before the military court on a charge of rebellion. Then Salvatella had declared that he recongized only the courts of the Republic, not the one trying him. Evidently disturbed by his lack of respect, the military judges increased the sentence demanded by the prosecutor." - p 14
Throughout, the communists are shown as being full of integrity & courage. Nonetheless, Carvalho is shown as somewhat antagonistic to them, possibly throwing the reader off to think that Carvalho's attitude is more of a deserved criticism than it turns out to be.
"'What do you want me to do? To find the murderer or to help you cover up the murder?'
"'Maybe we were given the wrong information. But they told us you uncovered murders, not covered them up.'
"'This case is beyond my powers. I'm used to starring in black-and-white films, and now you're offering me a 70mm super-production with governments and police departments at the centre.[']" - p 16
Montalban dissed Borges in The Buenos Aires Quintet & I can understand that Borges was too privileged & too detached to notice that the government that supported him was killing, torturing, & disappearing dissident intellectuals & others. But in Murder in the Central Committee he writes: "counter-cultural bookshops where the nazi Hermann Hesse lies next to a manual of some yogi from Freguenal de la Sierra." (p 22) I read Hesse when I was a teenager & I don't have any great attachment to him but Montalban's accusation seemed extreme to me so I checked to see if there was any verification online & got this as response to "Hermann Hesse & Nazism":
"Hesse observed the rise to power of Nazism in Germany with concern. In 1933, Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann made their travels into exile, each aided by Hesse. In this way, Hesse attempted to work against Hitler's suppression of art and literature that protested Nazi ideology. Hesse's third wife was Jewish, and he had publicly expressed his opposition to anti-Semitism long before then. Hesse was criticized for not condemning the Nazi party, but his failure to criticize or support any political idea stemmed from his "politics of detachment [...] At no time did he openly condemn (the Nazis), although his detestation of their politics is beyond question." From the end of the 1930s, German journals stopped publishing Hesse's work, and the Nazis eventually banned it." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann...
I don't think I can accept Montalban's harsh judgement here. Carvalho burns bks in his fireplace. Montalban always dedicates a little time to the bks chosen for burning.
"He took down Engels's The Housing Question, and one look at 'Part Three: Supplementary Remarks on Proudhon and the Housing Question' convinced him that it deserved the fire. He tore the book in three, fanned the pages out so that they would catch fire more easily, and began to contrusct a building of twigs and branches on the ruins of one of Engels's most inadequate works." - p 23
At least he's implied to've read it. He gets a threatening phone call.
"'For your own good, we advise you not to act foolishly.'
"'You mean the book-burning? Who are you: Bernatán or Garcia? Or maybe Engels?'
"'Don't play the clown. Leave the dead in peace, particularly the ones you know. He got what was coming to him. You won't be warned again.'" - p 24
Imagine a detective novel where the detective says: "Ok, I don't want to be harmed. Never mind, I'll drop the investigation." Of course that's not going to happen.
The murder has huge political implications that various sides are raptly rushing in to take advantage of.
"'You should look at the Madrid press, which is directly linked to political and economic pressure-groups. They already take it as proven that the communists are to blame. "Communist Patricide"— that's the exact title in Ya, as you'd expect from the paper of the Church and the right-wing Chrsitian-Democrats. ABC, holding a candle for banking capital and the royal household says "Settling of Accounts in the Central Committee". And what about political trend-setters around the palace? Well, Cambio 16 headlines with "The Struggle for Power". El Pais has a well-known ex-communist on its editorial staff and did a rational account of the events. But it could not refrain from morbid insinuations between the lines: "Growing Opposition to Garrido in the Party".'" - p 27
If you're interested in seeing the front page of an anarcho-syndicalist paper called "CNT that resurfaced after Franco's death scroll down the page here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Magazin... .
Some people might not care much about how the media would handle such a case but I think it's central to how mind-control works in contemporary society. You cd get the shit beaten out of you by a cop & find yourself in the newspaper & on TV as a "rioter". That wd be news to you but it wd also be just the right touch to criminalize you from here to eternity.
Leveder is a smart-ass communist who gives older communists a hard time. He offers to spontaneoulsy translate serious writing into contemporary slang. Here, he's harrassing Cerdán who spent time in prison w/ Carvalho.
"'Something by Lenin?' Credán searched his memory so hard that it seemed to creak. 'Well, one of the April theses: an open break with the provisional government, pointing towards the transfer of all government power to the soviets.'
"Cerdán returned to his bibliography as Carmela laughed uncontrollably at Julio's simultaneous translation.
"'Bourgeois democracy sucks. We gotte get it together at the grass-roots. Street credibility . . .'
"Cerdán was consulted.
"'What the hell's that?'
"'It's the language of my tribe: the jive-Leninists.'" - pp 67-68
Well, waddya know. Carvalho follows his dick & ends up at the shitty end of a blackmail scheme.
"He woke with the feeling he was being watched. By the light of the small opaque lamp, he rediscovered the space of the room and the two or three objects he had had time to register: the shiny clothes-hanger, the cracked porcelain wash-basin. He shot out his right arm in search of Gladys's body and found a strident, glass-shattering scream which pierced his chest like an ultrasonic alarm. He turned his head. Seated on a mattress, desperatly attempting to cover the flesh sticking through the slits of her blouse, a terrified teenager with sunken eyes continued to scream while looking at Carvalho as at some vermin. He sat up and tried to cover her mouth. But he stopped when the door sprang open and two huge, breathless men flooded into the room as if they were a hundred. One of them began to spit out flash-lights at such a rate that Carvalho was forced to close his eyes. The scream had changed into hysterical weeping..
"'He tried to rape me! he hit me!'" - p 102
Now imagine a different scenario. Carvalho realizes that a teenager has been put into bed with him after he was drugged. He gags her immdediately & then goes to the side of the door with a heavy object. As soon as the blackmailers storm in he beats them on the head until they're not moving. No need to be careful about not killing them. Too bad it didn't go that way. Eventually, Carvalho is interrogated by a professional who wants to know who the detective discovers the murderer to be. This professional laments the changes happening in his business.
"[']Now the market is full of bungling amateurs. For example, Gadafy is doing the unspeakable, subcontracting agents from other secret services. That's right. So you can find yourself working in the same case as agents of either side. It's not serious.'" - p 115
Remember Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya? This bk was copyrighted in 1981 so Gaddafi was still pretty powerful & had another 2 decades to go before being killed. As I recall, the comic "World War 3" claimed that he outlawed absentee landlordism. If you lived there, you owned it. That wd be enough to get the US riled up about killing him. What I don't get is how he managed to combine Islamic law w/ socialism.
"Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
"Born near Sirte, Italian Libya to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary cell which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. Having taken power, Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he ejected both the Italian population and Western military bases from Libya while strengthening ties to Arab nationalist governments—particularly Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt—and unsuccessfully advocating Pan-Arab political union. An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted "Islamic socialism". He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, and implement social programs emphasizing house-building, healthcare and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions. He outlined his Third International Theory that year, publishing these ideas in The Green Book.
"Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a Jamahiriya ("state of the masses") in 1977. He officially adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent. During the 1970s and 1980s, Libya's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad, support for foreign militants, and alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland left it increasingly isolated on the world stage. A particularly hostile relationship developed with the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel, resulting in the 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya and United Nations-imposed economic sanctions. From 1999, Gaddafi shunned Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatization, rapprochement with Western nations, and Pan-Africanism; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya. The situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council (NTC). The government was overthrown, and Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, only to be captured and killed by NTC militants." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar...
All of the communists of the central committee are suspects in Garrido's murder. Leveder, the smart-ass, among them.
"Leveder was really and truly indignant.
"'From everything I've said, you will conclude that I did not kill Garrido. At bottom, I had a great affection for the old man, even though I was losing my historical respect for him. Given his age and position, he should have set off a real reform of the Party. He should have carried destalinisation to [its] ultimate conclusion, arriving at an identification of rank and file and leadership without which any project for a mass party is no more than a swindle. He should have used his authority from the days of underground activity to launch an internal cultural revolution. I repeat, cultural, because every Communist party has an internal culture, an awareness of its identity conditioned by its evolution as an organic intellectual.[']" - p 130
As for this desalinisation program?! I don't know. How wd they pickle Stalin w/o salt? The whole Russian black market might collapse.
"He had not been inside a bookshop since the day in Amsterdam when he had to watch someone involved in the tattoo case." - p 135
That reference, of course, was just made so that I cd encourage you to read my review of Montalban's Tattoo: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... even though Montalban never hd any idea of who I am & I didn't read that particular bk until last yr. But what about Garrido's murder for fuck's sake?
"[']If the Franco regime couldn't do it, then the mafia certainly can't.'
"'Was Garrido killed by the mafia?'
"'No, I'm talking about the Trilateral Commission. Who else, eh? Garrido and eurocommunism weren't up their street. The image of a civilised communism, the kind there has to be, was disarming a lot of anti-communists. And that drove them wild in the Trilateral.'
"'The Trilateral can kill someone without taking his life. It can start off a crushing campaign of character assassination.'
"'It was them. No doubt about it. They want to smash an image, to rule the eurocommunist programme out of court.[']" - p 161
Don't hear much about the Trilateral Commission anymore. The bk entitled Trilateralism — The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management, edited by Holly Sklar was copyrighted in 1980. Maybe Montalbán knew about it. The back cover blurb says:
"What do Jimmy Carter, John Anderson, George Bush, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Heny Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, Walter Mondale, and Andrew Young have in common with David Rockefeller?
"Answer: THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION.
Unfortunately, for me, Jimmy Carter was the closest thing to a good president that the US has had in my lifetime. I sh pobably read the bk.
The communists had a helluva time under Franco.
"He opened it and looked for the file. 'Son of Emerenciano and Leonor. Father: a miner and member of the Communist Party of Spain since 1932. Mother: a back-up activist in the coalfield until her arrest in October 1934. Amnestied by the Popular Front in February 1936. Married at the Ebro front in February 1938. Exiled 1939. Birth of Félix Esparza Julve in Toulon, January 1940. Father active in the French Resistance. Mother deported with her child to the Massif Central. Domestic service for a high-ranking German officer saved her from a concentration camp. At the end of the war, the father entered Spain with the maquis. Arrested on the outskirts of Villafranca del Bierzo in 1947. Died of TB in El Dueso prison in 1951.[']" - p 168
This bk is a tragedy no matter how you unpack it. Let it be an educational one.
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Murder in the Central Committee
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 16-18, 2019
According to the brief author's bio on the 1st page of this bk, Montalbán was "A leading member of the Catalan Communist Party". His fictional hero, however, the detective Pepe Carvalho, is an ex-communist who doesn't necessarily look kindly on the Communist Party. This creates an interesting tension when he's hired to find out who murdered their General Secretary at a closed-door meeting where only communists were in attendance.
I've praised the political acuity of everything that I've read by Montalbán so far but I remember particularly loving the 1st thing I read by him, The Buenos Aires Quintet (read my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ), & this one has probably joined that one in my high esteem.
Montalbán depicts the comrades of the central committee as having endured extreme hardships during the time of Franco-ruled Spain. At the same time, he shows how things changed once Franco was gone.
"'In my time people gave their life to be on the central committee. Now they haggle over every weekend.'
"Santos smiled at Julian Mir, the chief steward.
"'I wouldn't go back to those times.'
"'No, Santos, nor would I. But I get sore when I see how inconsiderate certain comrades can be. Some travel seven hundred kilometres by train to come to the meeting, while others stay put in Argüelles, half an hour away by taxi.'" - p 1
"Garrido made a special stop to receive the crushing embrace of Harguindey, twenty-one years and a day served in prison with the superhuman obstinacy of the time. Garrido survived Harguindey's slap on the shoulder. He told a joke to Helena Subirats that produced a roar of laughter more like an ovation.
"We still can't believe that we are able to meet, Santos thought; that Fernando is here, that a van-load of policemen are protecting the side-entrance to the hotel." - p 4
For those of you not familiar w/ the history, General Franco was the military leader in charge of suppressing the democratically-elected Spanish Republic in the time known at the Spanish Civil War. Franco ruled from 1939 until his death in 1975. Communists & anarchists wd've lived in hiding during those times. Many were killed or put in prison. Murder in the Central Committee was copyrighted in 1981, a mere 6 yrs after Franco's death. It was published in 1984. I went to Barcelona in 1978 but left the next day upon seeing the nervous teenagers w/ machine guns guarding places. I went to Madrid in 1984 where I found a generally convivial atmosphere, still celebrating Franco's demise 9 yrs later.
In the story, the general secretary of the central committee is assassinated in the dark.
"'What do you make of the appointment of Superintendent Fonseca to head the official investigation?'
"'It's a bad joke. Fonseca is still remembered by communists as one of Franco's choice hangmen.'" - p 10
"Thousands of madileños had already passed in front of Fernando Garrdio's mortal remains, while the impressive police presence had been backed up by a deployment of troops in the outer suburbs.
"'Excuse me, an opinion-poll for Radio Nacional. What do you put the murder down to?'
"'To international fascism — what else?'
"'But how do you explain that he was killed in a closed place, where the only people present were communists, members of the central committee?'
"'In the only way a good communist can explain it. It was international fascism.'" - p 11
Indeed. As the communists approach Carvalho to take the job of finding Garrida's murderer, they express concern about having interrupted his breakfast.
"He had never heard him say anything so cheap. Carvalho remembered him twenty-two years earlier, standing before the military court on a charge of rebellion. Then Salvatella had declared that he recongized only the courts of the Republic, not the one trying him. Evidently disturbed by his lack of respect, the military judges increased the sentence demanded by the prosecutor." - p 14
Throughout, the communists are shown as being full of integrity & courage. Nonetheless, Carvalho is shown as somewhat antagonistic to them, possibly throwing the reader off to think that Carvalho's attitude is more of a deserved criticism than it turns out to be.
"'What do you want me to do? To find the murderer or to help you cover up the murder?'
"'Maybe we were given the wrong information. But they told us you uncovered murders, not covered them up.'
"'This case is beyond my powers. I'm used to starring in black-and-white films, and now you're offering me a 70mm super-production with governments and police departments at the centre.[']" - p 16
Montalban dissed Borges in The Buenos Aires Quintet & I can understand that Borges was too privileged & too detached to notice that the government that supported him was killing, torturing, & disappearing dissident intellectuals & others. But in Murder in the Central Committee he writes: "counter-cultural bookshops where the nazi Hermann Hesse lies next to a manual of some yogi from Freguenal de la Sierra." (p 22) I read Hesse when I was a teenager & I don't have any great attachment to him but Montalban's accusation seemed extreme to me so I checked to see if there was any verification online & got this as response to "Hermann Hesse & Nazism":
"Hesse observed the rise to power of Nazism in Germany with concern. In 1933, Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann made their travels into exile, each aided by Hesse. In this way, Hesse attempted to work against Hitler's suppression of art and literature that protested Nazi ideology. Hesse's third wife was Jewish, and he had publicly expressed his opposition to anti-Semitism long before then. Hesse was criticized for not condemning the Nazi party, but his failure to criticize or support any political idea stemmed from his "politics of detachment [...] At no time did he openly condemn (the Nazis), although his detestation of their politics is beyond question." From the end of the 1930s, German journals stopped publishing Hesse's work, and the Nazis eventually banned it." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann...
I don't think I can accept Montalban's harsh judgement here. Carvalho burns bks in his fireplace. Montalban always dedicates a little time to the bks chosen for burning.
"He took down Engels's The Housing Question, and one look at 'Part Three: Supplementary Remarks on Proudhon and the Housing Question' convinced him that it deserved the fire. He tore the book in three, fanned the pages out so that they would catch fire more easily, and began to contrusct a building of twigs and branches on the ruins of one of Engels's most inadequate works." - p 23
At least he's implied to've read it. He gets a threatening phone call.
"'For your own good, we advise you not to act foolishly.'
"'You mean the book-burning? Who are you: Bernatán or Garcia? Or maybe Engels?'
"'Don't play the clown. Leave the dead in peace, particularly the ones you know. He got what was coming to him. You won't be warned again.'" - p 24
Imagine a detective novel where the detective says: "Ok, I don't want to be harmed. Never mind, I'll drop the investigation." Of course that's not going to happen.
The murder has huge political implications that various sides are raptly rushing in to take advantage of.
"'You should look at the Madrid press, which is directly linked to political and economic pressure-groups. They already take it as proven that the communists are to blame. "Communist Patricide"— that's the exact title in Ya, as you'd expect from the paper of the Church and the right-wing Chrsitian-Democrats. ABC, holding a candle for banking capital and the royal household says "Settling of Accounts in the Central Committee". And what about political trend-setters around the palace? Well, Cambio 16 headlines with "The Struggle for Power". El Pais has a well-known ex-communist on its editorial staff and did a rational account of the events. But it could not refrain from morbid insinuations between the lines: "Growing Opposition to Garrido in the Party".'" - p 27
If you're interested in seeing the front page of an anarcho-syndicalist paper called "CNT that resurfaced after Franco's death scroll down the page here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Magazin... .
Some people might not care much about how the media would handle such a case but I think it's central to how mind-control works in contemporary society. You cd get the shit beaten out of you by a cop & find yourself in the newspaper & on TV as a "rioter". That wd be news to you but it wd also be just the right touch to criminalize you from here to eternity.
Leveder is a smart-ass communist who gives older communists a hard time. He offers to spontaneoulsy translate serious writing into contemporary slang. Here, he's harrassing Cerdán who spent time in prison w/ Carvalho.
"'Something by Lenin?' Credán searched his memory so hard that it seemed to creak. 'Well, one of the April theses: an open break with the provisional government, pointing towards the transfer of all government power to the soviets.'
"Cerdán returned to his bibliography as Carmela laughed uncontrollably at Julio's simultaneous translation.
"'Bourgeois democracy sucks. We gotte get it together at the grass-roots. Street credibility . . .'
"Cerdán was consulted.
"'What the hell's that?'
"'It's the language of my tribe: the jive-Leninists.'" - pp 67-68
Well, waddya know. Carvalho follows his dick & ends up at the shitty end of a blackmail scheme.
"He woke with the feeling he was being watched. By the light of the small opaque lamp, he rediscovered the space of the room and the two or three objects he had had time to register: the shiny clothes-hanger, the cracked porcelain wash-basin. He shot out his right arm in search of Gladys's body and found a strident, glass-shattering scream which pierced his chest like an ultrasonic alarm. He turned his head. Seated on a mattress, desperatly attempting to cover the flesh sticking through the slits of her blouse, a terrified teenager with sunken eyes continued to scream while looking at Carvalho as at some vermin. He sat up and tried to cover her mouth. But he stopped when the door sprang open and two huge, breathless men flooded into the room as if they were a hundred. One of them began to spit out flash-lights at such a rate that Carvalho was forced to close his eyes. The scream had changed into hysterical weeping..
"'He tried to rape me! he hit me!'" - p 102
Now imagine a different scenario. Carvalho realizes that a teenager has been put into bed with him after he was drugged. He gags her immdediately & then goes to the side of the door with a heavy object. As soon as the blackmailers storm in he beats them on the head until they're not moving. No need to be careful about not killing them. Too bad it didn't go that way. Eventually, Carvalho is interrogated by a professional who wants to know who the detective discovers the murderer to be. This professional laments the changes happening in his business.
"[']Now the market is full of bungling amateurs. For example, Gadafy is doing the unspeakable, subcontracting agents from other secret services. That's right. So you can find yourself working in the same case as agents of either side. It's not serious.'" - p 115
Remember Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya? This bk was copyrighted in 1981 so Gaddafi was still pretty powerful & had another 2 decades to go before being killed. As I recall, the comic "World War 3" claimed that he outlawed absentee landlordism. If you lived there, you owned it. That wd be enough to get the US riled up about killing him. What I don't get is how he managed to combine Islamic law w/ socialism.
"Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
"Born near Sirte, Italian Libya to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary cell which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. Having taken power, Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he ejected both the Italian population and Western military bases from Libya while strengthening ties to Arab nationalist governments—particularly Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt—and unsuccessfully advocating Pan-Arab political union. An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted "Islamic socialism". He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, and implement social programs emphasizing house-building, healthcare and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions. He outlined his Third International Theory that year, publishing these ideas in The Green Book.
"Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a Jamahiriya ("state of the masses") in 1977. He officially adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent. During the 1970s and 1980s, Libya's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad, support for foreign militants, and alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland left it increasingly isolated on the world stage. A particularly hostile relationship developed with the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel, resulting in the 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya and United Nations-imposed economic sanctions. From 1999, Gaddafi shunned Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatization, rapprochement with Western nations, and Pan-Africanism; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya. The situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council (NTC). The government was overthrown, and Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, only to be captured and killed by NTC militants." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar...
All of the communists of the central committee are suspects in Garrido's murder. Leveder, the smart-ass, among them.
"Leveder was really and truly indignant.
"'From everything I've said, you will conclude that I did not kill Garrido. At bottom, I had a great affection for the old man, even though I was losing my historical respect for him. Given his age and position, he should have set off a real reform of the Party. He should have carried destalinisation to [its] ultimate conclusion, arriving at an identification of rank and file and leadership without which any project for a mass party is no more than a swindle. He should have used his authority from the days of underground activity to launch an internal cultural revolution. I repeat, cultural, because every Communist party has an internal culture, an awareness of its identity conditioned by its evolution as an organic intellectual.[']" - p 130
As for this desalinisation program?! I don't know. How wd they pickle Stalin w/o salt? The whole Russian black market might collapse.
"He had not been inside a bookshop since the day in Amsterdam when he had to watch someone involved in the tattoo case." - p 135
That reference, of course, was just made so that I cd encourage you to read my review of Montalban's Tattoo: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... even though Montalban never hd any idea of who I am & I didn't read that particular bk until last yr. But what about Garrido's murder for fuck's sake?
"[']If the Franco regime couldn't do it, then the mafia certainly can't.'
"'Was Garrido killed by the mafia?'
"'No, I'm talking about the Trilateral Commission. Who else, eh? Garrido and eurocommunism weren't up their street. The image of a civilised communism, the kind there has to be, was disarming a lot of anti-communists. And that drove them wild in the Trilateral.'
"'The Trilateral can kill someone without taking his life. It can start off a crushing campaign of character assassination.'
"'It was them. No doubt about it. They want to smash an image, to rule the eurocommunist programme out of court.[']" - p 161
Don't hear much about the Trilateral Commission anymore. The bk entitled Trilateralism — The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management, edited by Holly Sklar was copyrighted in 1980. Maybe Montalbán knew about it. The back cover blurb says:
"What do Jimmy Carter, John Anderson, George Bush, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Heny Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, Walter Mondale, and Andrew Young have in common with David Rockefeller?
"Answer: THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION.
Unfortunately, for me, Jimmy Carter was the closest thing to a good president that the US has had in my lifetime. I sh pobably read the bk.
The communists had a helluva time under Franco.
"He opened it and looked for the file. 'Son of Emerenciano and Leonor. Father: a miner and member of the Communist Party of Spain since 1932. Mother: a back-up activist in the coalfield until her arrest in October 1934. Amnestied by the Popular Front in February 1936. Married at the Ebro front in February 1938. Exiled 1939. Birth of Félix Esparza Julve in Toulon, January 1940. Father active in the French Resistance. Mother deported with her child to the Massif Central. Domestic service for a high-ranking German officer saved her from a concentration camp. At the end of the war, the father entered Spain with the maquis. Arrested on the outskirts of Villafranca del Bierzo in 1947. Died of TB in El Dueso prison in 1951.[']" - p 168
This bk is a tragedy no matter how you unpack it. Let it be an educational one.
May 26, 2015
No me sonaba ni el nombre de este autor antes de ver sus libros en la estantería de la libreria de turno. Su curriculum te deja bastante impresionado: tropecientos premios (un Raymond Chandler nada menos), libros de varios géneros y reconocimiento internacional.
Pues es una pena que este libro me haya dejado un poco fría. Curiosamente, había partes que me tenían enganchada y en la iba devorando una línea tras otra. Pero también había otras que me resultaba difícil de seguir y por ende tediosas.
Tengo el problema añadido de que Carvalho, el detective protagonista me ha dado igual.
Lo más interesante es el paisaje político donde se desarrolla la historia. En los libros de texto nos podrán enseñar la España de entreguerras, el franquismo y la persecución comunista que vino (que tampoco porque esos temas venían al final del libro y da gracias si llegabamos al comienzo del siglo XX) pero sin contextualizarnos igual de útil resultaría aprender la vida en Alice Springs en 1020 (año random). Vázques Montalbán a veces se va bastante por las ramas relatando tiempos pasados de militancia de Carvalho (y es ahí donde el libro se vuelve más tedioso) pero se sirve del asesinato de Garrido para tejer decadas de historia del comunismo en España y así darnos una idea a aquellos a los que nos queda lejísimos todo aquello (y no por años sino por como han cambiado las cosas.)
Yo no soy nada de novela histórica pero mucho de policiaca pero aquí el caso es que los tejemanejes para encontrar al asesino parecian entrometerse con la historia. Vale que sirve para poner la acción y a los personajes en movimiento pero los matones que se pasaban el día haciendole de carabina a Carvahlo se los podía haber ahorrado. Que aburrimiento de tíos.
Al final queda un libro deslavazado con una parte que sobrecarga lo realmente interesante. No repetiré con Carvalho.
Pues es una pena que este libro me haya dejado un poco fría. Curiosamente, había partes que me tenían enganchada y en la iba devorando una línea tras otra. Pero también había otras que me resultaba difícil de seguir y por ende tediosas.
Tengo el problema añadido de que Carvalho, el detective protagonista me ha dado igual.
Lo más interesante es el paisaje político donde se desarrolla la historia. En los libros de texto nos podrán enseñar la España de entreguerras, el franquismo y la persecución comunista que vino (que tampoco porque esos temas venían al final del libro y da gracias si llegabamos al comienzo del siglo XX) pero sin contextualizarnos igual de útil resultaría aprender la vida en Alice Springs en 1020 (año random). Vázques Montalbán a veces se va bastante por las ramas relatando tiempos pasados de militancia de Carvalho (y es ahí donde el libro se vuelve más tedioso) pero se sirve del asesinato de Garrido para tejer decadas de historia del comunismo en España y así darnos una idea a aquellos a los que nos queda lejísimos todo aquello (y no por años sino por como han cambiado las cosas.)
Yo no soy nada de novela histórica pero mucho de policiaca pero aquí el caso es que los tejemanejes para encontrar al asesino parecian entrometerse con la historia. Vale que sirve para poner la acción y a los personajes en movimiento pero los matones que se pasaban el día haciendole de carabina a Carvahlo se los podía haber ahorrado. Que aburrimiento de tíos.
Al final queda un libro deslavazado con una parte que sobrecarga lo realmente interesante. No repetiré con Carvalho.
December 18, 2017
Το βιβλίο σε κρατάει καθηλωμένο, διαβάζεται πολύ εύκολα. Ένας πρώην κομμουνιστής ντετέκτιβ αναλαμβάνει να λύσει την μυστηριώδη δολοφονία του γενικού γραμματέα του κομμουνιστικού κόμματος που έγινε σε κλειστό χώρο όπου βρίσκονταν μόνο υψηλόβαθμα στελέχη της κεντρικής επιτροπής. Μια όμορφη περιγραφή της Ισπανικής κουζίνας ξεδιπλώνεται παράλληλα (το βιβλίο δε διαβάζεται εάν πεινάς!).
Ο συγγραφέας, πρώην κομμουνιστής και αυτός, ζωγραφίζει βιαστικά πορτραίτα χαρακτήρων όπως έχουν διαμορφωθεί στην Ισπανία μετά τον Φράνκο. Αν και δεν έχουν βάθος οι χαρακτήρες, οι γκριμάτσες τους και οι αντιδράσεις τους περιγράφονται ώρες ώρες με λεπτομέρεια που θυμίζει πραγματικούς ανθρώπους. Ας πούμε ο διοικητής ασφάλειας και πρώην βασανιστής περιγράφεται περίπου σαν καρικατούρα. Ωστόσο ο τρόπος που μιλά, το χιούμορ του, οι αντιδράσεις του μοιάζουν τόσο πολύ με πραγματικές αντιδράσεις ανθρώπων που έχουν τέτοιο παρελθόν που σκέφτομαι ότι μάλλον κάποια στοιχεία του περιβάλλοντος πλάθουν καθοριστικά τους ανθρώπους. Ο τρόπος ομιλίας ορισμένων ανώτατων κομματικών στελεχών είναι επίσης χαρακτηριστικός κάθε περιβάλλοντος όπου υπάρχουν απόλυτες αλήθειες προσβάσιμες χωρίς κανένα "πέπλο άγνοιας" ή ενδογενούς χάους που να εμποδίζει την "κατάκτησή τους". Είναι φοβερό πόσο μοιάζουν άνθρωποι που έζησαν εκατοντάδες χιλιόμετρα και δεκαετίες μακριά.
Ο συγγραφέας, πρώην κομμουνιστής και αυτός, ζωγραφίζει βιαστικά πορτραίτα χαρακτήρων όπως έχουν διαμορφωθεί στην Ισπανία μετά τον Φράνκο. Αν και δεν έχουν βάθος οι χαρακτήρες, οι γκριμάτσες τους και οι αντιδράσεις τους περιγράφονται ώρες ώρες με λεπτομέρεια που θυμίζει πραγματικούς ανθρώπους. Ας πούμε ο διοικητής ασφάλειας και πρώην βασανιστής περιγράφεται περίπου σαν καρικατούρα. Ωστόσο ο τρόπος που μιλά, το χιούμορ του, οι αντιδράσεις του μοιάζουν τόσο πολύ με πραγματικές αντιδράσεις ανθρώπων που έχουν τέτοιο παρελθόν που σκέφτομαι ότι μάλλον κάποια στοιχεία του περιβάλλοντος πλάθουν καθοριστικά τους ανθρώπους. Ο τρόπος ομιλίας ορισμένων ανώτατων κομματικών στελεχών είναι επίσης χαρακτηριστικός κάθε περιβάλλοντος όπου υπάρχουν απόλυτες αλήθειες προσβάσιμες χωρίς κανένα "πέπλο άγνοιας" ή ενδογενούς χάους που να εμποδίζει την "κατάκτησή τους". Είναι φοβερό πόσο μοιάζουν άνθρωποι που έζησαν εκατοντάδες χιλιόμετρα και δεκαετίες μακριά.
May 21, 2016
The era of Central Committees and powerful Communist parties (and powerful labour movements) seems so distant but Montalban managed to convey this vanished period while overlaying it with a tightly plotted thriller. I enjoyed it a lot.
June 29, 2025
Um policial à moda antiga, muito bem escrito e que se lê num ápice.
September 27, 2025
Otra novela negra de Pepe Carvalho, donde casi lo de menos es la investigación del asesinato y más bien se exhiben las extraordinarias dotes de Vázquez Montalbán para la escritura, con un estilo impecable, denso, ingenioso y de alto vuelo literario.
Nuestro detective se traslada a Madrid para este caso de altos vuelos: el secretario general del Partido Comunista de España, Fernando Garrido (un alter ego de Santiago Carrillo), es asesinado al comenzar el Comité Central, aprovechando un breve apagón. Siendo esta una reunión a puerta cerrada, el asesino forma parte del Partido.
Muchos son los ingredientes de este banquete, a veces indigesto: La obsesión por la buena comida, que para Carvalho son los callos, las entrañas, los riñones, las asaduras, y todo lo que cualquier médico prohibiría, y la abundante bebida, preferentemente alcohólica. El profundo conocimiento del Partido Comunista y su dudoso futuro en la democracia; parece que Vázquez Montalbán se venga de sus años militantes describiendo una organización anquilosada, una idelogía trasnochada y perdida, unos militantes que persiguen ideales casi religiosos llenos de frases hechas. Los libros quemados, un maravilloso ajuste de cuentas de Carvalho con la alta intelectualidad. El ambiente de la transición, la agitación en la calle. Mujeres fatales y matones de novela negra. Diálogos inteligentes, en algún punto demasiado; disgresiones a veces indigestas como los platos que pide Carvalho. El análisis político de la obra quizá se pierda tras años de democracia, pero el autor demuestra olfato, originalidad y pronósticos muy acertados.
Nuestro detective se traslada a Madrid para este caso de altos vuelos: el secretario general del Partido Comunista de España, Fernando Garrido (un alter ego de Santiago Carrillo), es asesinado al comenzar el Comité Central, aprovechando un breve apagón. Siendo esta una reunión a puerta cerrada, el asesino forma parte del Partido.
Muchos son los ingredientes de este banquete, a veces indigesto: La obsesión por la buena comida, que para Carvalho son los callos, las entrañas, los riñones, las asaduras, y todo lo que cualquier médico prohibiría, y la abundante bebida, preferentemente alcohólica. El profundo conocimiento del Partido Comunista y su dudoso futuro en la democracia; parece que Vázquez Montalbán se venga de sus años militantes describiendo una organización anquilosada, una idelogía trasnochada y perdida, unos militantes que persiguen ideales casi religiosos llenos de frases hechas. Los libros quemados, un maravilloso ajuste de cuentas de Carvalho con la alta intelectualidad. El ambiente de la transición, la agitación en la calle. Mujeres fatales y matones de novela negra. Diálogos inteligentes, en algún punto demasiado; disgresiones a veces indigestas como los platos que pide Carvalho. El análisis político de la obra quizá se pierda tras años de democracia, pero el autor demuestra olfato, originalidad y pronósticos muy acertados.
July 5, 2023
Questo libro, scritto tra il '79 e l'80 (quindi poco dopo la fine della dittatura franchista) non è un semplice giallo nel quale il detective privato Pepe Carvalho viene assoldato dal Partito Comunista Spagnolo per scoprire chi ha ammazzato il Segretario Garrido durante la riunione del Comitato Centrale, piuttosto un affresco della Spagna post-franchista e dell'opposizione clandestina durante la dittatura. Nel corso della storia si scopre una porzione del passato di Carvalho (a sua volta oppositore e per un periodo di tempo legato agli ambienti clandestini), si segue il suo sguardo mai disinteressato e la sua enorme passione gastronomica. I dialoghi interrogano sempre il lettore, poiché Montalbán non indica mai chi è il soggetto che parla, ma è sempre il lettore a dover collegare il testo al contesto, in una sorta di replica del processo d'indagine del suo detective. Ciononostante la lettura rotola comodamente e nulla la intralcia, se non il pensiero di quanto sia cambiato il mondo (e le nostre priorità) negli ultimi quarant'anni.
May 1, 2022
Bona història tot i que de lectura a estones tediosa per la gran quantitat de paràgrafs llargs i sense gairebé puntuació. La trama està molt ben construïda, però hauria agraït una major explicació dels diferents perseguidors del detectiu.
Gran descripció del moment polític de l'anomenada transició "la hora de la verdad llegará dentro de quince o veinte años, cuando ya no queden héroes de la lucha contra el franquismo y las bases se hayan vuelto definitivamente antilitúrgicas".
Receptes: Arròs amb escopinyes. Tripa i capipota amb pèsols i carxofes i tonyina entatxonada.
Viatge: Madrid.
Llibres per encendre la llar de foc: El problema de la vivienda, d'Engels i Antología de poesía erótica castellana, de Bernatán i García.
Gran descripció del moment polític de l'anomenada transició "la hora de la verdad llegará dentro de quince o veinte años, cuando ya no queden héroes de la lucha contra el franquismo y las bases se hayan vuelto definitivamente antilitúrgicas".
Receptes: Arròs amb escopinyes. Tripa i capipota amb pèsols i carxofes i tonyina entatxonada.
Viatge: Madrid.
Llibres per encendre la llar de foc: El problema de la vivienda, d'Engels i Antología de poesía erótica castellana, de Bernatán i García.
May 26, 2022
La trama no es especialmente brillante y de vez en cuando te sale con cada tontería de machismo ochentero que es como para arrancarse los pelos, pero es tan buena la representación del mundo de los comunistas (qué hace un trotskista como tú en un partido como este) y de su (nuestra) forma de vivir y de pensar y de relacionarse... que merece todo la pena. Y es tan buena la imagen del PCE de 1981 y sus expectativas para los dosmiles... que qué iban a hacer cuando ya no quedara ni un solo mártir del comunismo, decían. No se esperaban que para cuando se acabaran los mártires se iba a haber acabado la guía de la URSS también.
En fin, es un libro de personajes y de ideas, sobre todo, muy divertido. Mucho más si uno conoce la versión 2010s de esa gente que en los ochenta todavía se llamaban revolucionarios profesionales.
En fin, es un libro de personajes y de ideas, sobre todo, muy divertido. Mucho más si uno conoce la versión 2010s de esa gente que en los ochenta todavía se llamaban revolucionarios profesionales.
June 9, 2025
Cuesta cogerle el ritmo al principio, pero después es entretenido.
January 9, 2023
A ver, son comunistas.
June 24, 2021
İspanya'da Komünist Parti'nin merkez komitesinde bir cinayet işlenir ve parti yönetimi resmi soruşturmaya güvenmediği için cinayeti çözmesi için özel bir dedektif tutar. Sonrası olaylar olaylar... Montalbán bize bir kapalı oda polisiyesi sunuyor, bu arada da İspanya solunun tarihine şöyle bir göz atıyoruz. Keşke çeviri biraz daha derli toplu olsaydı, kimin ne yaptığını anlamakta yer yer zorlandım. Buna rağmen severek okuduğum bir kitap oldu.
June 16, 2016
Sherlock Holmes played the violin. I cook.-Pepe Carvalho
Murder in the Central Committee is Patrick Camiller's 1985 translation of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's 1981 novel Asesinato en el Comité Central. Written six years after the death of Franco, the novel is a locked door mystery that captures the political environment of the time. It is the fifth volume in the Pepe Carvalho series. Montalbán was at this time a former communist (as is his character Pepe Carvalho), and he describes with a somewhat jaundiced eye the struggles of his former comrades as they turbulently try to make a transition from banned organization to a modern and relevant political party.
Of course detective Pepe Carvalho is his cynical self, and he only takes the job that will take him from BCN to Madrid with the assurances by his employers that there are restaurants in the Spanish capital that offer great food at reasonable prices. While there he will meet old as well as makes new friends and enemies as he investigates the strange death of the Communist Party's general secretary who was murdered during a closed door session of the party's leadership.
As with other volumes in this series, the detective's gourmand appetite and humor shine throughout the story. The novel records the madridleño culinary scene as much as it does the organizational discord among the Spanish Left after the death of France. The writer's droll observations of the world around him always amuse. Of course there is a share of sex and violence, too.
This is second novel about the Gallego detective Pepe Carvalho, and I 'm enjoying the series. I look forward to reading more by Vázquez Montalbán. I hope that you'll enjoy the novel, too.
June 1, 2011
Quite a while ago I'd read a couple of this author's books and really enjoyed them. So I decided to get through the rest.
The books tell the tale of Pepe Carvahlo, a food loving, loose living private detective in Barcelona. Not long after Franco's death. The books are interesting for their descriptions of Barcelona, it's foods and wines and a look at the politics of the time. Usually without getting too deep.
This book was my least favourite of the ones I've read so far. It is the one most heavily mired in politics. the politics of the Communist Party. Carvahlo is asked by the Communist Party to discover who murdered their Secretary Genral, in a closed room with a small amount of suspects. Carvahlo himself is an ex-communist and is therefore reviled by many of those he is investigating. The politics are not uninteresting it's just that there is too much that over everything else.
It is an interesting tale but I got bogged down by all the political discussion. Also the book is set in Madrid and doesn't have the same vibe. There is less discussion of food on a regular basis. Though there are the typical seductions.
I think if I had a better knowledge of Spanish history under Franco's rule I may have found it an easier read. That is definitely a knowledge void I need to work on.
The books tell the tale of Pepe Carvahlo, a food loving, loose living private detective in Barcelona. Not long after Franco's death. The books are interesting for their descriptions of Barcelona, it's foods and wines and a look at the politics of the time. Usually without getting too deep.
This book was my least favourite of the ones I've read so far. It is the one most heavily mired in politics. the politics of the Communist Party. Carvahlo is asked by the Communist Party to discover who murdered their Secretary Genral, in a closed room with a small amount of suspects. Carvahlo himself is an ex-communist and is therefore reviled by many of those he is investigating. The politics are not uninteresting it's just that there is too much that over everything else.
It is an interesting tale but I got bogged down by all the political discussion. Also the book is set in Madrid and doesn't have the same vibe. There is less discussion of food on a regular basis. Though there are the typical seductions.
I think if I had a better knowledge of Spanish history under Franco's rule I may have found it an easier read. That is definitely a knowledge void I need to work on.
February 22, 2017
Doppiezze, vendette, giochi di potere: in questo giallo politico Vazquez Montalban riesce, in poche pagine, a imprimere la sua cifra stilistica, a dipingere con maestria l’atmosfera che si respirava nella Spagna appena uscita dal franchismo.
Il regime defunto, coi suoi sgherri ancora nelle posizioni di comando, non sarà un osservatore neutro nelle indagini che Pepe Carvalho – detective protagonista della trama – condurrà su commissione del Partito Comunista in seguito all’omicidio del segretario generale, Fernando Garrido.
Uomo di spirito, fumatore incallito, Garrido viene assassinato durante una riunione del Comitato Centrale: e toccherà a Carvalho, ex comunista che ha rotto con quel mondo, guidare un’inchiesta privata che lo porterà da Barcellona a Madrid. Il detective finirà così al centro di una battaglia di spie appartenenti a opposte fazioni, minacciato e vessato da più parti.
Mai noioso, scritto come fosse la sceneggiatura di una fiction, il romanzo di Montalban è un racconto avvincente in cui le sofferenze umane e la fede politica s’intrecciano in un connubio intricato.
Il regime defunto, coi suoi sgherri ancora nelle posizioni di comando, non sarà un osservatore neutro nelle indagini che Pepe Carvalho – detective protagonista della trama – condurrà su commissione del Partito Comunista in seguito all’omicidio del segretario generale, Fernando Garrido.
Uomo di spirito, fumatore incallito, Garrido viene assassinato durante una riunione del Comitato Centrale: e toccherà a Carvalho, ex comunista che ha rotto con quel mondo, guidare un’inchiesta privata che lo porterà da Barcellona a Madrid. Il detective finirà così al centro di una battaglia di spie appartenenti a opposte fazioni, minacciato e vessato da più parti.
Mai noioso, scritto come fosse la sceneggiatura di una fiction, il romanzo di Montalban è un racconto avvincente in cui le sofferenze umane e la fede politica s’intrecciano in un connubio intricato.
Read
December 12, 2014Maybe I am too dense, or maybe I don’t understand English. But, this book just didn’t work out for me. Cause out of the 224 odd pages in this book I had already spent around 150 without getting a single clue to the investigation, I didn’t have any clue as to the life of the murder victim. And I also didn’t have any clue regarding the style of narration used.
And on top of everything, long paragraphs on Communism, and longer discussions of food. Make no mistake, I am a foodie, and I love to hate Communism, but I wouldn’t want an overdose of either two in a crime novel, where the crime, the clues, the detection and every other thing related to Crime writing does not takes a backseat but is entirely absent. A bad bad experience.
Or else the translator got it all wrong!!!
And on top of everything, long paragraphs on Communism, and longer discussions of food. Make no mistake, I am a foodie, and I love to hate Communism, but I wouldn’t want an overdose of either two in a crime novel, where the crime, the clues, the detection and every other thing related to Crime writing does not takes a backseat but is entirely absent. A bad bad experience.
Or else the translator got it all wrong!!!
July 8, 2013
My kind of book: a very political, very detailed mystery by someone who is incredibly well informed. In terms of action and plot complexity, this isn't a Jack Reacher novel, but in terms of local color, detail, and political sophistication, it is unbeatable. I enjoyed it a lot, and if you have any experience in any leftist organization, you'll probably find it cathartic. The author, and hence the detective, is also a foodie, and so foodies might enjoy the very detailed and poetic descriptions of food, and might find amusing the fact that questions of murder and politics are handled no less seriously than questions of recipes and ingredients.
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