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The Lizard's Tail
The Lizard's Tail is a whip much favoured by Latin American torturers. It gives its name to this fictional biography of Lopez Rega, Isabel Peron's Minister of Social Well-being who ruled Argentina through sorcery and witchcraft. A figure of immense power and cruelty, Lopez Rega survives all attempts by politicians and the military to overthrow him. So great is the magic of this power-crazed witch-doctor that the writer/narrator can destroy him only by removing herself: "By erasing myself from the map, I intend to erase you. Without my biography, it will be as if you never had a life. So long, Sorcerer, felice morte." In The Lizard's Tail, Luisa Valenzuela re-invents language to convey the political reality of Latin America. A reality in which the writer hangs in the balance.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1983
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371 people want to read
About the author
Luisa Valenzuela
110 books104 followersLuisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental, avant-garde style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in Argentina. Works such as Como en la guerra (1977), Cambio de armas (1982) and Cola de lagartija (1983) combine a powerful critique of dictatorship with an examination of patriarchal forms of social organization and the power structures which inhere in human sexuality and gender relationships.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 4, 2019
Excellent stuff. Certainly sprung from the Rabelasian Codpiece.
Kirkus review was as follows:
The ""Generaliss,"" the ""Dead Woman,"" the ""Intruder""--such characters lead a reader to realize that Valenzuela is writing about Argentina and the Perons. (Juan, cultadored Eva, and dim Isobel.) Yet when the narrative here doesn't refer to the Perons--or to a ruling military junta--things move far more murkily: the primary character of this phantasm-nightmare of a political allegory is someone known as ""The Sorcerer"" (or ""the Papoose, Eulogio, Estrella, Six-fingers, the witchdog"") who rules over the independent Kingdom of the Black Lagoon. The Sorcerer is an hermaphrodite with three testicles who wishes to self-propagate through the middle one (named Estrella); an ex-minister, he is considered by the ruling powers a menace to their rule. After all, whether stealing the embalmed finger of the ""Dead Woman"" or banishing all mirrors from the Kingdom or building a huge human pyramid, the Sorcerer holds thousands of cultists in sway. (When a small village, Capiravi, resists, the villagers are put through demonic pains.) And, with its elements of super-mythicism, morbid religious irony, and authorial interruption (which offers a few contemporary dimensions), Valenzuela's novel has a thick intensity which is impressive. But while Argentine readers may be able to go beneath the opaque surfaces here, few Americans will probably do so--as they come smack up against a wall of grotesquerie, shamanism, and downright unintelligibility. Intriguing, difficult work of very limited appeal.
Kirkus review was as follows:
The ""Generaliss,"" the ""Dead Woman,"" the ""Intruder""--such characters lead a reader to realize that Valenzuela is writing about Argentina and the Perons. (Juan, cultadored Eva, and dim Isobel.) Yet when the narrative here doesn't refer to the Perons--or to a ruling military junta--things move far more murkily: the primary character of this phantasm-nightmare of a political allegory is someone known as ""The Sorcerer"" (or ""the Papoose, Eulogio, Estrella, Six-fingers, the witchdog"") who rules over the independent Kingdom of the Black Lagoon. The Sorcerer is an hermaphrodite with three testicles who wishes to self-propagate through the middle one (named Estrella); an ex-minister, he is considered by the ruling powers a menace to their rule. After all, whether stealing the embalmed finger of the ""Dead Woman"" or banishing all mirrors from the Kingdom or building a huge human pyramid, the Sorcerer holds thousands of cultists in sway. (When a small village, Capiravi, resists, the villagers are put through demonic pains.) And, with its elements of super-mythicism, morbid religious irony, and authorial interruption (which offers a few contemporary dimensions), Valenzuela's novel has a thick intensity which is impressive. But while Argentine readers may be able to go beneath the opaque surfaces here, few Americans will probably do so--as they come smack up against a wall of grotesquerie, shamanism, and downright unintelligibility. Intriguing, difficult work of very limited appeal.
September 2, 2024
It is rare that I would insist that you most know the history behind a novel's setting but it is almost impossible not to when dealing with this novel, a phantasmagorical riff on the life and memory of Lopez Rega the minister of social well being (which means he launched the dirty war in Argentina) in Isabel Peron's short-lived but not short enough dictatorship (she is or was referred to as Isabellita in mocking denigration of her replacement of Evita at Juan Peron's side). Lopez Rega not only haunts the history of Argentina(please see my footnote *1 below) he haunts its literature. He is there is Tomas Eloy Martinez's 'The Peron Novel' and Jose Saccomanno's '77' that I know and have read and many more novels in which he is there directly or in spirit. That the myth of Peronism (see my footnote*2 below) degenerated into the nightmare of Lopez Rega makes its resurrection, if not celebration, not long afterwards in Lloyd Weber's deeply tawdry musical (it made 'The Producers' and 'Springtime for Hitler' seem prescient).
This is an incredibly powerful and wonderful novel and if all the references in my first paragraph are familiar to you then I am sure you can dive right in an enjoy the madness of Ms. Valenzuela's wonderful prose. She has written fantastic novels about the dictatorships that marred so much of Argentina's 20th century history and about the patriarchal society and attitudes that twisted and distorted that society. But if most of what I referred to means nothing, then I suggest you first try one of the Martinez novels about the Perons which will at least place you within the madness. Also you can read some of the excellent reviews, such as the one by Carlos, on Goodreads.
I would hate anyone to miss the enormous pleasure of Ms. Valenzuela's writing in this novel which is dense and full of subtleties and like all 'magic realist' writing has a complex relationship with truth but be prepared, go into this novel with your eyes open and your mind armed with knowledge and your hearts ready to be broken with shock and horror.
*1 A friend of mine who was a schoolboy in Buenos Aires in the years of Rega's power told me of seeing the man up close as Rega accompanied president Isabel Peron into some ministry, always a few steps behind, like an eminence grise or puppet master. My friend told me that Rega was the most frightening man he had ever seen and that there was a palpable evil emanating from behind Rega's dark mirrored glasses. My friend was not an imaginative person and had grown up in a country and continent drowning in gold braided army generals hiding behind dark mirrored glasses, so when he described Lopez Rega as evil it made me shudder.
*2 On Evita Peron I recommend Tomas Eloy Martinez's 'Santa Evita' before any of the so-called biographies.
This is an incredibly powerful and wonderful novel and if all the references in my first paragraph are familiar to you then I am sure you can dive right in an enjoy the madness of Ms. Valenzuela's wonderful prose. She has written fantastic novels about the dictatorships that marred so much of Argentina's 20th century history and about the patriarchal society and attitudes that twisted and distorted that society. But if most of what I referred to means nothing, then I suggest you first try one of the Martinez novels about the Perons which will at least place you within the madness. Also you can read some of the excellent reviews, such as the one by Carlos, on Goodreads.
I would hate anyone to miss the enormous pleasure of Ms. Valenzuela's writing in this novel which is dense and full of subtleties and like all 'magic realist' writing has a complex relationship with truth but be prepared, go into this novel with your eyes open and your mind armed with knowledge and your hearts ready to be broken with shock and horror.
*1 A friend of mine who was a schoolboy in Buenos Aires in the years of Rega's power told me of seeing the man up close as Rega accompanied president Isabel Peron into some ministry, always a few steps behind, like an eminence grise or puppet master. My friend told me that Rega was the most frightening man he had ever seen and that there was a palpable evil emanating from behind Rega's dark mirrored glasses. My friend was not an imaginative person and had grown up in a country and continent drowning in gold braided army generals hiding behind dark mirrored glasses, so when he described Lopez Rega as evil it made me shudder.
*2 On Evita Peron I recommend Tomas Eloy Martinez's 'Santa Evita' before any of the so-called biographies.
June 16, 2019
The Lizard's Tail provides a unique perspective on authoritarianism because it's not from the point of view of the country's dictator as such, but from its radical element whose tyrannical aspirations almost put to shame the average despot for his sheer pseudoscientific mania (the consequences on the people mostly being in the background). As far as despots go, there's Hussien, who commissioned a copy of the Qur’an to be written using his own blood, and of course Hitler and his promotion of Welteislehre, but this novel's Sorcerer is a figure unto himself, with Rasputinarian aspects of mysticism, who runs a Kingdom of the Black Lagoon with a castle inspired by/dedicated to red ants. At times, the hyperbolic satire of his behavior reminded me a bit of the dictator in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's epic opus Wizard of the Crow. The behavior of the Sorcerer is perhaps more disturbing than funny (yet it fluctuates), including golden showers, ant-based torture, infanticide, and much talk about a third testicle that is not only feminized but is ostensibly the seed-womb-child of the Sorcerer's impending transmogrification.
To get a...taste...of his behavior, read this passage, which describes how the Sorcerer eats babies, the hors d'oeuvre which pleases most politicians' palates: "Inevitably, the apple won't fit in the tiny mouth, newborn meat is too insipid, too white, and though he swallows it happily in the knowledge that he is master of lives and properties, the next morning he has stomach cramps. He doesn't care: a rite has been celebrated. One must take some part or other in human reproduction, and he finds himself at the other end of the assembly line: he incorporates the fruit of human reproduction into his own organism, assimilating it. He doesn't spend his precious energy in improbable partnerships."
The novel explores the concept of "I" by introducing the author as a character about halfway through the book or so and positing that both the Sorcerer and Valenzuela are writing a novel about the former personage. Although, I did find the author's voice much less interesting than the voice of the biography's raison d'etre, but her presence does add layers, metafictional and otherwise. Occasionally, identity, as well as those pesky concepts known as truth and reality, overlaps or subsumes itself, the fate of any country that is seeking an elusive 'greatness' for the 'second' or umpteenth time when in fact one must ask oneself, What is ever really 'great' on the grinding evolution of society and culture, what does such subjectivity actually mean? I thought we were still searching for the first greatness, if anything.
The prose is fairly sufficient while sometimes bubbling with linguistic mana, sometimes a cliché here and there, although some of this could be written off as the fault of the Sorcerer's personality and voice, with villainous aspirations akin to a paranormal Lex Luthor. There's some wordplay, although only enough to act as a tease, a healthy dose of Borgesian surrealism, and interesting postmodern elements.
While the snaking blood trail in 100 Years of Solitude is a way to signify the spread of news of a child's death to the mother, The Lizard's Tail ends with The Fuhrer's flaccid fury!
P.S. Read Carlos' review for the relevant historical context/details.
P.S.S. While reading this novel, I had a feeling that the worship of a dead woman's corpse was familiar, only to realize that a book which has been awaiting me on my shelf, Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez, is focused on just such an idolized cadaver. I look forward to seeing how these two novels complement each other.
P.S.S.S. Put down the Márquez for a moment and pick up Valenzuela for a change. There's no reason this novel should gather dust.
To get a...taste...of his behavior, read this passage, which describes how the Sorcerer eats babies, the hors d'oeuvre which pleases most politicians' palates: "Inevitably, the apple won't fit in the tiny mouth, newborn meat is too insipid, too white, and though he swallows it happily in the knowledge that he is master of lives and properties, the next morning he has stomach cramps. He doesn't care: a rite has been celebrated. One must take some part or other in human reproduction, and he finds himself at the other end of the assembly line: he incorporates the fruit of human reproduction into his own organism, assimilating it. He doesn't spend his precious energy in improbable partnerships."
The novel explores the concept of "I" by introducing the author as a character about halfway through the book or so and positing that both the Sorcerer and Valenzuela are writing a novel about the former personage. Although, I did find the author's voice much less interesting than the voice of the biography's raison d'etre, but her presence does add layers, metafictional and otherwise. Occasionally, identity, as well as those pesky concepts known as truth and reality, overlaps or subsumes itself, the fate of any country that is seeking an elusive 'greatness' for the 'second' or umpteenth time when in fact one must ask oneself, What is ever really 'great' on the grinding evolution of society and culture, what does such subjectivity actually mean? I thought we were still searching for the first greatness, if anything.
The prose is fairly sufficient while sometimes bubbling with linguistic mana, sometimes a cliché here and there, although some of this could be written off as the fault of the Sorcerer's personality and voice, with villainous aspirations akin to a paranormal Lex Luthor. There's some wordplay, although only enough to act as a tease, a healthy dose of Borgesian surrealism, and interesting postmodern elements.
While the snaking blood trail in 100 Years of Solitude is a way to signify the spread of news of a child's death to the mother, The Lizard's Tail ends with The Fuhrer's flaccid fury!
P.S. Read Carlos' review for the relevant historical context/details.
P.S.S. While reading this novel, I had a feeling that the worship of a dead woman's corpse was familiar, only to realize that a book which has been awaiting me on my shelf, Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez, is focused on just such an idolized cadaver. I look forward to seeing how these two novels complement each other.
P.S.S.S. Put down the Márquez for a moment and pick up Valenzuela for a change. There's no reason this novel should gather dust.
January 2, 2011
When Juan Peron returned to the Argentine presidency for the last time in 1974, he brought along two intimates who would go on to create some trouble. The first was his third wife Isabela, who would ascend to the presidency after his death. The second was Jose Lopez Rega, a character so odd it seems hard to believe he was not invented by Arlt or Borges. Rega was fascinated with occult and mystic arts, including Umbanda (like Santeria or Voodoo) and astrology. His interests earned him the nickname El Brujo, not inappropriate given the Rasputin-like hold he had on Peron and later Isabela. It was under Rega that Dirty War began, which was run out of the Office of Social Welfare under the auspices of the triple-A. (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance)
Cola de lagartija is based loosely on Lopez Rega, parting ways with the historical facts of Lopez Rega to create a surreal and disturbing meditation on violence and power. After the fall of Isabela's government, El Brujo heads to his childhood home of Laguna Negra in northern Argentina with his followers. Here he organizes new rituals of blood and sacrifice, and stages a very twisted orgy to which he invites prominent members of Argentine society.
Even in internal exile, he is dangerous enough to inspire enemies, among them the ruling junta, a revolutionary, and an author working on El Brujo's biography. The revolutionary and the author have a brief relationship, during which the revolutionary asks the author to finish her book by killing off El Brujo. But can she really pull it off in such a way as to kill the original?
El Brujo soon finds a new enemy in the mayor of the town of Capivari and its little newspaper. He takes over the town and the newspaper, changing the emphasis of the latter to occult themes. This inspires in him the plans for a new ritual, an immaculate conception which will cleanse Argentina in a river of blood.
I was expecting a touch of the strange, perhaps even some magic realism, when I started this book, as can only be expected from a story based on an already strange individual. But the story is strikingly surreal, often disturbing or funny, presenting an exaggerated look at the relationship between power and violence, and the role of the journalist or writer in responding to the terrible.
Cola de lagartija is based loosely on Lopez Rega, parting ways with the historical facts of Lopez Rega to create a surreal and disturbing meditation on violence and power. After the fall of Isabela's government, El Brujo heads to his childhood home of Laguna Negra in northern Argentina with his followers. Here he organizes new rituals of blood and sacrifice, and stages a very twisted orgy to which he invites prominent members of Argentine society.
Even in internal exile, he is dangerous enough to inspire enemies, among them the ruling junta, a revolutionary, and an author working on El Brujo's biography. The revolutionary and the author have a brief relationship, during which the revolutionary asks the author to finish her book by killing off El Brujo. But can she really pull it off in such a way as to kill the original?
El Brujo soon finds a new enemy in the mayor of the town of Capivari and its little newspaper. He takes over the town and the newspaper, changing the emphasis of the latter to occult themes. This inspires in him the plans for a new ritual, an immaculate conception which will cleanse Argentina in a river of blood.
I was expecting a touch of the strange, perhaps even some magic realism, when I started this book, as can only be expected from a story based on an already strange individual. But the story is strikingly surreal, often disturbing or funny, presenting an exaggerated look at the relationship between power and violence, and the role of the journalist or writer in responding to the terrible.
August 8, 2017
Argentine
May 27, 2019
this didn't always work for me but i enjoyed all the bizarre occult imagery and air of barely suppressed violence.
February 15, 2025
good prose and had fantastical elements to it, vaguely reminiscent of Bolano.
July 18, 2025
wow. Disturbing glimpse into the internal monologue of a demented sorcerer wannabe dictator as he tries to become she and I. Great guide for aspiring demagogues fascinated with blood, village takeovers, and grooming aides into helping you turn your third testicle into a child heir.
This feels like a JD Vance fever dream. This is what JD Vance wishes he was. A quote from her administration seems too real...
"Mr. President, General, sir, forgive me for bringing up these problems, but I think they're interfering with our plan for National Reconstruction. This isn't serving our high and noble interests, nor is our sovereignty preserved this way or its historical continuity assured. that man has tricked us again. Our representatives and special envoys to the so-called Festival of the Pyramid, along with their distinguished wives, have returned from the north in a lamentable condition, some with their faces seriously beaten, with cuts and bruises."
"Have them make me a written report. How did the gory event take place?"
"Well, actually, it seems they beat each other up without anyone provoking them. But I can assure you, Mr. President, that all the blame can be placed on that evil character. He must have put something into the hors d'oeuvres, which were quite frugal, according to what I've been told. But it seems that he served a potion that aroused people to violence instead of maintaining and increasing -- if possible -- the unity of aims and the bonds of a healthy and cordial camaraderie."
sheesh
This feels like a JD Vance fever dream. This is what JD Vance wishes he was. A quote from her administration seems too real...
"Mr. President, General, sir, forgive me for bringing up these problems, but I think they're interfering with our plan for National Reconstruction. This isn't serving our high and noble interests, nor is our sovereignty preserved this way or its historical continuity assured. that man has tricked us again. Our representatives and special envoys to the so-called Festival of the Pyramid, along with their distinguished wives, have returned from the north in a lamentable condition, some with their faces seriously beaten, with cuts and bruises."
"Have them make me a written report. How did the gory event take place?"
"Well, actually, it seems they beat each other up without anyone provoking them. But I can assure you, Mr. President, that all the blame can be placed on that evil character. He must have put something into the hors d'oeuvres, which were quite frugal, according to what I've been told. But it seems that he served a potion that aroused people to violence instead of maintaining and increasing -- if possible -- the unity of aims and the bonds of a healthy and cordial camaraderie."
sheesh
February 22, 2023
Very interesting, very confusing. I felt I was in a lagoon itself, with the literary symbols reflected and distorted and their true (historical) meaning underwater. Halfway through I researched a bit about Juan and Eva Perón and it helped a little, but I think to fully understand this I'd need to have lived through this period of Argentine history, especially as information on "the Sorcerer" (José López Rega) is scarce (at least in English-language sources). With further knowledge on the cultural source of the writing, the chaos-rainbow vision of the innards of the Sorcerer and his mind strike even harder. I'm really interested to see how this book sits inside of me as time passes.
Ultimately a compelling read, definitely colours in the image and impact (on Luisa) of Luisa's mother co-writing stories around the dinner-table with Borges as described in the preface to 'Open Door'. The language was jarring, dense. The writing has a very comfortable confidence of what is being conveyed, and it obtains a rare concreteness because of it (in this way it reminds me of 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit' or David Wojnarowicz). There's definitely something in these pages that makes this book the first that I'm writing an actual review for.
Ultimately a compelling read, definitely colours in the image and impact (on Luisa) of Luisa's mother co-writing stories around the dinner-table with Borges as described in the preface to 'Open Door'. The language was jarring, dense. The writing has a very comfortable confidence of what is being conveyed, and it obtains a rare concreteness because of it (in this way it reminds me of 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit' or David Wojnarowicz). There's definitely something in these pages that makes this book the first that I'm writing an actual review for.
November 6, 2013
Something in the description of this book (somewhere online) gave me the impression this would be a feminist book. Not so much. Maybe I misunderstood and Luisa Valenzuela was considered a feminist writer (just not for this story). What this book was, however, was a satirical telling of the political environment. I enjoyed it immensely at first, but about 1/2 through I started loosing interest.
April 2, 2011
Read about 1/2 and gave up...
May 10, 2016
The rare book that provides me very little pleasure ...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews