Argentinian Virgin

by Jim Williams

Teresa and Katerina Malipiero, a mother and daughter, wait for Senor Malipiero to complete his business in the Reich and take them home to Argentina. The plight of the women attracts the sympathy of 'Lucky' Tom Rensselaer and he is seduced by the beauty of Katerina. Tom has perfect faith in their innocence, yet they cannot explain why a sinister Spaniard has been murdered in their home and why Tom must help them dispose of the body without informing the police. Watching over events is Pat Byrne, a young Irish writer. Twenty years later, when Tom has been reduced from the most handsome, admired and talented man of his generation to a derelict alcoholic, Pat sets out to discover the facts of that fateful the secrets that were hidden and the lies that were told. It is a shocking a tale of murder unpunished and a good man destroyed by those who loved him most. The Argentinian Virgin is a sensuous novel of erotic fantasy, obsession, jealousy and betrayal set in the dreamlike atmosphere of a Riviera summer in wartime.

Genres: Mystery

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2009

About the author

Jim Williams first hit the news when his early novels had the uncanny knack of coming true. The Hitler Diaries was published nine months before the celebrated forgery came out in 1983. Farewell to Russia dealt with a nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union months before the Chernobyl disaster. Lara's Child, his sequel to Doctor Zhivago, provoked an international literary scandal and led to his being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Festival. Scherzo, a witty and elegant mystery set in eighteenth century Venice, was nominated for the Booker Prize. All of his fiction has been published internationally. Tango in Madeira is his eleventh novel.

From the author:

I was born in Oldham, England, the son of a coal miner and a cotton mill worker and grew up in circumstances that would today be considered poor. However I had loving parents and benefitted from a good education.

I have a degree in law and sociology and speak French, German and Spanish and have a smattering of other languages. Since 1970 I've been a qualified barrister, though I no longer practice. I am a Fellow of the Indian Society of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the founder and a fellow of the Institute of Applied Charlatanry. One of these qualifications is entirely worthless and I leave you to guess which.

The most important fact in my life is that I have had a long and loving marriage to a wonderful wife, and my grown-up family still gather with us most Sundays for a family dinner.

I seem to have a happy, easy-going nature and I take a great deal of pleasure in ordinary things such as walking or gardening. My wife and I enjoy theatre, ballet, opera, paintings and dancing at every possible opportunity.

Reviews

[Jemidar · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars.

This is a really hard book for me to rate as I really liked the author's writing style and found it to be an enjoyable page turner. However, there's something about it that didn't quite gel for me. Not really sure what it was but I suspect I didn't quite buy into Tom, a pivotal character in both the mystery and the relationship dynamics of the group. Everyone loved Tom. Everyone it would seem but me.

Basically it's a story about a group of rich, carefree and careless Americans hanging out in France during WWII. As the Germans invade they leave Paris moving further south, meeting up with a young Irish writer along the way. There's kind of a Gatsby vibe to the set up and Pat, the young Irish writer, plays the Nick Carraway type observer. That summer in 1941 will be life changing for them all and twenty years on Pat wants to find out what really happened.

Parts of the mystery I guessed but other parts were a surprise, and there was a nice twist at the end. Occasionally the first person narration strayed into difficult territory as there was stuff the reader needed to know that Pat couldn't know at the time which often led to distracting jumps in time. On the whole though it was an interesting and enjoyable read.

Thanks to LibraryThing: Early Reviewers and Marble City Publishing for making the ARC available.

[Lynelle Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standing applause to a well written book!
In my mind, the author did exactly what he planned with this book. The hardboiled genre from the protagonists, Pat's view-point was spot on. I never saw the end coming as the author kept you in the dark from page one. Yes, there were many hints that leads you on different paths and side-tracked you, like a good Agatha Christie novel. The obnoxious murdered Alvarez like a thorn in the flesh that simply do not want to lose its grip. Was it worth it...oh yes **smile**

This was not a book to be read as a quick afternoon entertainment. Nope you will take your time, drink lots of coffee or wine in between as the story unfolds but yet it would never give its secrets away. The end leaving you dumbstruck and then you giggle because it was there, but you were so blinded by the huge ego of Tom that you never saw it.

Pat's interest in a long lost friend, Tom and what happened in the of summer 1941 gave life to this book, investigating what happened that summer between Tom and the Argentinian Virgin that had such a dramatic change in his life years later.

Flipping through different times in history as Pat tried to come to terms with what happened and whom the real killer was.

I liked the author's notes at the end, asking questions pertaining the novel that makes it easy to review this book.

Question 3. The descriptions are deliberately sensuous and directed at achieving a highly-coloured dreamlike quality. Does this work or is the book simply overwritten?

My answer: The descriptions sensuous and high-colored dreamlike quality add to the romance of the story. The woods and hills had a feeling of peace as you get lost in them, even with its most darkest secrets. The sea ready to receive you at any moment. All coloring the book to a believable state. So no, I do not think it was overwritten. It was just enough to give you a real feel, of the time and place they were in. Romantic while Europe was cooking at the back. The small group living the high life amidst the rations on food and petrol.

Tom the main character in the book was in my view an arrogant American that looked at the world through candy coated glasses, His ideas at times too far-fetched that you wanted to grab him at the shoulder and say "Wake up, man!" His views at the end driving him to destruction. Did I feel sorry for him? No, but yet his life and philosophies was central in the plot line and again the author did a splendid job, creating this character that we all can relate to. Loved by all but yet the loneliest person on earth.

Each character played his/her's part exceptionally well, adding to the mystery that unfolds in Pat's mind. His observing skills high-lighted as he ponders and plots through the knowledge of that summer that changed everyone's lives.

In my view, the author did a splendid work bringing homage to F Scott Fitzgerald author of The Great Gatsby writing style.

[Ruby Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judging a book by its cover

I was captivated by the beautiful woman on the cover of this book the moment I saw her. It’s happened to me before and I dare say it’s happened to you. We assign attributes of character without any basis in fact, but because of the way an individual appears. Through a happy accident of birth, the lucky mix of genes, what the red Hot Chili Peppers call “a perfect piece of DNA”, an individual is blessed with beauty. Facial symmetry, poise, a breadth of shoulders, slimness of waist, coupled with graceful strength or endearing fragility.

Nature’s deception, I call it. The effect may be momentary; if they open their mouth and sound like their antithesis then the bubble is burst; if their charm works when statuesque but fails in movement then they ought best to stand still. Without any contrary evidence, such beauty can be an enduring lure. I’ve been caught out more than once by appearances, giving trust and even affection to the owner, only to find that it was an accident of nature and under the alluring surface they’re just as ordinary as you or I. But sometimes, occasionally, the character matches the appearance and something wonderful is ignited for anyone who comes within range. Such a person is Tom Rensselaer in The Argentinian Virgin by Jim Williams.

Lucky Tom Rensselaer warms the sight and hearts of all who have the good fortune to meet him. He’s a product of good breeding, old money (although now lost) and perfect nature. Strong in principle, generous and loving, he cannot fail in life. But what happens when Adonis meets Aphrodite? Katerina Malipiero captivates Tom from their first encounter. She’s without guile, innocence personified, and all the more irresistible for that. The air crackles with charge whenever they are in each other’s company. He can’t withstand her attraction, any more than the powers at war can halt their own inevitable march towards doom.

Set on the French Riviera early in the Second World War, monumental events occur around the cast of Tom and the other Americans, the Malipieros and the Irish narrator, Pat. A chance encounter, infatuation, love and lust lead Tom and his Argentinian Virgin through the backwoods of occupied France, leading to a tragedy that no one can avoid.

Passionate, evocative, enthralling and emotive, The Argentinian Virgin is a warning to watch out for the skin deep.

[David Hebblethwaite · Rating 3 out of 5]

In occupied France, shortly before the US would enter the war, a young Irish writer named Patrick Byrne falls in with a group of four glamorous Americans; with both their nations neutral states, the five take advantage of the ability to travel around as they please. One of the Americans, Tom Rensselaer, becomes infatuated with Katerina Malipiero, an enigmatic young woman living with her mother Teresa in an old villa.

Tom ingratiates himself with the Malipieros and, after a while, finds himself being called upon by them. They have found the dead body of Alvírez, a recent arrival to the town, in their villa; unable to account for its appearance, Teresa and Katerina secretly enlist Tom’s help in disposing of the body. The truth of what happened does not emerge for another twenty years, when Pat decides to find out how Tom Rensselaerd declined into the wreck of a man that he became.

I’ve got to admit that Jim Williams‘ The Argentinian Virgin didn’t truly grab me. I think that’s because Williams uses a structure that seems to me to work against what he’s trying to achieve. The main point of the novel seems to be show how the course of Tom’s life was set by those events in 1940s France. But the movement of the story is towards the climactic revelation of what happened to Alvírez; whilst Tom’s psychological deterioration takes place to one side of the narrative — we hear about it, but don’t witness it. For me, that breaks the emotional connection between events, and the true impact is lost.

I appereciate Williams’ historical portrait, and his depiction of how love might drive people to commit desperate acts. But I didn’t connect with the heart of the novel in the way I’d hoped; so The Argentinian Virgin ends up being no more than an average read in my view.

[Debra Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice read in a vaguely F. Scott Fitzgerald sort of way -- only instead of the 1920s, it is against the backdrop of WWII just before America enters the war. There is a war going on in Europe but it is a minor inconvenience for the main characters, all of whom are maddeningly free to be self absorbed in their pursuit of meaning -- the cast is four good-looking Americans in a lovely automobile and one writerly Irish fellow who joins them in a peripheral sort of way, and through whose eyes the story plays out. They are familiar characters, all of them; I have met them in various novels, in particular the golden "Lucky Tom" whom everyone loves while at the same time they are dangerously jealous of him -- either wanting to be his beloved or simply wanting to be him. One way or another, someone always dies violently because his golden presence is so unbearable that sooner or later someone cracks up.

In novels where I've met Tom's counterparts, his best friends usually destroy him, though in this book the agent of his destruction is not so obvious. The Argentininan virgin whose beauty distracts every man she meets is not from Argentina, but whether or not she is a virgin is anyone's guess. She and her veiled mother provide a little relief from uncomplicated lives of the main characters. They at least have real secrets.

All in all, it is a well crafted novel. My only complaint is that I've met these characters before and their whining about the meaning of everything is as tiresome as ever. We all search for meaning but I prefer books that go on less about it. In my opinion, the reason for a character's existence is found in the depth of the character, and none of these characters are very deep.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was certainly a different book. It is atmospheric, almost dreamlike, and cleverly written. We are looking at a situation from the point of view of an outsider. It is a murder mystery, yes, but much more.

A young Irishman joins with a group of young Americans in the Riviera. The chief protagonist is not the Irishman, but the once-rich boy Tom and his infatuation with the Argentinian virgin of the title. In fact, everyone is in love with Tom. Sadly, except me. Despite the author's best efforts, I didn't like him much, nor did I feel I got to know him.

When the body of a disliked man turns up, the question has to be who killed him?

As the book progresses we learn about all the members of the group.

Despite the blurb, I did not find it sensuous, nor did I particularly like the protagonists, but something kept me reading. I was fascinated by the Riviera in the time just before the war really started. And in the end, although I did not care much about the characters, I still wanted to know who dunnit. The culprit was a complete surprise.

Did I like it? I have to say I am not sure, which is why I have given it just three stars.

[Irene Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of The Argentinian Virgin through LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review. This book is a slow read until about half way through when the pace picks up with many twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end. The story is written from the perspective of a young Irish author, Pat, who meets up with four Americans traveling in France and what happens in their lives the summer of 1941. Twenty some years later he tries to find out what really happened that long ago summer that changed each of their lives forever. He discovers many secrets and surprises leading to an unexpected ending. I found this book enjoyable and thought provoking.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the description, I really expected to like this book. I feel like the story oversold itself... From the descriptive traits of the characters and promises of certain descriptions of events, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, there was a definite lack of action on the part of the characters (and what really should have been a driving plot) to fulfill these wonderfully interesting hints of what was to come literary promises that were made from the very beginning. I'm sorry to say this, but I feel cheated by this disappointing book.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mystery to the very end. (I did guess part of it though). Complicated characters, psychobabble,but interesting situations. Very good for its specific niche.