My Tender Matador

Rating:
Summary: A Small Novel With Big Themes!
Review: Although consisting of only 170 pages, MY TENDER MATADOR is a fine, powerful novel. Based on a historical event in 1986 in Chile, the plot is simple and straight forward. A youth group attempts to kill the Dictator Augusto Pinochet. Carlos, a macho, handsome member of the group stores what turns out to be guns and ammunition in the home of the Queen of the Corner, a transvestite who falls hopelessly, shamelessly in love with "her" young sweaty hero. The story of these two oddly coupled people is told against the historical characters of Pinochet and his wife. At one point their paths actually cross when the Pinochets drive by and see from a distance this attractive couple, Carlos and the Queen, on a picnic. The dictator's wife is envious of the Queen's yellow polka-dot wide-brimmed hat. "Gonzalo [The First Lady's hairdresser] says that yellow is all the rage in Europe, it was the color of the spring-summer season. I'm going to tell him to get me one exactly like that." Though a despised aging effeminate homosexual-- the Queen is in his forties with wisps of hair and dentures-- through the brilliant writing of Pedro Lemebel, he becomes the most sympathetic of characters. He who in abject poverty learns to create beautiful embroidery is contrasted with Pinochet's wife, a petty, scheming cellulite laden nonstop talker.

Consisting of contrasting and repeating scenes, this very visual novel could be made into either a fine stage production or movie or both. Carlos and the Queen have two tableau-like scenes, for example, early in the novel and near the end, when they go on a picnic. There is also the highly suspenseful sequence, broken down by time, "1600 hours", "1605 hours", "1800 hours", etc., when the happenings of the Dictator's motorcade is contrasted by the Queen's visit to an adult theatre. Mr. Lemebel is masterful with language. When the Queen has just cleaned out her apartment before fleeing to avoid being captured by the Dictator's henchmen--"Sitting and facing this view, she blew out puffs of smoke and asked herself, How do you look at something you will never see again?" When she sees Vina del Mar for the first time, a resort of "tourists and beautiful people," she remembers what Lemebel calls "the miracle of the first time she saw the working-class sea."

Trite as it sounds, this sometimes highly erotic novel is ultimately about love and how love, regardless of how difficult or unlikely to happen, redeems us. It is also about the triumph of the human spirit and good over evil, the making of something beautiful out of practically nothing (the beautiful tablecloth that the Queen makes) and finally the importance of courage and hope. MY TENDER MATADOR-- I won't give away the meaning of the title by discussing it-- is a moving and wonderful story.

Rating:
Summary: A Small Novel With Big Themes!
Review: Although consisting of only 170 pages, MY TENDER MATADOR is a fine, powerful novel. Based on a historical event in 1986 in Chile, the plot is simple and straight forward. A youth group attempts to kill the Dictator Augusto Pinochet. Carlos, a macho, handsome member of the group stores what turns out to be guns and ammunition in the home of the Queen of the Corner, a transvestite who falls hopelessly, shamelessly in love with "her" young sweaty hero. The story of these two oddly coupled people is told against the historical characters of Pinochet and his wife. At one point their paths actually cross when the Pinochets drive by and see from a distance this attractive couple, Carlos and the Queen, on a picnic. The dictator's wife is envious of the Queen's yellow polka-dot wide-brimmed hat. "Gonzalo [The First Lady's hairdresser] says that yellow is all the rage in Europe, it was the color of the spring-summer season. I'm going to tell him to get me one exactly like that." Though a despised aging effeminate homosexual-- the Queen is in his forties with wisps of hair and dentures-- through the brilliant writing of Pedro Lemebel, he becomes the most sympathetic of characters. He who in abject poverty learns to create beautiful embroidery is contrasted with Pinochet's wife, a petty, scheming cellulite laden nonstop talker.

Consisting of contrasting and repeating scenes, this very visual novel could be made into either a fine stage production or movie or both. Carlos and the Queen have two tableau-like scenes, for example, early in the novel and near the end, when they go on a picnic. There is also the highly suspenseful sequence, broken down by time, "1600 hours", "1605 hours", "1800 hours", etc., when the happenings of the Dictator's motorcade is contrasted by the Queen's visit to an adult theatre. Mr. Lemebel is masterful with language. When the Queen has just cleaned out her apartment before fleeing to avoid being captured by the Dictator's henchmen--"Sitting and facing this view, she blew out puffs of smoke and asked herself, How do you look at something you will never see again?" When she sees Vina del Mar for the first time, a resort of "tourists and beautiful people," she remembers what Lemebel calls "the miracle of the first time she saw the working-class sea."

Trite as it sounds, this sometimes highly erotic novel is ultimately about love and how love, regardless of how difficult or unlikely to happen, redeems us. It is also about the triumph of the human spirit and good over evil, the making of something beautiful out of practically nothing (the beautiful tablecloth that the Queen makes) and finally the importance of courage and hope. MY TENDER MATADOR-- I won't give away the meaning of the title by discussing it-- is a moving and wonderful story.