Eduardo Mendoza's regular novels can seem quite mundane in comparison to the delights of his witty and entertaining comedies, but there is always something compelling in his characters lives and their struggles with personal dilemmas that holds the reader's attention. Set in Mendoza's hometown of Barcelona, a chance meeting with an old school friend Fontán gives Mauricio the chance to enliven...
more Eduardo Mendoza's regular novels can seem quite mundane in comparison to the delights of his witty and entertaining comedies, but there is always something compelling in his characters lives and their struggles with personal dilemmas that holds the reader's attention. Set in Mendoza's hometown of Barcelona, a chance meeting with an old school friend Fontán gives Mauricio the chance to enliven his rather routine solitary life as a dentist by becoming involved in local politics. When his half-hearted political career as a candidate for the socialist party doesn't take off, he goes back and puts his efforts into improving his dentistry career.
His encounter with Fontán and his brief flirtation with local politics however bring two women into his life - Clotilde, a young woman who lives with her parents and is underemployed and undervalued at a lawyer's office, and la Porritos an unemployed woman living in deprived conditions who he meets playing guitar and singing at political rallies. Mauricio is just as uncertain and half-hearted with regards to the women as he is in his choice of career, and as a result finds himself in a bit of a mess.
The mismatched relationships and romantic complications that ensue recall similar situations in other Mendoza 'mainstream' novels such as El Año del Diluvio and La Isla Inaudita, but there is comedy to be found in Mauricio's flip comments and his inability to get emotionally in touch with himself with regards to other people's feelings that recalls our unfortunate inmate from the asylum in the author's marvellous mystery/adventure comedies. In this respect, as well as in the incidental details of the author's depiction of Barcelona in the years leading up to the profound changes the city would undergo with the 1992 Olympics, it's thoroughly a Mendoza book and a thoroughly enjoyable one.
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