This book was published in English in June 2012 for the first time. Originally written in Spanish, The Neruda Case is a mystery that asks us to imagine: What if Chief Inspector Maigret were not Parisian, but instead an ex patriate Cuban living in Santiago, Chile during the 1970s revolution and coup? So to really enjoy this book it helps if you already know and enjoy Simenons Maigret. I do.
What I have always loved about the Maigret novels, an extensive series of police procedurals by Georges Simenon, is the Parisian atmosphere, the nuances of personality and the psychological motivation of characters, including that of the detective Maigret himself, imparted by the author. Simenon draws us in gradually by means of small observations of daily life and reflections passing through the mind of his central character. So whether or not there is a conventional mystery plot to solve, the novels are a pleasure to read for Maigrets thought process and the general ambiance.
Which brings us to The Neruda Case. It shares those strengths. Per Amazons web site, Roberto Ampuero is a native Chilean who has published twelve novels in Spanish. This is the first to be published in English, and gives us a great place to begin getting to know his detective, Cayetano Brule, as he takes on his detective identity. Instead of Paris, we begin in Santiago, Chile. Instead of the 1950s we are immersed in 1973. But Cayetano Brule has read Georges Simenon, in fact, he has been assigned to read the Maigret novels by none other than Pablo Neruda, the dying national poet of Chile. That is the extent of Brules training as a detective, and he often reflects on how unlike Maigret he is.
Maigret is a French police inspector with a longtime happy marriage and pedestrian habits. Brule is a bit between worlds, having followed his wife to Chile, but not being Chilean himself. His marriage is disintegrating as the book begins. By taking on a task for the poet Neruda, Brule just falls into the role of detective. Not a bit like Maigret rising through the ranks of the French police. And the environments of 1970s Chile, and Cuba, Bolivia and East Berlin evoke the great national upheavals into which Ampueros Brule travels. Brules world is chaotic and eruptive as Maigrets is orderly and traditional. The authors imagining of a sort-of-Maigret to (mostly) Latin America in the 1970s seems perfect to me. Cayetano Brule is more passionate and confused than Maigret, but so is his world.
In The Neruda Case, the fictional Pablo Neruda maintains a closet of costumery for his own and Brules use. As Brule takes on the detective role he watches those around him as they morph in and out of other roles: revolutionary, wife, leader of the nation, etc. The case itself is finding someone who has been a young wife, a revolutionary, lover to the poet, mother, and has changed her role, her name and her country over and over.
Ampueros descriptive prose pleases me the way Simenons description of setting pleases me. Both evoke rich images and scents of places very far away. And since Neruda is a key figure in Ampueros novel he is given a point of view too, and thats fine with me. But it is the writing, and the character of Cayetano Brule, as he reflects on all the changes around him, who would lead me to read another mystery by Ampuero.
What I have always loved about the Maigret novels, an extensive series of police procedurals by Georges Simenon, is the Parisian atmosphere, the nuances of personality and the psychological motivation of characters, including that of the detective Maigret himself, imparted by the author. Simenon draws us in gradually by means of small observations of daily life and reflections passing through the mind of his central character. So whether or not there is a conventional mystery plot to solve, the novels are a pleasure to read for Maigrets thought process and the general ambiance.
Which brings us to The Neruda Case. It shares those strengths. Per Amazons web site, Roberto Ampuero is a native Chilean who has published twelve novels in Spanish. This is the first to be published in English, and gives us a great place to begin getting to know his detective, Cayetano Brule, as he takes on his detective identity. Instead of Paris, we begin in Santiago, Chile. Instead of the 1950s we are immersed in 1973. But Cayetano Brule has read Georges Simenon, in fact, he has been assigned to read the Maigret novels by none other than Pablo Neruda, the dying national poet of Chile. That is the extent of Brules training as a detective, and he often reflects on how unlike Maigret he is.
Maigret is a French police inspector with a longtime happy marriage and pedestrian habits. Brule is a bit between worlds, having followed his wife to Chile, but not being Chilean himself. His marriage is disintegrating as the book begins. By taking on a task for the poet Neruda, Brule just falls into the role of detective. Not a bit like Maigret rising through the ranks of the French police. And the environments of 1970s Chile, and Cuba, Bolivia and East Berlin evoke the great national upheavals into which Ampueros Brule travels. Brules world is chaotic and eruptive as Maigrets is orderly and traditional. The authors imagining of a sort-of-Maigret to (mostly) Latin America in the 1970s seems perfect to me. Cayetano Brule is more passionate and confused than Maigret, but so is his world.
In The Neruda Case, the fictional Pablo Neruda maintains a closet of costumery for his own and Brules use. As Brule takes on the detective role he watches those around him as they morph in and out of other roles: revolutionary, wife, leader of the nation, etc. The case itself is finding someone who has been a young wife, a revolutionary, lover to the poet, mother, and has changed her role, her name and her country over and over.
Ampueros descriptive prose pleases me the way Simenons description of setting pleases me. Both evoke rich images and scents of places very far away. And since Neruda is a key figure in Ampueros novel he is given a point of view too, and thats fine with me. But it is the writing, and the character of Cayetano Brule, as he reflects on all the changes around him, who would lead me to read another mystery by Ampuero.
