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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
I finished reading Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez and for the most part, I would describe this book as confusing. It's supposedly a novel about what happened to Evita Peron's body after it was embalmed. Apparently it was very life-like and her followers were obsessed with it. But, the government that took over after Peron was overturned wanted to be rid of her body. So, the story switches back and forth between the author talking in the first person about who he interviewed writing the book and what they told him and also to a "character" called the Colonel who was originally assigned the task of getting rid of the body. I don't know what's true and what's false and maybe that's why it's called a novel. Overall, I was just glad to finish this book and felt like it was a let down.
Me recomendaron esta novela cuando intenté entender un poco de política argentina, y creo que sigo sin lograrlo. La mezcla entre historia y realidad e imaginación son un regalo del autor. Desde la visión de la mujer, me gustó conocer poco de su vida, sus luchas y sus esfuerzos. Desde la visión política, me confronta el populismo… y sus secuelas en toda América Latina, tan vigente.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Sexual assault
Necrophilia is touched on many times in the book
Hoy en 2022 me golpeó que me leí este libro el 1998, sencillamente genial
estou pronta para escrever um texto de dez páginas em times new roman, tamanho doze, espaçamento simples, sobre o fenómeno evita, a mestria na construção desta obra (+ os seus defeitos) e a minha experiência de leitura sem contexto prévio.
Brilliant novel. It has a spell, a mesmerizing feeling. You can't put it down and you are prepared to lose your mind in the same way the officer did, the man who, in a moment of insanity, professes his love to the corpse of the hatred and adored Evita.
I stopped reading after about 50 pages. It just got boring.
This book was some undertaking. Wow. I'm not sure if it's completely fiction, or a kind of fictionalised version of all his reason, and all the various stories he's been told over the years about Evita's body. But either way, it's one to make you think about a lot of things, and it also makes me think I should read his other books, and learn more about Evita's life before she died. The glimpses you get through this, which mainly looks at her "life" after death, give me a mixed image of a woman. Certainly hardworking, dedicated to wanting to make things better, but was she also in love with this idolised state she'd gotten herself into in Argentina? The way the country's money was spent helping people with their problems.. but not through any kind of welfare state, but people having to go to her palace and queue up for days to get an audience with her and then beg for what they needed. I guess it must have been an ego boost to have been in such a position! And the way the country idolised her - not all of the country certainly, some hated her - but it really was although she was a saint. It's hard to fully appreciate because I don't think anything like that could happen here in the UK, we've got the wrong kind of temprement and culture to get that kind of fervor over a person. Sure we have our celeb culture, obsessions over people who really don't do anything apart from themselves, but it's not exactly on the same level.
So it's about people's obsessions with Evita after her death, and in particular her embalmed body. There's fighting between factions to get hold of it; to keep it away from the general public, the faithful who keep leaving lighted candles and flowers whereever they think the body is, and send threats to the Colonel whose job it is to deal with the body. The Spanish embalmer who took years over preparing her body and obsessing over it, reputedly having wax copies made -leading to operations planned and double dealing with all these Evitas being sneaked about across the world. She ends up hidden in a cinema, and the owner's daughter finds her and thinks she's a new doll to play with. A body that has mythical status, a supposed curse that destroys people involved with it, as if she's tutankamun.
So it's about people's obsessions with Evita after her death, and in particular her embalmed body. There's fighting between factions to get hold of it; to keep it away from the general public, the faithful who keep leaving lighted candles and flowers whereever they think the body is, and send threats to the Colonel whose job it is to deal with the body. The Spanish embalmer who took years over preparing her body and obsessing over it, reputedly having wax copies made -leading to operations planned and double dealing with all these Evitas being sneaked about across the world. She ends up hidden in a cinema, and the owner's daughter finds her and thinks she's a new doll to play with. A body that has mythical status, a supposed curse that destroys people involved with it, as if she's tutankamun.