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kfrench1008's review
4.0
The backdrop (Chile at the time of the 1973 coup) and the setup (young detective hired by Pablo Neruda to find a lost love) are great, but the plot meanders at times. The last 50 pages or so were terrific, though.
lisagfrederick's review against another edition
4.0
Loved this literary thriller for its quick pace, beautiful imagery, vivid characters (not least Neruda) and zigzagging plot. The subplot about the turmoil of 1970s Chile becomes a bit obtuse at times; I needed a history book to connect some of the dots that ultimately led to Pinochet's coup. And I sensed a few plot devices tossed in to wrap things up just a little too conveniently. But overall it's a fun, meaty read.
jodi_b's review against another edition
5.0
I started reading this book aloud to my partner. The way the author set the scene with social and political detail reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As a listener, my partner found it difficult to get into wanting something to happen. As the reader and a lover of Latin American fiction and Pablo Neruda's poetry, I was hooked and the novel did not disappoint with romance and political intrigue hopping from Chile to Mexico, Cuba, and East Germany.
serenaac's review
5.0
The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero, translated by Carolina de Robertis (author of Perla), is set just before the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile when Castro is in power in Cuba and Germany has been cut in half by the wall. Cuban exile Cayetano Brulé has left Miami with his wife, Maria Paz Angela Undurraga Cox, for her home in Chile, but he continues to feel out of place as no one trusts a Cuban and he cannot find work. Meanwhile, his wife is increasingly engaged in the reform movement in the country, while at the same time she is pulling away from her husband. Wandering in a strange country with bad coffee, Cayetano unwittingly bumps into Pablo Neruda at a party in a library and shortly receives an offer he cannot refuse.
Read full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2013/06/the-neruda-case-by-roberto-ampuero-translated-by-carolina-de-robertis.html
Read full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2013/06/the-neruda-case-by-roberto-ampuero-translated-by-carolina-de-robertis.html
tim_worldofsleuths's review
3.0
You can read my review at http://world-of-sleuths.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-neruda-case.html.
danperlman's review against another edition
5.0
Completely engrossing. Couldn't put it down. Mystery, intrigue, sex, poetry, food and drink... all woven together skillfully.
judidec's review against another edition
4.0
"Poets. Now Cayetano understood why people didn’t trust them"
A quite dense mystery novel about a budding detective sent on a wild goose chase in 1970s Chile. I enjoyed the travelogue aspect of the novel, as the character jumps around Latin America and various communist strongholds of the era. It also spurred me to learn more about the events surrounding the Allende government. However, I felt the story itself was sacrificed a bit in all of this, and it wasn't as tight as I would have liked.
A quite dense mystery novel about a budding detective sent on a wild goose chase in 1970s Chile. I enjoyed the travelogue aspect of the novel, as the character jumps around Latin America and various communist strongholds of the era. It also spurred me to learn more about the events surrounding the Allende government. However, I felt the story itself was sacrificed a bit in all of this, and it wasn't as tight as I would have liked.
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