Scan barcode
A review by redheadreading
My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
The first book for my friends' fave books project is done, and what a book! Thank you Matt for posting this beauty to me - I have been absolutely swept away by it.
The writing is lyrical and gorgeous, the lack of speech marks and line breaks creates an immersive flow, and some scenes feel almost cinematic in their heavy use of metaphor which creates an encompassing vividness. We're ostensibly looking at the failed assassination attempt of Pinochet in 1986, but we circle around the Queen of the Corner and the push and pull in her relationship with student revolutionary Carlos. The Queen of the Corner is such a compelling character to follow - her pride in her nonconformity to Chile's hypermasculine ideal allows her at times to break through moments of danger and experience times of sheer joy, but we also get to see the hardships she's experienced and her melancholia tinges the text throughout. The way other characters react to her and the language they choose to use to gender her tells us so much about them, but the Queen herself exists away from it all in a space of her own making.
I loved the way the Queen of the Corner takes classic romantic Hollywood-esque moments and queers them to create distance between her and Carlos, then breaks that down with real tenderness. Their relationship is so compelling; the lack of finite info they know about each other lets them connect without the trappings of reality getting in the way.
The chapters from the point of view of the Dictator were interesting. There was an element of farce to them and they really served to highlight Pinochet's disconnect from the reality of life in Chile. Queer, political and character-led, these are all things I associated with Matt's reading taste beforehand and this delivered upon every one. A fantastic start to my reading project!
The writing is lyrical and gorgeous, the lack of speech marks and line breaks creates an immersive flow, and some scenes feel almost cinematic in their heavy use of metaphor which creates an encompassing vividness. We're ostensibly looking at the failed assassination attempt of Pinochet in 1986, but we circle around the Queen of the Corner and the push and pull in her relationship with student revolutionary Carlos. The Queen of the Corner is such a compelling character to follow - her pride in her nonconformity to Chile's hypermasculine ideal allows her at times to break through moments of danger and experience times of sheer joy, but we also get to see the hardships she's experienced and her melancholia tinges the text throughout. The way other characters react to her and the language they choose to use to gender her tells us so much about them, but the Queen herself exists away from it all in a space of her own making.
I loved the way the Queen of the Corner takes classic romantic Hollywood-esque moments and queers them to create distance between her and Carlos, then breaks that down with real tenderness. Their relationship is so compelling; the lack of finite info they know about each other lets them connect without the trappings of reality getting in the way.
The chapters from the point of view of the Dictator were interesting. There was an element of farce to them and they really served to highlight Pinochet's disconnect from the reality of life in Chile. Queer, political and character-led, these are all things I associated with Matt's reading taste beforehand and this delivered upon every one. A fantastic start to my reading project!