Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Booket (2017), 240 pages
Description
"In search of the spirit of Paul Gauguin, Stuart Pedrell--eccentric Barcelona businessman, construction magnate, dreamer, and patron of poets and painters--disappeared not long after announcing plans to travel to the South Pacific. A year later he is found stabbed to death at a construction site in Barcelona. Gourmand gumshoe Pepe Carvalho is hired by Pedrell's wife to find out what happened. Carvalho must travel through circles of the old anti-Franco left wing on the trail of the killer. But with little appetite for politics, Carvalho also leads us on a tour through literature, cuisine, and the criminal underbelly of Barcelona in a typically brilliant twist on the genre by a Spanish master"--P. [4] of cover.
User reviews
LibraryThing member thorold
A prominent Barcelona businessman has disappeared, telling his friends he's off on a journey to the South Seas; a year later, his body turns up, newly stabbed to death, on a building site in the city. The widow commissions hard-boiled private detective Pepe Carvalho to find out what happened to her
The investigation proceeds in traditional noir fashion, with Carvalho interviewing a series of people who were close to the dead man, and going to bed with some of them. But there's also a very clear element of social criticism, Carvalho looking with a jaundiced eye on the way the city is changing during the transition to democracy, especially the way that the class of people who made money out of it in Franco's time are reinventing themselves as new-style 1980s "entrepreneurs" whilst the left carries on with the usual internal squabbles and fails to seize the opportunity. And, trademark of the series, there is Carvalho's very close attention to what he and others eat and drink. Interviews with witnesses can easily stray off into detailed technical discussions about recipes, culinary heresies, and the right and wrong way to drink white wine — all of which, of course, end up telling us a lot about the characters concerned.
There's a spoilt little rich girl straight out of Raymond Chandler, but, perhaps unexpectedly, Carvalho is rather less given to actual drunkenness than most noir detectives. All the same, the pivotal scene of the story is a gloriously drunken bachelor evening of arguments about paella and poetry that leaves Carvalho with the kind of headache that can only lead to an inspiration about where to pursue his enquiries. There's another magnificent scene where he strays into a round-table discussion about detective fiction and things suddenly get very postmodern...
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husband during the missing year.The investigation proceeds in traditional noir fashion, with Carvalho interviewing a series of people who were close to the dead man, and going to bed with some of them. But there's also a very clear element of social criticism, Carvalho looking with a jaundiced eye on the way the city is changing during the transition to democracy, especially the way that the class of people who made money out of it in Franco's time are reinventing themselves as new-style 1980s "entrepreneurs" whilst the left carries on with the usual internal squabbles and fails to seize the opportunity. And, trademark of the series, there is Carvalho's very close attention to what he and others eat and drink. Interviews with witnesses can easily stray off into detailed technical discussions about recipes, culinary heresies, and the right and wrong way to drink white wine — all of which, of course, end up telling us a lot about the characters concerned.
There's a spoilt little rich girl straight out of Raymond Chandler, but, perhaps unexpectedly, Carvalho is rather less given to actual drunkenness than most noir detectives. All the same, the pivotal scene of the story is a gloriously drunken bachelor evening of arguments about paella and poetry that leaves Carvalho with the kind of headache that can only lead to an inspiration about where to pursue his enquiries. There's another magnificent scene where he strays into a round-table discussion about detective fiction and things suddenly get very postmodern...
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LibraryThing member kerns222
OK, first thing--rip out the last two pages. They contain gratuitous violence against the reader's sensibilities. Now, let's talk about the rest.
Detective Carvalho solves crimes through dialog. He talks his way through the plot. Also, he eats and talks about eating, gourmet eating with cooking
My kind of book.
Detective Carvalho solves crimes through dialog. He talks his way through the plot. Also, he eats and talks about eating, gourmet eating with cooking
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instructions. With his Charo, Biscuter, and a walkoff young lady (This is macho Spain). All written over a brew of socialist democratic history just after Franco. Montalban roasts the rich and but gives the poor a hard time, too. My kind of book.
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LibraryThing member Picathartes
This book may be over my head, much of the writing I did not understand. It seemed like endless lines which should have set a tone, or a place, or performed some task, but I never figured out what it was. Maybe it is because the snapshot or timeframe of Spanish history is largely unknown to me, but
Overall it was kind of weird. I never figured out what Pepe Carvalho was all about other than another investigator-type, in this case "private detective", with an overriding culinary streak.
Is Carvalho the original foodie? Seems like every bit of crime fiction I read nowadays has to have a strong food angle: Tannie Maria (Sally Andrew), Vish Puri (Tarquin Hall), Salvo Montalbano (Andrea Camilleri) etc. Like when did all the fictional crime-solvers become gourmands? It is because of all those baking shows on TV nowadays?
Another aspect I didn’t quite get or believe is that every single character was forever quoting from literature, or some art figure. Every person was a literary savant. In the real world no one does that.
I do not believe I had ever heard of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán before finding this book so I was trying to keep an open mind. My first impression was to call this an average story. But then I got to thinking that I didn’t care for a single character, and there were scores as the book circled back and forth between the mains. I simply wasn’t engaged in any way with the story or events so it took me a long time to read what is really a short story. When I'd pick up the book to start reading again I had little idea of what was happening so would have to glance back a few pages to try and get back into it. At the end of the day I have to go with less-than-okay for this one.
There were a few passages I liked (see below), but by the middle the book not even those could save it.
*************
‘What about his wife? Why is she called Mima?’
‘From Miriam. It’s quite normal. All my clients are called Popo, Puli, Peni, Chocho, Fifi or somesuch. These days it’s chic to be "tired", and nothing tires you more than having to say someone's full name.
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somehow it seemed important.Overall it was kind of weird. I never figured out what Pepe Carvalho was all about other than another investigator-type, in this case "private detective", with an overriding culinary streak.
Is Carvalho the original foodie? Seems like every bit of crime fiction I read nowadays has to have a strong food angle: Tannie Maria (Sally Andrew), Vish Puri (Tarquin Hall), Salvo Montalbano (Andrea Camilleri) etc. Like when did all the fictional crime-solvers become gourmands? It is because of all those baking shows on TV nowadays?
Another aspect I didn’t quite get or believe is that every single character was forever quoting from literature, or some art figure. Every person was a literary savant. In the real world no one does that.
I do not believe I had ever heard of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán before finding this book so I was trying to keep an open mind. My first impression was to call this an average story. But then I got to thinking that I didn’t care for a single character, and there were scores as the book circled back and forth between the mains. I simply wasn’t engaged in any way with the story or events so it took me a long time to read what is really a short story. When I'd pick up the book to start reading again I had little idea of what was happening so would have to glance back a few pages to try and get back into it. At the end of the day I have to go with less-than-okay for this one.
There were a few passages I liked (see below), but by the middle the book not even those could save it.
*************
‘What about his wife? Why is she called Mima?’
‘From Miriam. It’s quite normal. All my clients are called Popo, Puli, Peni, Chocho, Fifi or somesuch. These days it’s chic to be "tired", and nothing tires you more than having to say someone's full name.
Show Less
Awards
Martin Beck Award (Winner — 1992)
Premio Planeta de Novela (Winner — 1979)
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
1979
Physical description
240 p.; 7.48 inches
ISBN
8408165852 / 9788408165859