- Paperback: 305 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage International Ed edition (Nov 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679738878
- ISBN-13: 978-0679738879
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,191,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
In the provincial Argentine town of Santa Maria, Larsen, a pimp, tries to create the perfect brothel, while Julita, a widow unable to accept the death of her husband, takes his younger brother as her lover.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Onetti is a Uruguayan author and this is one of his earlier novels from 1964. Onetti, I think, is most famous for his story `A brief life', which I have also read but didn't rate at all.
The plot initially appears quite simple in that Barthe, the chemist, finally persuades the council to allow a brothel in the small town of Santa Maria. He had long ago enlisted Larsen, the Body Snatcher, to acquire the building and women. The main story is in fact overshadowed by the many side characters such as Jorge the youth, Julieta his dead (Frederico) brother's wife; Diaz Grey the Doctor; Marcos the taxi driver who objects to the brothel and tries to close it down; the priest Father Bergner (Marco's uncle); and Maria Bonita, Irene and Nelly the prostitutes. The depth to the story is achieved by having Julieta seducing Jorge (as a near replacement for Frederico) and Marcos (Julieta's brother) being in his youth responsible for a sexual commune. Larsen has a history with Maria.
The novel is interestingly constructed in that it has first person scenes between characters developing the intrigues and subtleties, but occasionally you get italiced text giving a first person internal perspective of the interaction.
Somehow this novel didn't quite work for me; I found it strangely difficult to follow in that you didn't immediately know who was narrating. I got a confused sense that some chapters were retrospective but later realised it was in fact simply a continuity. Some questions just weren't answered. Overall the sad strong ending didn't quite match the thrust of the narrative yet it's that that makes the reading worthwhile at the conclusion. I suspect that the author wanted the 'body snatcher' reference to be applicable to several characters. Overall not convinced.
The plot initially appears quite simple in that Barthe, the chemist, finally persuades the council to allow a brothel in the small town of Santa Maria. He had long ago enlisted Larsen, the Body Snatcher, to acquire the building and women. The main story is in fact overshadowed by the many side characters such as Jorge the youth, Julieta his dead (Frederico) brother's wife; Diaz Grey the Doctor; Marcos the taxi driver who objects to the brothel and tries to close it down; the priest Father Bergner (Marco's uncle); and Maria Bonita, Irene and Nelly the prostitutes. The depth to the story is achieved by having Julieta seducing Jorge (as a near replacement for Frederico) and Marcos (Julieta's brother) being in his youth responsible for a sexual commune. Larsen has a history with Maria.
The novel is interestingly constructed in that it has first person scenes between characters developing the intrigues and subtleties, but occasionally you get italiced text giving a first person internal perspective of the interaction.
Somehow this novel didn't quite work for me; I found it strangely difficult to follow in that you didn't immediately know who was narrating. I got a confused sense that some chapters were retrospective but later realised it was in fact simply a continuity. Some questions just weren't answered. Overall the sad strong ending didn't quite match the thrust of the narrative yet it's that that makes the reading worthwhile at the conclusion. I suspect that the author wanted the 'body snatcher' reference to be applicable to several characters. Overall not convinced.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Body Snatcher
16 July 2001
Format:Paperback
I read this book just after completing Kerouac's "on the road" - but when I finished Body Snatcher I said to myself "To hell with beat culture - this is real literature". I was just stunned by the class of Onetti's writing. He is in the class of Marquez and creates a fantastic canvas like Marquez. The topic of the book is very simple and the whole story is set up in a town where life is drag and prosaic but Onetti brings a strange tone of suspense which will keep you hooked to the book. When in any author tries to look into a topic from several view points and builds up the story in these view points -the story tends to become divergent in nature. Onetti never looses the tight control of the plot. I also admire the translation - I do not how far it is true to its Spanish version but it is definitely good piece of translation. Long time back I read a book called "Body Watching" by Desmond Morris, where he describes human behavior through pictures - Onetti can be described as the literary counter part of Morris. Every essential movement of every character is described without boring the reader. Of coarse you will not find the twist and beauty of the language that you find in authors like Steinbeck, Paul Auster but may be the Spanish version has those qualities - you never know. If you get a chance buy this book. I just pray to God that some body does the same justice with translation to Akutagawa and his writings.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A comment on the translation - not exactly a review
6 Nov 2002
Format:Paperback
Let me issue a caveat on the translation of my countryman Onetti's finest book, which I originally read in Spanish. Rendering the invented word "Juntacadáveres" as "Body Snatcher" doesn't really make sense, since it seems to hint at a grave robber or something like that. "Corpse collector" would be a much better translation, the nickname referring to a man who runs a brothel full of old, ugly, depressing prostitutes. I cannot comment on the rest of the translator's work, since I haven't read it, but if the very title is badly translated, how good can the book itself be?
This said, I highly recommend this book, whose grim, surreal atmosphere will appeal to readers in search of unconventional, well-crafted writing.
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