A Catalan dog?
Crime Scraps expresses vague dissatisfaction with Manuel Vazquez Montalban's An Olympic Death. Scraps thinks a certain diffuseness of plot may be to blame. His comments got me thinking about my own vague dissatisfaction with the novel. I realized then that the the author says curiously little that is memorable about his setting -- is surprising for a book whose title presents it as a story of a changing Barcelona.
Labels: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Pepe Carvalho
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 2:54 PM
2 Comments:
I have never been to Venice but feel I have because of Donna Leon's books. The same applies to Sicily after my brief experience of reading Leonardo Sciascia, but An Olympic Death had no features or feel of Barcelona in it.
The corruption and decadence could have been anywhere, and the olympic trough that was Barcelona will certainly be surpassed when London 2012 comes along.
Did you manage to visit Dulwich Picture Gallery?
I did not visit Dulwich; I was just in London for two days. It was a jumping-off point for Tunis, where I am now. I hope to visit the Souk des Librairies, or Booksellers' Market, tomorrow.
Perhaps An Olympic Death reads better to those who already know Barcelona well. I think you and I are in complete agreement in this matter.
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