The Matter of Desire

Pedro Zabalaga, a young professor of Latin American Studies at a New York university, is the son of Bolivian hero Pedro Reissig, one of six men massacred by the army in the 1970s, as their socialist cell was planning the overthrow of President Montenegro. When Reissig died, young Pedro was still a small child, and Reissig's legacy to him is a book he has written entitled Berkeley, a cult novel filled with symbolism. By discovering the messages hidden in the book, Pedro believes he will discover his father. Now in Rio Fugitivo on sabbatical to do research, he is staying with his Uncle David Reissig, the only survivor of the massacre. "Berkeley can be considered as a political critique of the media," David Reissig tells Pedro, "And of history as well, starting with the telegraph." Political use of the media, the dominant theme, is also a concern of Pedro, who writes political commentary for American magazines. In addition, the drug kingpin of Bolivia uses the media to promote the idea that he is a Robin Hood-like hero, several of the revolutionaries whom Pedro Zabalaga befriends are involved in the media, and a popular contemporary rock band, named "Berkeley," conveys revolutionary messages through its videos. In a clever double irony, the author of this novel himself uses the clues of cryptograms to convey the history of the revolution to readers of this book. Despite its well developed themes, this is not just a "message novel." Pedro Zabalaga's return to Bolivia is an escape from a disastrous affair with a student whom he still loves. As the novel alternates between Bolivia and New York, tracing the relationship, the reader sees innumerable parallels between the lives of Pedro and his father in their unwillingness to commit themselves to the future. The mystery surrounding Pedro Reissig controls the action and direction of the novel-Who is he? Who betrayed the group to the army? What does his novel Berkeley mean? This first-ever translation of a Paz Soldan novel provides insightful descriptions of people, their actions, and their politics. The author's sensitivity to the contrasts between life in Bolivia and life in upstate New York is obvious, and his ability to create not one, but two less than admirable "heroes," both of whom keep the reader engaged, is striking. Despite the constant changes in time and setting, the novel is tightly constructed, using a mystery and love story as the framework for important political observations. Mary Whipple

What comes after 100 years of solitude?Literarily speaking, one would hope, a new start.That start is well under way: A new Latin literary movement that eschews the illusions of magical realism to tell stories set squarely in a world that's both familiar and alien at the same time -- on two continents. And Edmundo Paz Soldan's new English edition of "The Matter of Desire" is not only the latest, but maybe the most commercial work from this intriguing genre.Barely 37, Paz Soldan is already an important literary figure in Bolivia. And in the process of becoming one of Latin America's rising literary stars, he's become a leading figure in that continent's newest literary movement.Earlier this year, Oprah anointed Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 1970 classic "100 Years of Solitude," and introduced her book-buying hordes to magical realism. The groundbreaking novel is set in the fictional village of Macondo, a rural environment populated and/or haunted by ever-present spirits. The result was poetic prose that slipped effortlessly between the natural and supernatural.But kids will be kids. In the 1990s, young Chilean novelist Alberto Fuguet led other Latin American Gen-X writers in a new direction. Their stories often have one foot on each American continent, embracing rather than denying the inextricable entanglement of North and South American cultures. They abandoned the bucolic settings of the interior for more urban, hip context where McDonald's, iMacs, and MP3s are more pervasive than ghosts of the past. Thus, with a tongue-in-cheek homage to Marquez's Macondo, the new literary movement became known as "McOndo." Like Paz Soldan's protagonist, McOndo writers are often suspended between Americas, between their sometimes sordid history and their urbane future. Their characters are often proud Latin Americans who have succumbed to the North American siren song. Their settings span both continents, too. Their neo-realism is edgy, erotic, virtual and cool. What it *isn't* is exotic and metaphysical. It is evolutionary, not revolutionary.In "The Matter of Desire," Paz Soldan explores the concrete obsessions of love and sex, fathers and sons, literature and word puzzles, past and future, place and dislocation. Besides exploring a hip "new" storytelling model, Paz Soldan tells a story with fascinating twists and turns. It's also a complex love story marbled with political suspense, erotic fascination, and a sense that we are all tethered to a parallel existence in a different place and time. It's a real context for many Latin Americans with intimate ties to El Norte, including Paz Soldan.