Thursday Night Widows

Despite the tacky cover, this book is no potboiler. Instead, the cover accurately reflects the values of the beautiful people of Cascade Heights, a gated and walled residential community thirty miles outside Buenos Aires with full-service security-along with a golf course and top-quality tennis. The wealthy residents of The Cascade have left their old lives behind, and low live in elaborately built houses with spectacular landscaping, a world apart. Argentine author Claudia Pineiro carefully analyzes the behavior of these residents, concentrating, in particular, on four couples-Ronie and Virginia Guevara, El Tano and Teresa Scaglia, Gustavo and Carla Masotta, and Martin and Lala Urovich-who live in the same neighborhood. The men play cards at El Tano's house every Thursday night while the women go to the cinema. The novel begins on Thursday night, September 27, 2001, when Teresa Scaglia returns home and doesn't hear any noise from the card room or pool. She soon discovers that El Tano and two of his friends are dead. Using Virginia Guevara, a real estate agent who also lives in the compound, as the primary narrator, the author dissects the lives of these characters in the ten years leading up to this September, 2001 event, skewering their pretenses, their blatant dishonesty, their flouting of the law, and their feeling of entitlement. Recent years have been marked by a severe economic downturn in Argentina, however. As Virginia says: "Many of our neighbors made the mistake of thinking that they could keep spending as much as they earned forever. And what they earned was a lot, and seemed eternal. But there comes a day when the taps are turned off." With her tongue firmly set in her cheek, the author creates a story filled with dark ironies, and by making their problems similar to those of any other self-protecting, upscale suburban community, regardless of country, she succeeds in creating identification between the outrageous characters and her readers. These characters' lives are just close enough to the norm that they seem in many ways "ordinary," their behavior, however extreme, common enough that it is easily recognizable for what it is. Their casual dishonesty is a given. Because they are extreme stereotypes, they are laughable. By the time the reader discovers how the men have died, that revelation comes as no surprise. Interesting for its picture of the effects of a global economic downturn on one community of wealthy businessmen, it is also an unforgettable picture of the empty lives which these men and their wives are happy to lead-the "causes" they adopt which accomplish nothing, their view of reality which is limited to their own social class, the inability to communicate with anyone because their individual lives are so egocentric. Great fun to read and often darkly humorous, this novel is a clear and uncomplicated social commentary which readers from many parts of the world may enjoy. Mary Whipple

This book was everything I hoped it would be, based on the intriguing description. Now that I've read it, I'm eagerly awaiting future English translations of works by Claudia Pineiro. I'd also like to see the movie based on this book, currently in production by director Marcelo Piñeyro. I'm so thankful for Bitter Lemon Press, the publisher who keeps finding these gems of novels - such as this one, and the Havana Quartet by Leonardo Padura. I found it incredibly unusual to set a crime novel in a lush, gated community outside Buenos Aires. I thought I would be struck by how different life in Argentina is - but for these moderately wealthy characters, it seems that their cares, worries, anxieties - even flaws and shallowness - are much more similar to USA or UK than I would have expected. The story takes place in 2001, with flashbacks throughout the 1990s - during times of economic upheaval and job losses. The current economic crisis made the story hit home a bit more, especially as everyone I know has the same worries (as the main characters in this book) about their job, career, finances. However, this is a rich, fun tale - a dark comedy really - about a set of richly drawn characters who do crazy things. Thoroughly enjoyable - I read it in just 2 days.

As Argentina falls apart due to an economic collapse of incredible proportions just after 9/11, the country seems on the verge of anarchy with no place that is safe. That is except for the well to do living in gated communities that insulate them from what is going on outside except for the TV news and their outside employment. In the Buenos Aires gated community Cascade Heights, four men (El Tano Scaglia, Martín Urovich Gustavo Masotta and Ronie Guevara) have dinner together every Thursday night. However, this time is different as three lie dead in the swimming pool at the most affluent Scaglia home; only Guevara who left early remains alive. How could this happen especially to someone as influential and powerful as El Tano is on the minds of their family members as all assume a horrific electrical accident occurred. However, Virginia Guevara though curious and shocked fears for her Ronie who behaves strangely since the incident and she believes he knows something more. This is an interesting look at Argentina in which the upper class behaved like Nero fiddling away while the country collapsed. The story line is mostly told through Virginia's eyes as a successful realtor to the wealthy. Although insightful with a strong cast who warn readers to beware of growing exponential gaps between the affluent and the middle class, the mystery of the pool takes a back seat to the discerning look at the gilded life behind the gated community. Harriet Klausner