Es un libro excelente para pasar el rato, más por las ocurrencias
y el humor irónico de Brice Echenique que por la calidad de la historia.

La historia es demasiado artificial y a mi modo de ver, peligrosamente parecida a "La Tía Julia y el Escribidor" de Mario Vargas Llosa. Aunque con un estilo impecable, Brice Echenique, queda muy por debajo de Vargas Llosa, al contar la clásica historia de amor entre un joven inexperto y una dama madura de alta sociedad.

Lástima por Carlitos Alegre (el protagonista de la novela), muy bien concebido por Brice Echenique, quizá se merecía una mejor historia.

José Manuel Rodrigues

This novel is written by a Peruvian writer, so I will try to be perfectly objective. I liked it from beginning to end. I ashamed to say that this is the first novel I read of Bryce, but surely makes me want to read more of him. He has this unique way to narrate the story that changes from being the narrator to be some of the characters talking, yet keeping it perfectly understandable (at least in Spanish, I think in English must be the same). The way he tells the story of Carlitos and Natalia is so funny you could read this book without stopping, and add to that the stupid attempts of the Cespedes twins to climb in the social scale of the 50's Lima, using everything and everyone to achieve it. There's just one part I did not like and it was the way the relationship ends, so not believable. And another weak point is that is a very shallow story. But come on, not everything written has to be serious or profound.

It is so refreshing to dive into Bryce Echenique books!!
He can make you get into a new world as the good literature should, with a new vocabulary and a lovely way to write sentences like he only can twisting the meaning and the order to make something quite new (I read his books in Spanish, so I have no experience with the English versions of his books, if any), and this book is it not an exception.
I read (among others) "Un Mundo para Julius" from this same author and I loved it too, they are in a way similar books on my opinion, people that are discovering the world, though a very particular world.
If you want to know how the sweet life was in Lima-Peru in the 40's don't miss this opportunity, but this book is not about that, It is about love, fantastic humour and lifes, that neither you nor me, will always live (thanks god!) but this I enjoy reading as much as any thing.

Synthesis: Martin Romana, after losing his beloved wife Ines, stays in Europe and falls madly in love with the young contessina Octavia. Of course, this affair is not to be, and the second book of the diptic "Cuaderno de Navegacion en un Sillon Voltaire" show us his vicissitudes as he roams through the universities of Europe and meets picturesque people.

For those who know Bryce and are used to his pathos -sometimes exceedingly sentimental, almost touching on cheesy, as the American slang has it- this book would not be a surprise. The same topics explored before in "Vida Exagerada de Martin Romana" and "Tantas Veces Pedro" are found in here: the feelings of uprootedness of a young Latin-American aspiring novelist lost in the cold cities of Europe; the sometimes acrid sense of humour; the attempts to imitate the proverbial British good taste only to look ridiculous in the end because a man like Romana can never be a James Bond; and, above all, the overwhelming power of unbridled feeling focused on the permanent presence of the idealized love object, be that Sophie or Octavia de Cadiz.

Even though the writer's emotion sometimes imposes limits on his style, Bryce's flaws are often compensated by his tenderness and naivete, by his shameless way to love, by his stubborn optimism towards humankind.

Not a book for the many, less gifted than "Vida Exagerada", less passionate than "Tantas Veces Pedro", it is, however, a book unique in a world where personal emotions have become so devaluated that shame takes precedence over the simple idiocy of just falling in love.

RR.

Synthesis: Using assorted fragments from the five novels, two "novelettes", and several short stories written by Bryce, his friend M. A. Juristo introduces us to a critical approach to his still growing opus.

Published before "No Me Esperen En Abril", "Para Que Duela Menos" is an elaborated but not very original critique of Bryce's books. Over-praising and at times too evident in its intentions, it doesn't arrive to any conclusion average readers would not think of by themselves.

However, insofar literary criticism remains unaware of Bryce's existence (a situation that is finally changing), this book is the only serious attempt to understand the threads that unify his novels and stories, and thus to allow us a glimpse of the author's daemons.

RR.