I picked this book up on the way to the airport, and ending up laughing out loud the whole flight (much to the annoyance of my fellow passengers, I'm afraid.) A bleak but terribly funny look at human nature... nature red in tooth and claw, in this instance.

Dostoevsky's Last Night is a daring and unexspected ride through rick and redemption by an author who is obviously not afraid to take risks. In this dazzling novel, Jorge, a passionate and eccentric man addicted to gambling seeks help with Lucia, his shrink. But instead of finding the accepting and caring person he was looking for Lucia attempts to cure him with straitforward no nonsence opinions and caustic advice, which causes Jorge to become more fond of her than he exspected. The plot, however, is not the most interesting part of Dostoevsky's Last Night -- the ideas are. Rossi moves through her novel with incredible grace, showing both the beauty and the tyranny of passion. Borrowing from numerous psychological, literary, and popular influences she constructs a book that burns with all the passion of the gambling table but with much more certainty of comming out a winner.

Although I've not read the translation into English, I wanted to set the record straight and indicate that this novel is not "full of hope." It is, however, a completely engrossing story. One finds oneself being seduced by Jorge and pulled into sharing his vision of gambling, the world, and himself, which is an indication of Peri Rossi's virtuosity as a writer, as this pessimistic, superior and world-weary vision is apparently not her own.

"Evohe: Poemas Eroticos--Erotic Poems" is an intriguing volume of poetry by Cristina Peri Rossi, an important Uruguayan author who has lived in exile. The poems have been translated into English by Diana P. Decker. The poems are presented in a bilingual format, with the Spanish originals and English versions on facing pages.

The book includes an introduction by Peri Rossi, who explains that "Evohe" is a word of Greek origin: "the call to the bacchanalia." She also notes that the book "provoked a considerable scandal" when it was first published in 1971 in Uruguay, and was later banned.

The speaker in "Evohe" declares her erotic love for women. The book opens with a quote from Sappho, thus reinforcing the lesbian feel of the poetry. Many of the poems in "Evohe" are metaphysical and mysterious in tone. At times the book reads like some strange Gnostic scripture. The poet of whose work this book most reminds me is United States author Stephen Crane.

"Evohe" explores the relationship s between words and women, and between language and sexual love. Part of the book is a remarkable retelling of the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Several stunning poems merge religious and sexual imagery.

Peri Rossi writes, "Women are words of an ancient and forgotten / tongue." "Evohe" reveals that ancient tongue to the contemporary world with remarkable grace and sensuality. I recommend this book, especially to those with an interest in women's studies, Latin American literature, or Spanish-language poetry. Also recommended: the same author's short story collections "The Museum of Useless Efforts" and "A Forbidden Passion."

In this collection of poems, Peri Rossi artfully combines her erotic desire for women and the sensuousness of words. She often confuses women with words and in the end, the reader is not sure whether the poet is more in love with words or with women.

Peri Rossi uses literary devices like symbol, encabalgamiento, and metaphor with precision and depth. One year after this book was published, the poet was exiled from Uruguay (1972) and now lives in Spain.

The Spanish poetry is, as ever, sensuous, and Decker's translation preserves the literal sense of the words without betraying the intimacy of the art.

"A Forbidden Passion" is an excellent collection of short stories by Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi. The stories have been translated from Spanish into English by Mary Jane Treacy.

Rossi's work reminds me of the stories of Jorge Luis Borges: she frequently plays with notions of reality, psychology, and geographic dislocation. "The Trip" in particular is a Borgesian gem in which she writes about an imaginary language that has some remarkable characteristics. Other tales satirize religion and politics, or reflect on artistic creativity itself. Overall, this is a richly imaginative collection that is full of irony and witty absurdism.

This collection of short stories is an excellent example of the literature of Cristina Peri Rossi. A master of language and logic, CPR constantly undermines them to spare the reader from his or her own inclination to fall in the trap of cliches.

Language and logic are only tools for simplification. Once readers free themselves of the binds that trap them on a linear logic, the circularity of language and its meanings, they can capture the stories as an image. Unlike other famous Latin American writers, who tend to take the reader by the hand on a wonder journey, CPR leaves the reader defenseless to the image.

"The Museum of Useless Efforts" is a marvelous collection of short stories by Cristina Peri Rossi, a writer from Uruguay who has lived in exile in Spain. The stories have been translated into English by Tobias Hecht. There are 30 short pieces in this collection; a good number of them are in the 3 to 6 page length range.

Many of Peri Rossi's stories are surreal or absurd. Some have subtle comic touches. Although her work invites comparison to other such Latin American writers as Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, Peri Rossi is a remarkable talent in her own right. Her stories, as translated by Hecht, have both a stark, crystalline purity and a painful beauty.

"Museum" includes stories about violence, death, alienation, dislocation, and frustrated desire. The stories often feature unnamed characters in unnamed locales. Some of the most intriguing pieces in the "Museum" include "Tarzan's Roar," a deconstruction of a Hollywood icon; "The Lizard Christmas," which ironically comments on Christian tradition; and "the Effect of Light on Fish," which moves gracefully from an innocuous beginning to a disturbing climax. Overall, a frequently stunning collection by a very talented writer.

Cristina Peri Rossi's work is thought-provoking treatise on exile and isolation whose metaphor resonated with me. The language is sophisticated and engaging, while at the same time evocative of the sparseness and detachedness at the novel's core. This is an impressive work which has established the author as an important new voice, not only for those interested in Latin American literature or women authors, but for anyone interested in perspectives which push the envelope of the literary canon. If you are interested in being challenged, read this book

Detailing an intense love affair down to its minute parts, "Solitaire Of Love" is a gorgeous portrait of how loving someone so intensely is as glorious as it is painful. The male narrator loves Aida, but knows that one day she may leave him as she did her husband and her other lovers. She becomes his oxygen, his reason, his erotic muse, which all ultimately proves his undoing. Because to love someone is a personal, private thing, like a game of solitaire, that only the one can enjoy fully. Reminiscent of Violette Leduc's "Thérèse And Isabelle", Slavenka Drakulic's "The Taste Of A Man", and Kate Millett's "Sita", Peri Rossi's magnificent story is a seductive look at the realities of sexual passion.

this is stunning. words cannot express.

To simply call Solitaire of Love a novel would not be doing it justice, both intencely passionate, and bitingly analytical, Cristina Peri Rossi delivers her cynical philosophy of love to the reader desguised as a love letter. Solitaire of love (the fourth book of Peri Rossi's translated into English) follows the obsessive relationship of an unnamed narrator and Aida, the woman he loves to the point of addiction and destruction. The entire book reads like a dream, containing surreal and meaningful details of life, along with the foggy illusions of sleep. Peri Rossi, like a good psychoanalyst, breaks the book down to its most elemental meaning, decoding what is often encoded during simple day to day interactions. Perri Rossi deals with relationships, sex, and desire with an uncompromising certainty, revealing even the most mysterious of human emotions without ever loosing their beauty and mystery. Although Solitaire of Love is one of the most unabashedly lyrical of Peri Rossi's books, it never stoops to being sentimental or cliched. It is certain to delight the reader who is in love as much as the reader who is out of love.

this was the most god awfull book ever. im a college student and i was supposed to read this book for class. otherwise i would not have picked it up. she was very vague and hard to understand.

This book does provide some interesting perspectives on the nature of exile and relationship to the condition of women in Western cultures. Peri Rossi's depictions of women as subservient and oppressed are drawn from her own life experiences as one who was exiled and harassed due to her lesbian lifestyle. How well her experiences translate into plausible examples and the soundness of the structure of her novel as a whole are matters that can certainly be called into question. The depictions of the tapestry that preface each viaje or chapter do not always make sense in terms of their relatedness to the following narrations of Ecks' and his companions' discoveries and experiences. The opening section, the Cement Factory episode and the Journey into London, however, are quite interesting reading. With these sections Peri Rossi effectively conveys clear, convincing ideas which still resonant with me. All in all, a book worth purchasing.

Cristina Peri Rossi's work is thought-provoking treatise on exile and isolation whose metaphor resonated with me. The language is sophisticated and engaging, while at the same time evocative of the sparseness and detachedness at the novel's core. This is an impressive work which has established the author as an important new voice, not only for those interested in Latin American literature or women authors, but for anyone interested in perspectives which push the envelope of the literary canon. If you are interested in being challenged, read this book.