The writing is of such quality and passion that I had to give 5 stars and yet I can't say I enjoyed reading it. It begins as a Kafaesque tale of a functionary in a totalitarian country conscripted to deal with a nuclear or biological disaster. It becomes more dreamlike. The protagonist constantly finds himself in bleak or claustrophobic setting surrounded by callous authorities. Cruelties seem to be going on all around him but he cannot be sure what they are and is helpless to stop them. Bardo is the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The cover says "What if the 20th century lived as a character and what if that character dying passed though a Bardo state." (Didn't anyone ever have any fun in the twentieth century). The back cover refers to "the massive coronary that ends his own life." More clarification would have been welcome. Some predictable liberal targets are hit. Can we equate My Lai (halted by a brave American airman, reported in American newspapers and punished by an American court) with Babi Yar? Yes there are parellels but they need rational discussion not fictional polemics. This is very different from Love Queen of the Amazon (understatement of the year) but even that showed a pessimistic view of human nature and a delight in puzzling the reader. Pineda still seems want experiment and intrigue. I hope she will condescend to entertain and explain.

I read this book a long time ago, but where others fade,this remains in my memory. It is a most unusual tale of the triumph of the human spirit. The main character suffers a disfiguring injury which has a profound effect on his life. The steps he takes to re-enter the world are nothing short of amazing. Read it. You won't forget it.

Frieze takes us into the mind of the Buddhist from India who designed and built the famous temple at Borubudur. This means the setting is circa 700 A.D., but the book doesn't read like a historical novel. Instead, it's a poetic attempt to recreate the designer's mind and aesthetics by looking at the great monument he left behind. One feels privileged to discover the workings of a great artistic mind, and it's done in tight, elegant, and lyrical language. It's got certain qualities that make me compare it, for style, lyricism, and great feeling, with Martín Cruz Smith's Stallion Gate. It's not an easy read,and it's not for everybody, but it's one book I wish I had written.

It's set in Peru and Bolivia and maybe Brazil, and is full of erudite literary references and wonderful descriptions of old Lima. At first I thought it was real magic realism but then I thought it was a satire of the genre. The heroine is a sort of sexy female Candide. I was just rereading it and checked Amazon.com for more Cecile Pineda but find everything out of print. The only other review is of a novel called Frieze set in the ancient Orient.