Curfew - by José Donoso (Paperback)

About the Book

Curfew takes place during one twenty-four hour period in January 1985. Matilde Neruda, widow of the Nobel Prize-winning poet, has just passed away, and various factions are rallying to turn the event to their advantage: for Pinochet's junta, it represents a chance to assert political authority, while for the intellectuals who had basked in the Nerudas' light, it is an opportunity to grab the spoils of the estate. Against this backdrop of complex, often conflicting motivations, Donoso weaves a portrait of a society struggling to fashion a daily existence for itself, and of an intelligentsia vainly attempting to salvage the remnants of glory days long gone by. But Curfew is also a story of the tragic love between Judit Torre, an upper-middle-class radical who wants to escape her bitter past; and Manungo Vera, a native son returning after a successful career as a European pop singer. In the zone between documentary-like realism and grotesque absurdity, Jose Donoso evokes the suffocating atmosphere of a country under dictatorship, and its quietly devastating effect on the actions of those who live there.

Book Synopsis

The author of The Obscene Bird of the Night and "one of the spinal writers of the extraordinary boom in Latin-American fiction" (The New Yorker) evokes the suffocating atmosphere of a country under dictatorship, and its quietly devastating effect on the actions of those who live there, in a zone between documentary-like realism and grotesque absurdity.

Curfew takes place during one twenty-four hour period in January 1985. Matilde Neruda, widow of the Nobel Prize-winning poet, has just passed away, and various factions are rallying to turn the event to their advantage: for Pinochet's junta, it represents a chance to assert political authority, while for the intellectuals who had basked in the Nerudas' light, it is an opportunity to grab the spoils of the estate.

Against this backdrop of complex, often conflicting motivations, Donoso weaves a portrait of a society struggling to fashion a daily existence for itself, and of an intelligentsia vainly attempting to salvage the remnants of glory days long gone by. But Curfew is also a story of the tragic love between Judit Torre, an upper-middle-class radical who wants to escape her bitter past; and Mañntilde;ungo Vera, a native son returning after a successful career as a European pop singer.

Review Quotes

Praise for Joséeacute; Donoso

"José Donoso is my favorite author of the Latin American boom (better than Gabriel Garcia Máaacute;rquez)."―Fernanda Melchor

"Donoso, as I have long believed, belongs to that small company of storytellers who write not for a region but for the entire world: a gigantic masterpiece."―Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

"Donoso must be counted as one of the spinal writers of the extraordinary boom in Latin-American fiction which spread through the reading world from the mid-sixties on."―Alastair Reed, The New Yorker

"Donoso is one of the most important contemporary Spanish-language writers."―Mario Vargas Llosa

About the Author

José Donoso (1924-1996) was a Chilean author, journalist, and professor who contributed greatly to the Latin American literary boom. His works include The Obscene Bird of Night, Coronation, Hell Has No Limits, along with other novels, short story collections, novellas, and poems.