Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord (Vintage International) - Softcover

De Bernieres, Louis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375700145 ISBN 13: 9780375700149

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group, 1998

Synopsis

In this iridescent gem of a novel, Louis de Bernieres returns to the territory he mapped so well in "The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, " a South American country of resplendent eccentricity, gargantuan corruption, and terrifying violence, where the ordinary machinery of government has rusted and the only thing that works is magic.

About this title

Review:

Louis de Bernières is a masterful writer, which is to say his command of the various crafts of writing--creating character, innovative description, telling a whopping good story--weaves a spell and sucks you into the magic. From the moment Dionisio Vivo and Ramón "Cochinillo" Dario attend to the cravate corpse deposited in his garden by the coca lords, you become ensconced in the world of Ipasueño, its passions, ironies and political intrigues, and cease to be aware of the hand of Bernières behind the scenes.

Dionisio, a professor of philosophy, writes a series of letters, published in the prestigious journal La Prensa, castigating the coca trade, and from there the story spins furiously in many directions and subplots. There's the love affair of the century between Dionisio and Anica Moreno, Lazaro's tragic dance with leprosy, and--to the great pleasure of fans of Bernières's previous novel, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts--further interactions with the magical jaguars and human inhabitants of Cochadebajo de los Gatos. Events take their course in the way of a grand tragicomedy, with the devastation that's expected followed by the irrepressible joy of life that's never expected and Bernières's tongue-in-cheek touch throughout.

It's a delightfully mesmerising book. Set in a mythical South American country that's a composite of real South American history and Bernières's fertile imagination, and therefore a perfect companion to take on a south-of-the-border vacation--the book is awash in the realities and flavour of South America and the lunacies of Bernières's genius. --Stephanie Gold

Review:

"Sharp, funny, engaging...de Bernieres is doing for Colombia's drug culture what Tom Sharpe did for apartheid. His approach is flippant, but the purpose behind it is deadly serious" (Financial Times)

"Vibrant, lucid, charged with wild jokes and harrowing scenes smelted with torture...a book which shudders with memorability...satirical and splendid" (Scotland on Sunday)

"It's a delightfully mesmerising book. Set in a mythical South American country that's a composite of real South American history and Bernières's fertile imagination, and therefore a perfect companion to take on a south-of-the-border vacation - the book is awash in the realities and flavour of South America and the lunacies of Bernières's genius" (Stephanie Gold)

"Amusing, terrifying and ultimately sobering" (New York Times Book Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0375700145
• ISBN 13: 9780375700149
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352