77

March 1, 2019

In 1977, in the depths of the Videla dictatorship, gay high school teacher Gómez stands by as 30 policemen swarm his classroom in Buenos Aires and take away smart young Esteban. Later, Gómez returns to his apartment, where the smell of burning hair pervades the hallway and the sly super points out that you can't trust anyone, and also visits a spiritual adviser who gives him a cut-rate price despite how badly he's damaged psychically. Gómez also manages to hook up with a macho "half-breed" cop among a patrol that violently accosts Gómez and a quarreling lover. What's significant here is what Gómez doesn't do: despite the occasional little gesture, like helping a student after the raid, he doesn't protest the regime. VERDICT In prickly, energized language, Saccomanno (Gesell Dome) captures the fearfulness of those living under dictatorship. For most readers.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 25, 2019
This suspenseful and claustrophobic novel from Saccomanno (Gesell Dome) follows the dangers and paranoia faced by a middle-aged high school literature teacher in Argentina under dictator Jorge Rafael Videla in 1977. Gómez, a teacher and closeted gay man living in Buenos Aires, lives in fear, and every green Ford Falcon that goes by fills him with terror: maybe he will be the next one taken by government goons. Gómez and his friends try to ignore the arbitrary arrests, but after a favorite student, Esteban, is taken from his class by the secret police, Gómez’s fears ramp up. A series of incidents increase his paranoia: he’s monitored by his landlord, Ramón; his phone is tapped after he starts an affair with Walter, a homophobic police officer; frogs are nailed to doors in his apartment complex. The story picks up when Diana, a pregnant dissident and lover of one of Gómez’s old friends, goes into hiding in Gómez’s apartment. They develop an unusual father/daughter relationship that gives his life new meaning, but also gives him more to lose. This dense novel is rife with intersecting sequences and unrelated subplots, but its rewards are substantial and the prose is excellent.