The Neruda Case

Starred review from May 7, 2012
Chilean author Ampuero’s first novel published in English, a moving fictional interpretation of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda’s final days in 1973, appropriately enough sings with poetic metaphor. Neruda, who’s ill with cancer as Chile teeters toward upheaval because of his friend President Allende’s reform platform, seeks out unemployed Cuban Cayetano Brulé in Valparaíso and hires him to investigate the whereabouts of a former acquaintance, Dr. Ángel Bracamonte. Never mind that Brulé is no detective. The aging poet–cum–political activist persuades the young Brulé to become his “own private Maigret,” and travel to Mexico City, the last place Neruda saw Bracamonte. The mission seems cut and dried, except Neruda has not only withheld critical information, he has sworn Brulé to secrecy. Nobody must know the identity of who Brulé is looking for or why he is looking for him. The plot twists from Mexico City to East Germany, from lies to truth, from uneasy peace to political coup, from life to death. Read this one as much for the story as for the wonderful way Ampuero has with words. Agent: Lindsay Edgecombe, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.

June 15, 2012
If the title sounds like something out of detective fiction, it is--for Ampuero asks us to consider the hypothetical possibility that Pablo Neruda, terminally ill, hires someone to track down a former lover. This someone--Cayetano Brule--is not even a professional detective but rather a Cuban who's casually met the aging Neruda at a party in 1973. Neruda had previously hired several professional detectives to pursue the elusive quarry, and not only have they all failed, but they've tried to defraud him as well. Brule takes up the task in homage to a poet he reveres, and he even starts reading Georges Simenon novels for inspiration. At first Neruda disguises Brule's mission by asking him to find Dr. angel Bracamonte, who through his knowledge of herbal medicine might supposedly be able to cure Neruda, now dying of cancer. But the real reason Brule takes up--and fumbles through--his first case is to locate Bracamonte's wife Beatriz, a dazzling beauty from the 1940s. Neruda not only knew the Bracamontes 30 years earlier, he was also Beatriz's lover and might be the father of their daughter, Tina. Neruda has Brule chase down cryptic clues that lead him to Cuba, Bolivia and East Germany. Four of the five chapters in the novel are named after Neruda's wives or lovers, from the exotic Josie Bliss to the dancer Matilde Urrutia, and within these chapters Ampuero fantasizes a first-person "reminiscence" that Neruda might plausibly have had. The action of Brule's discoveries is played out against the growing political tension that leads to the overthrow of Allende and the beginnings of the political oppression of Augusto Pinochet, a coup that Neruda survived by only 17 days. While Ampuero depicts Neruda warts and all, he still clearly admires his complex and demanding humanness.

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February 1, 2012

Chilean-born Ampuero's books starring private eye Cayetano Brule are best sellers worldwide, but though the author has been teaching at the University of Iowa since 2000 (having spent time in Cuba, East Germany, West Germany, and Sweden), this is his first publication in English. Upon meeting Neruda at a party in pre-Pinochet Chile, Brule is asked to solve a mystery troubling the great poet and finds himself traveling far afield (to Cuba, East Berlin...) for that purpose. Not just for mystery fans--or readers of Latin American literature.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda had a way with wordsand a way with women. During his nearly 70 years, the celebrated bard seduced countless members of the fairer sex, many of whom were as passionate about their politics as they were about their suitors. When Neruda learns that he is dying of cancer, he enlists the assistance of worldly Cuban Cayetano Brule to help find a long-lost friend. (In truth, of course, Neruda is really looking for a woman.) Cayetano knows nothing about being a private investigator, but he has determination and enthusiasm in abundance (and a growing admiration for fictional French detective Jules Maigret). From Mexico City to East Germany, Cayetano travels the globe in search of clues. He finally comes face-to-face with one Beatriz Bracamonte, a beautiful widow who may or may not have conceived a child with Neruda. Chilean novelist Ampuero's first mystery to be published in English provides both a revealing look into the life of a famous poet and a potent primer on world politics in the 1970s.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)