In this story collection Argentine writer Denevi exposes the pain and hope that coexist on the seamier side of life and love in Buenos Aires. A young gay bartender-hustler confesses to a fatal flirtation while giving us a glimpse of city nightlife: crowded, yet lonely. A brooding poet writes a fervent letter to her lover, launching a complaint against the vagaries and vanities of the intellectual world. Two melancholy sisters succumb to the charms of their unseen downstairs neighbor; they only hear him play tangos on his accordion. Denevi handles this potentially sentimental situation with humor and sensitivity. In another tale, an ungainly chorus girl, the Cannibal Woman of the title, dreams of love and escape with a dashing man. One evening a handsome man is in the audience; it seems as if her prayers have been answered, and Denevi builds to both an ironic plot twist and a moving redemption scene. His lean prose complements the mystery of the night world he brings to life; occasionally his tone is facile or forced, but his sympathy for his characters always comes through--out of night's shadows the final image of the Cannibal Woman offers hope. (Nov.)
For 40 years Denevi has been appreciated in Argentina as a beguiling storyteller. The translator of these four stories attributes Denevi's lack of popularity in this country to the mediocre translations that have been available thus far. The title piece is a captivating study of a horsy chorus girl who fantasizes that her sordid life will change when a handsome stranger shows interest in her. But the stranger turns out to be the messenger for a rich man more hideous than those she is used to. The disappointment of spinsters after fantasies of romance is the theme of ``Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.'' ``Michel'' concerns a homosexual bartender picked up by a straight man who may be his father. ``Letter to Gianfranco'' ends by asking whether the letter was written by the female narrator ``of flesh and blood'' or by Gianfranco himself, who as a writer can't resist trying to make readers believe that fiction exists. Recommended, if only as a belated nod to an underappreciated literary talent.-- Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.
