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El caso Neruda/ The Neruda Case

by Roberto Ampuero

3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 · rating details · 204 ratings · 66 reviews

Paperback, 336 pages

Published August 1st 2008 by Grupo Editorial Norma

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Aug 19, 2012 Phil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thinking-person-s-mysteries, mysteries

Ampuero, an award winning writer from Chile and currently a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, has written some five novels involving the detective, Cayetano Brulé. The Neruda Case (which was originally published in 2008) was not the first published in the series, but chronicles how Brulé set out on the path to become a private eye.

The book's narrative begins circa 2008, but is almost an entirely a flashback to several weeks in 1973, when the most fa...more Ampuero, an award winning writer from Chile and currently a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa, has written some five novels involving the detective, Cayetano Brulé. The Neruda Case (which was originally published in 2008) was not the first published in the series, but chronicles how Brulé set out on the path to become a private eye.

The book's narrative begins circa 2008, but is almost an entirely a flashback to several weeks in 1973, when the most famous Spanish poet of his day, Pablo Neruda, hired the twenty-something Brulé to search for someone.

The book contains so much local color of the times, in Chile, Mexico, Cuba, and East Germany (places where the author had lived as a young man) that I was deeply grateful for the existence of the Internet to clarify names of persons, food and drink, and places.

This local color might be a turn-off for some American readers. Yet imagine a Latin American reader reading a translation of Kurt Andersen masterful (even magisterial) novel of American college students in the 1960s, True Believers; how much would be lost or misunderstood?

As I think of it, the book has some interesting parallels to True Believers that I shall not discuss here, lest I deprive a future reader of the delight of surprise.

The spirit and flavor of Neruda's "voice" pervade the novel. So often Ampuero caught Neruda in all his artistry and his contradictions.

Ampuero's highly personal afterword contextualizes his youth in Valparaiso, Chile in the 1960s and early 1970s - an essay alone worth the price of the book.

I found the book thoroughly delightful and look forward to reading the other Cayetano Brulé mysteries, for which Ampuero has won prizes.

But I especially want to read the non-fiction account of his life in Cuba, published in 1999, Nuestros años verde olivo ("Our Olive Green Years", which continues to appear in black-market editions in Cuba and was slated to made into a film).

(I do have one personal recollection of Neruda. In the autumn of 1963, as a freshman at Georgetown University, I (and all other students studying Spanish) were required to attend a reading given by Neruda in the Copley Lounge on one Friday night. All I recall was that Neruda spoke so softly that I could barely hear, let alone understand a word. But the greatest contradiction of the night that stuck in my mind was the head of the Spanish Department, an ultra-conservative admirer of Generalisimo Francisco Franco, embracing and kissing Neruda, an compromising and committed Stalinist Communist. Ars Omnia Vincit?) (less)

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Jun 28, 2012 Pete Wung rated it 3 of 5 stars

The problem for Latin American language authors is that people have a tendency to compare to some pretty heavy hitters, like Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, or Luis Borges. That is patently unfair of course, but people will carry with them these expectations into the book.

So the beginning of The Neruda Case was somewhat unpromising. Not very dramatic, somewhat pedestrian and actually kind of slow. In the middle of the beginning paragraph, I started to wonder whether it was the translation that was...more The problem for Latin American language authors is that people have a tendency to compare to some pretty heavy hitters, like Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, or Luis Borges. That is patently unfair of course, but people will carry with them these expectations into the book.

So the beginning of The Neruda Case was somewhat unpromising. Not very dramatic, somewhat pedestrian and actually kind of slow. In the middle of the beginning paragraph, I started to wonder whether it was the translation that was problem or whether it was Ampuero that was the problem.

As I got further into the book, the narrative was good enough to hold my interest without making the reading seem like a chore, the writing got better and the story became far more interesting. Of particular interest were the narratives which was written in Neruda's own voice. Ampuero pulled off the feat of writing in two distinct styles. Although the majority of the narrative was written in the third person subjective voice, and was less than engaging.

The novel weaves itself around the life of Pablo Neruda towards the end of his life. The entire narrative hangs itself on Neruda's female conquests, but the end of Neruda's life is also wrapped around the 1973 coup in Chile which saw the legitimately elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende be deposed by Agosto Pinochet and the Nixon White House. That part of the narrative seemed to be more interesting, and Ampuero was seemingly eager to explore that line of narrative. And he did for a time, but he kept returning to the Neruda story because that was the mechanism by which he chose to tell his story.

The story got better, the writing got better, and my interest got more piqued as I worked my way through the story. I doubt I would have kept going through the rough parts if it weren't for those narratives written in Neruda's voice.

In the end, it was a decently satisfactory story with a fairly satisfactory ending. My interest is piqued enough to try some of Ampuero's other novels.

If this seems like a mild review, that is because it is. I am glad I read it, but there was nothing exceptional about the story or the writing.(less)

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Jun 27, 2012 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: latin-american-fiction, translated-fiction

first: I bought a real copy of this book, so this ARC is yours if you want it. You have to live in the US and be the first to leave a comment. I'll pay postage.

second: the review:
Had I done my homework, as I usually do when I come across a new author, I would have learned that Roberto Ampuero is the author of an entire series featuring detective Cayetano Brulé. Beginning in 1993 with ¿Quién mató a Cristián Kustermann? (Who Killed Christian Kustermann?) Brulé has been involved in several cases;...more first: I bought a real copy of this book, so this ARC is yours if you want it. You have to live in the US and be the first to leave a comment. I'll pay postage.

second: the review:
Had I done my homework, as I usually do when I come across a new author, I would have learned that Roberto Ampuero is the author of an entire series featuring detective Cayetano Brulé. Beginning in 1993 with ¿Quién mató a Cristián Kustermann? (Who Killed Christian Kustermann?) Brulé has been involved in several cases; The Neruda Case is the latest to be written but it seems to be a prequel that explains how Brulé got his start in the detective biz. To be brutally honest, as I sat down to read this book, I was concerned that having Pablo Neruda as a character in a detective novel might be a cheap ploy. Although the main character spends a lot of time and energy traveling around and pursuing answers on Neruda's behalf, the book turns out to be an homage of sorts to the Nobel-winning poet rather than your standard detective novel. It's also a commentary on the betrayal and death of ideals.

The author notes that as a boy he lived near Neruda's home La Sebastiana in Valparaíso, where

"on three separate occasions, I went to La Sebastiana, in my school uniform and carrying my briefcase full of notebooks, and stood at the door to the poet's garden..." All I wanted to do was to talk to the poet. But all three times I was petrified...not daring to knock and ask to enter the realm where Neruda dwelt with his secrets."

Now, Ampuero’s Cayetano Brulé has the honor of entering that house, where the author’s “boyhood shyness” kept him from doing the same.

Sitting in the Cafe del Poeta in Valparaiso one day in 1990, Cayetano Brulé sees a photo of Pablo Neruda on the back of his menu and flashes back to his very first case back in the 70s, “the most closely guarded secret of his life,” that began at party his wife Ángela had made him attend at the home of the city’s mayor. Not feeling like mingling with the bigwigs, Brulé hides out in the library. His peace is shattered when another man walks into the room and they begin talking. It is only when Ángela comes in to tell the stranger that he’s wanted at the party that Cayetano realizes he’s been spending time with Pablo Neruda, who invites him to his home at La Sebastiana. It isn’t long until Brulé is welcomed into Neruda’s home that the poet gets to the point of the invitation: he is dying of cancer, he’s seeking an oncologist, Dr. Ángel Bracamonte, and he wants Cayetano to do some detective work to locate him. After a trip to Mexico city that produces more questions than answers, Neruda explains the real reason behind his search: it seems that Bracamonte’s wife, Beatriz, was once one of the poet’s many lovers; he needs to know if the daughter she gave birth to is his. Time is running out -- and Neruda, plagued by his memories of all the women he's betrayed in the name of poetry, wants to know for sure before the end comes. Cayetano’s search will take him from Mexico to Cuba, to East Germany and Bolivia where he realizes that the utopian ideals promised by revolution have all but collapsed and have become something else entirely. It will also place him in the company of some well-known figures of the times, including Neruda’s friend Salvador Allende, whose tenure as president of Chile is on its last legs.

If you want to look at this book simply as the series prequel that explains how Cayetano Brulé first got into the private eye business, there are a couple of entertaining moments: Neruda’s advice to Brulé about using the novels of Georges Simenon as a guide to becoming a detective, his “Maigret del Caribe,” Brulé’s narrow escape from East Germany, and a few other scenes featuring the hapless newbie detective. But of greater interest to me was the political backdrop against which this book is set, during the last gasps of the Allende government prior to the US-backed coup that placed Pinochet in power. And aside from the sillier moments where Brulé is initiated into the detective trade, there is a much more serious exploration of different idealistic visions that got lost somewhere along the way.

Very much recommended, especially if you are interested in Latin American history or revolutionary history in general. I hope this book does well; perhaps it will create some interest in translating Ampuero's other novels into English. (less)

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Aug 05, 2012 Zara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, fiction, own, review-list

The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero is a fictional mystery novel surrounding the investigating requested by the famous poet, Pablo Neruda, to the main character, Cayetano Brulé, to search for an unknown medical scientist named Ángel Bracamonte in hopes of what is assumed to be a medical cure and breakthrough for Cancer.

Though the backdrop of the novel is lush in its description of Valparaíso and the Latin American setting, food, and culture, it is also heavily laden with politics during the socia...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I received this advance copy as a winner in a Goodreads First Reads drawing.

Seeing it is the first novel of a long-running series, I certainly hope that they take the time to translate more, because the book was highly enjoyable. It features a detective, Cayetano Brule, who is introduced to the profession in an unusual way, and goes on what is truly a far-reaching trek across the Atlantic and throughout the Southern Hemisphere in search of his clues for his mysterious new client.

The book gave...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Trish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mysteries, south-america

Chile. The 1970s. The beloved but flawed Allende government falls to the infamously repressive Pinochet government. But just before this, Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet-in-residence, tasks Cayetano Brulé, Cuban exile, to find an early lover…to see if the child she bears shortly after their Mexican love affair is indeed his own. This 2012 translation of a work published in 2008 gives us an intimate, if fictional, portrait of Pablo Neruda. Author Ampuero, in an afterword to the novel,...more Chile. The 1970s. The beloved but flawed Allende government falls to the infamously repressive Pinochet government. But just before this, Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet-in-residence, tasks Cayetano Brulé, Cuban exile, to find an early lover…to see if the child she bears shortly after their Mexican love affair is indeed his own. This 2012 translation of a work published in 2008 gives us an intimate, if fictional, portrait of Pablo Neruda. Author Ampuero, in an afterword to the novel, speaks of his idolization of the artist in Santiago as a child, which grew into a fascination with Neruda’s life. Ampuero wanted to show Neruda as he was—a complicated man of great contradictions.

I favor a nuanced view of great artists and leaders. Ian McEwan wrote of a fictional Nobel Prize-winning scientist in Solar, and managed the nuance mixed much ribaldry but did not base his work on just one man.

An interview with Ampuero in the online magazine The Daily Beast states that Neruda was in fact a serial monogamist, just as he is depicted in the novel. Neruda actually had, and left, three or four wives. I think it is safe to assume that a man who can write movingly about love has experienced it in spades. Great men often have great appetites. Ampuero wanted to show the man as he was, not just as he is imagined to be.

My interest in this novel is the South American-ness of it: the point of view, the seasons, the food, the language. The literature and music spoken of in the book, for whatever reason, is generally what Europeans and North Americans were reading or listening to at the time. Occasionally Ampuero speaks of bolero and carimba, but as now when we read of detectives based in Europe or Africa, oftentimes they are listening to something America or Europe has produced.

Towards the end of this novel, my mind began to wander. I wanted things to progress faster, but I think Ampuero was intent on placing Neruda’s life in its historical context. Despite my impatience with the slow unfolding of the mystery, I appreciated the fullness of the story by the end. I read elsewhere that there are five books in the Detective Cayetano Brulé series, of which this is not the first. Ampuero apparently now works out of the University of Iowa, where he attended the Iowa Workshop.
(less)

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Jun 18, 2012 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, 2012

Notified May 31 that I have won a First Reads copy--hooray!
My uncorrected proof copy arrived this afternoon--June 7--let the reading begin.

English language readers finally have the opportunity to read the writing of Roberto Ampuero and what an opportunity it is! Ampuero is an internationally acclaimed and translated writer and his Maigret wannabe detective, Cayetano Brule, has been entertaining readers for years. We first meet Brule as he answers a summons from the supremely admired poet Pablo N...more Notified May 31 that I have won a First Reads copy--hooray!
My uncorrected proof copy arrived this afternoon--June 7--let the reading begin.

English language readers finally have the opportunity to read the writing of Roberto Ampuero and what an opportunity it is! Ampuero is an internationally acclaimed and translated writer and his Maigret wannabe detective, Cayetano Brule, has been entertaining readers for years. We first meet Brule as he answers a summons from the supremely admired poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda is seriously ill and asks Brule to find a doctor he knew years before who may provide help, or so we initially are led to believe. Cayetano has no experience as a detective but Neruda cajoles him to begin the search and suggests he read the Simenon books starring the fictional detective Maigret for guidance in the art of detection. And so begins a journey which takes Brule and the reader from Chile to Mexico to Cuba to East Germany, then Bolivia and finally back to Chile. The main action takes place in 1973 against the chaotic and real events surrounding the fall of Allende and rise of Pinochet in Chile. In each country, Ampuero supplies the reader with such detail that you feel you can actually taste the medianoche sandwich, hear the music of Irakere, smell the cigars being smoked, visualize the architecture all while being enveloped in the noir atmosphere. There are many references, some sly or humorous, to Golden Age detectives, art, writers, TV and radio programs and other cultural markers of the early seventies. And you also learn much about the life of the great Pablo Neruda. Does Brule, wearing his trademark lavender and green guyano tie, adjust his eyeglasses, stroke his mustache and finally succeed in tracking down the person Neruda needs to find? Read this wonderfully translated thriller to find out and don't be surprised to realize that you will want to travel with Cayetano Brule wherever he goes next.

Thanks, First Reads/Good Reads for my opportunity to meet the Cuban Maigret! (less)

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Jun 13, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, read-in-2012, mystery

I thoroughly enjoyed The Neruda Case, set primarily in Chile around the 1973 coup. Pablo Neruda, nearing the end of his life, meets the main character, Cayetano Brulé, and convinces him to look for someone from his past for him. Cayetano has no experience as a PI, so Neruda hands him a stack of Georges Simenon novels and tells him to go to work, which I found hilarious.

The book was beautifully written. I've read so many mediocre novels lately, that this was a breath of fresh air. The historical...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Emily Jo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, did-not-finish

I received an uncorrected proof of this book as a winner in a Goodreads First Reads drawing.

The occasionally beautiful narration, the fact that I love the setting, and my love of Neruda's poetry kept me reading as long as I did. Regarding the setting, I am fascinated by Chile during the time of Salvador Allende, and I studied abroad in Cuba.

I really wanted to read it, but I was unable to finish this book. It may have been a lost in translation issue or a personal style quibble on my part, or e...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Bob Lopez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a great caper of a novel. While I was drawn to the literary aspect, the novel itself was a fast-paced interview-laced investigation a la Simenon and Columbo.

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Aug 23, 2012 Patti K rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This 2012 novel was originally published in 2008 in Spanish. It takes place in Valparaiso,
Chile, for the most part. A young man is sought out by Pablo Neruda to track down a former
lover. He wants some information to settle his conscience before he dies of cancer.
A charming relationship between the young man, a Cuban who married a Chilean, and Neruda.
Lively dialogues and powerful landscapes and political intrigue. It is 1971 and Allende
is being opposed by the dictatorial Pinochet who orders a mil...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Doreene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was delighted to find a mystery set in the country of Chile. Cayetano Brule, the detective, is asked to find a former lover by the famous poet, Pablo Neruda. His investigation takes him to Cuba, Mexio, German, Bolivia and back to Santiago in Chile. Cayetano finishes his investigation and returns to Chile in September of 1973 just as Augusto Pinochet is taking over the government from Salvador Allende. The ending of the book and the author's note helped me to understand better what had happened...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

Disclosure: I received this uncorrected proof copy for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thanks to the publishers for the opportunity to read this book for an unbiased review.

The Neruda Case has a few things going against it, for many english-speaking readers:

It's a translation from Spanish.

It is a prequel, written in 2008 after a series of five Cayetano Brulé mysteries (not translated into English, so we don't know the character):

(1993), ¿Quién mató a Cristián Kustermann?
(1994), Boleros en La...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, firstreads, international-reads, justfinished, mystery-thrillers, historical-fiction, latin-american-lit

Most of the action takes place in 1973, shortly before the overthrow of Salvador Allende and the death of Pablo Neruda in Chile in September of that year. Having studied this period of history and having recently returned from a trip to Chile, this book was right up my alley. The story takes the reader on a journey across the globe as Cayetano Brule embarks on a secret mission for his neighbor, the poet Pablo Neruda. Along the way, he encounters other historical figures and learns more about his...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

Yay, it is here in my hot little hands, waiting to be read.

In the middle of another book, but soon. It does look very good. (this was a first reads win)

So, rushed through previouss books to read this. It is such a multilayered and interesting book, by turns witty and suspenseful. I used the word "sly" midway in my status updates, but it is also nostalgic, and audacious, taking the poet and looking at his life through the women he loved or betrayed, real and fictional, and looking at the period t...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

This was a very fun novel about a novice "detective" who earns his stripes by reading Maigret novels while searching for a lost love of the poet Pablo Neruda in his dying days amidst the backdrop of the Revolution in Chile in 1973. Translated from the Spanish by an author who grew up in the same neighborhood where Neruda once lived and where his museum is now located, this is both a fun "caper" and an exploration on the senseless preoccupations that cloud our vision, especially as death stares u...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Joseph Ribera rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Translated from the Spanish. This novel was written by a Chileno who lived, when only a child, in the same neighborhood as Pablo Neruda. A work of fiction that interweaves actual historical events that led up to the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende by the Fascist General Augusto Pinochet. The protagonist, a mail order detective, is hired by Pablo Neruda to find someone. That investigation takes him to Mexico, Cuba, East Germany, Bolivia and...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometime in the 1970's, Cayetano Brule, a Cuban from Florida is at a party in Valparaiso where he meets the Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda. They have a drink and talk. Neruda is ill, and he wants Brule to take on a mission for him - to find a Cuban doctor who was looking for herbal cures for cancer 30 years earlier. Brule is not a detective, but he is Cuban, and Neruda convinces him that he can learn to be a detective by reading the works of Simenon. What a concept! But it sort of works.

The quest m...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Marisa Adair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to admit, it took me a while to fully embrace this novel. I thought, at first, the English translation seemed a bit wooden, and I'm not really knowledgeable about the Allende/Pinochet revolutionary era of Chile's history. Also, I didn't warm up right away to a protagonist/private detective who seemed so unsure of himself (at least at the start).

I am really glad that I kept on reading, regardless. As the chapters unfolded, I was drawn into this rich, finely detailed mystery.

Cayetano Brule...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Bert Hirsch rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Neruda Case: A Novel by Roberto Ampuero
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero

This mystery novel is a little delight. A mysterious tale about a self invented detective, one Cayetano Brule, a Cuban exiled transposed to Chile in the late 60’s:

“…those were the days of Salvador Allende and Unidad Popular, as well as of an unbridled social turmoil that would lead not to what the people dreamed of but rather to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinoch...more

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Bert Hirsch The Neruda Case: A Novel by Roberto Ampuero
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero

This mystery nov...more
Mar 06, 2013 03:38am

Sep 09, 2012 Bill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-detective-mystery, part-of-a-series

2.5 Three stars is almost a stretch but two is perhaps too punitive. I wanted to like this book more than I did. It's more of a literary excercise than a detective novel. I was interested in Pablo Neruda as a character and the setting in Chile prior to the fall of Allende. It just never came together for me. I was especially annoyed by an egregious error in fact. At one the character Neruda recommends a novel to the protagonist "The 23 Instants of Spring" by Konstanin Simonov. He mentions it was...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Dale rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, politics

September 11 has a different significance in Chile than it does in the US. It was on September 11, 1973 that the military coup toppled the Allende presidency and installed the Pinochet dictatorship. This novel takes place in the months leading up to the coup. Months in which the reactionary Chilean right wing, with the very active involvement of the US government, crippled the Chilean economy through a combination of trade embargoes, lockouts, and a general truckers' strike, in hopes of turning...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Kelley Clink rated it 3 of 5 stars

I went in hoping for literary noir, but this book is definitely more "fiction" than mystery. It captures the political collapse of Chile and brings to life a complex, acutely human, Pablo Neruda. Still, it's about 100 pages too long, and hits a lull toward the middle when it feels like the narrator is on a wild goose chase. Won't stop me from reading his others, once they are translated.

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Jul 28, 2012 Eleanor rated it 2 of 5 stars

the writing was good. the historical setting was interesting. the settings in different countries is interesting and well drawn..

the mystery(?) was a non-mystery.. and I could feel some sympathy for the main character but none for the 2nd in line (Neruda). I would probably be less irritated if I'd read it in English since in Spanish I'm slower and so spent more time with Neruda...

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Aug 18, 2012 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I usually don't like jumping into a detective novel series in the middle, but since this is the author's first book to be published in English, I didn't realize there were others until I had already started. But it didn't really matter. This was fun, and the mystery taking place against the backdrop of the Latin American upheaval of the 1970s added a dramatic touch. I would probably pick up his earlier books in Spanish.

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Aug 05, 2011 Manecita_1972 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Me gustó bastante, genera interés por conocer más de la historia de Neruda , pero lo mejor es que R.Ampuero nos aporta más detalle de la vida de su personaje estrella Cayetano Brulé , más todavía cuando deja de manifiesto que sus características permiten que el tipo de casos encomendados no podrían ser resueltos por otros como Sherlock Holmes o Monsier Poirot.

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May 04, 2013 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was such a fun read! Cold War intrigue, revolution, world travels, mystery and of course Pablo Neruda! I loved the pace and the language of the novel. It moved so well and kept you on the edge of your seat until the very end. I would have given it 5 stars but the epilogue was a bit of a let down. Otherwise, it was a fantastic novel that transcends genres. A must-read!

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Dec 22, 2009 GuillermoBill rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like Ampuero's work, as much for the mixture of Chilean theme's alongside an insider's look at the Left, as for his characters. I take the information about Neruda abusing the women in his life as accurate - it matches what I have heard about him. It is funny how a person can "love the people" as an abstraction, but mistreat them one by one.

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Aug 05, 2011 Elena Salazar rated it 2 of 5 stars

Esperaba mas de este libro, me gusta el tema y la historia y el entorno politico en que se desarrolla pero me parece lento. Me lo estoy leyendo desde diciembre apenas llegue a la mitad y nunca tardo mas de tres dias leyendome un libro...vamos a ver si me engancha y lo termino.

....Decidi no terminarlo! PUNTO

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May 08, 2013 Joyce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fun read, and if you aren't familiar with Pablo Neruda or Chile's recent history... you'll be better informed after you finish the book. Loved this, from a character speaking about Neruda's poetry, "Also, in a way, we're all born from our own loves. The fulfilled ones, and the ones that fail."

Yes, indeed we are.

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About Roberto Ampuero

Roberto Ampuero is a Chilean author, columnist, and a university professor.

In Chile his works have sold more than 40 editions. Ampuero now resides in Iowa where he is a professor at the University of Iowa in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.He was a columnist of La Tercera and the New York Times Syndicate and since March of 2009 has been working as a columnist for El Mercurio.

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“Los detectives eran como el vino, pensó Cayetano, como el vino, el ron, el tequila o la cerveza, hijos de la tierra y su clima, y quien lo olvidaba terminaba cosechando fracasos. ¿Podía alguien imaginarse a Philip Marlowe frente a la catedral de La Habana? Lo achicharraría el sol de las dos de la tarde, y lo despojarían hasta del sombrero y el impermeable sin que ni siquiera lo notara. ¿O a Miss Marple caminando con su paso lento y distinguido, de dama ya mayor, por el centro de Lima? Se intoxicaría con el primer cebiche que probara, los siniestros taxistas limeños la desviarían del aeropuerto a una casucha, donde la estarían esperando un par de facinerosos. No encontrarían ni su placa de bien montados dientes falsos. ¿Y qué decir del amanerado Hercules Poirot cruzando el mercado Cardonal de Valparaíso con el traserito erguido y las manos enguantadas de blanco? Le hurtarían el bastón de caña, el reloj de bolsillo con cadena de oro y hasta el sombrero de hongo. La gente se burlaría de ellos en sus propias narices, los perros vagos los corretearían a dentelladas y los niños de la calle los apedrearían con crueldad.” — 1 person liked it

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title link	preview: El caso Neruda/ The Neruda Case
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5544371-el-caso-neruda-the-neruda-case?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347636662l/5544371.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5544371-el-caso-neruda-the-neruda-case?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]El caso Neruda/ The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero[/url]

El caso Neruda/ The Neruda Case

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