Set in a tumultuous Buenos Aires on the cusp of a military coup, Kaddish and Lillian are a couple whose tumultuous and colourful relationship is held together by their teenage son. As Argentina's Dirty War unfolds around them, it threatens to overwhelm the infectious, mad energy of their lives, based around Kaddish's job chipping the names off gravestones of disreputable ancestors. A visit to the dreaded Ministry of Special Cases soon turns their sometimes hilarious misadventures into something much darker, in a bureaucracy ...
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Set in a tumultuous Buenos Aires on the cusp of a military coup, Kaddish and Lillian are a couple whose tumultuous and colourful relationship is held together by their teenage son. As Argentina's Dirty War unfolds around them, it threatens to overwhelm the infectious, mad energy of their lives, based around Kaddish's job chipping the names off gravestones of disreputable ancestors. A visit to the dreaded Ministry of Special Cases soon turns their sometimes hilarious misadventures into something much darker, in a bureaucracy run out of control.
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This novel captures the complexity of political and social life in Argentina during the 1970s. The plot follows the parents of a young "disappeared" man in the days, weeks and months following his removal from the family home. Troubling questions about ethnicity, religion and assimilation help define this conflicted period in Argentina's past, as well as the differing generational response to the authoritarian political regime. The author delivers a palpable sense of fear, as well as the fierce sense of purpose among the parents of the disappeared.
Four stars only because I felt that the conclusion of the novel was a bit weak - on the other hand, it was, perhaps, the very best ending that could have been written. A book worth reading.
