Adios Muchachos
Daniel Chavarrķa (Translation by Carlos Lopez)
Akashic Books, 2001
$13.95
245 pp.
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I'll be the first to admit that I didn't start reading this book with the
highest of expectations, perhaps because the first
thing I read was the author's bio, which begins, "Daniel Chavarrķa is a
Uruguayan writer with two passions: Classical literature and whores". Hmm,
okay -- interesting combination...but fair enough. I probably should have
realized that the cover hinted at that pretty strongly. Regardless of my not-so-high expectations, I plowed ahead. What I discovered was that Chavarrķa,
long respected in his native country and making his English-translated
debut with Adios Muchachos, actually has quite a knack for weaving a
story full of odd twists and sympathetic, yet terribly flawed, characters.
Set in Cuba during the post-Cold War era, Adios is the tale of
Alicia, a bicycle-pedalling prostitute, determined to find a rich man to get
her the hell out of a life that is mediocre at best. One can hardly blame
her, really. Alicia and her mother have created a scam in which Alicia rides a
rickety bicycle rigged so that one of the pedals falls off at just the right
moment, sending her falling to the ground at the feet of a potential
"client". Once the enamored fellow is reeled in, then begins the display of
utter shamelessness. Sex is a given (she is a prostitute after all), but
Alicia manages to get a plethora of material items from the john as well --
air conditioners, scooters, refrigerators, etc. All the while, Alicia's
mother does her best to make them look completely destitute, yet welcoming
of strangers and cheerful despite their pathetic situation. It's an odd set-up.
Here's where it gets weirder. Chavarrķa throws in a sex-crazed, scheming
Canadian, Victor King, and after Alicia gets his attention with the whole
fall from the bicycle spectacle, the two team up for a new scam. Of course,
the new scam involves more sex, two-way mirrors and a bevy of good looking
men. The newly-hatched money-making plan nearly goes down the drain when
Victor's cross-dressing Dutch boss dies in the most bizarre of ways, and
Victor and Alicia are left thinking that their hopes for the good life are
shattered. The hooker and the con-man, however, are a bit more inventive
than that, so they proceed to chart a plan to take the corpse and try to
scam some money from the Dutchman's family. It's a bizarre tale, but it is
amusing.
The thing that kills me about this book is the "sex scenes" -- they're more
funny than erotic, and I don't think this was Chavarrķa's intention. I
couldn't help but laugh aloud at certain points. They're the kind of fabricated
stories guys tell each other in college about some nameless girl they hooked
up with over the weekend -- the stories that are far too detailed, the
girl far too willing and ridiculously wild. It is fiction, though, so I'll
give the guy a break. Adios Muchachos is really the epitome of sleazy summertime reading.
Despite Chavarrķa's "passion for Classical literature", this book is neither
a classic nor particularly literate, but as long as it's taken for what it is -- basically a good beach read -- it's highly entertaining.
-- Amy Leach
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