Paola Tomasinelli Boeken

Juan e Clara decidono di trascorrere la vigilia del loro ultimo esame in compagnia di alcuni amici a girovagare per una Buenos Aires surreale, tra culti pagani e misteriose apparizioni e nella strana nebbia che avvolge la città scorgono continuamente il fantasma di un vecchio amico... Scritto nel 1950 ma pubblicato solo dopo la morte di Cortázar, L'esame è un testo enigmatico e visionario, la cui atmosfera rarefatta nasconde una serrata critica all’Argentina peronista, tanto da essere stato accolto come una premonizione dei fatti che pochi anni dopo sconvolgeranno il Paese.

Juan knows little about his widowed father Ranz, a man with a troubled past. He does know, however, that before marrying Juan's mother, Ranz was married to her elder sister, who had committed suicide. The unspoken dialogue between father and son soon becomes a spelling out of the horrifying truth once Juan marries Luisa, who turns discreet confessor to the burdened old man. What gradually emerges into the cold light of day is a repetition of scenes already witnessed by Juan in the course of his travels: a married man blackmailed by his mistress in a Havana hotel, a woman in New York pursuing a sequence of shabby lovers through the lonely-hearts columns. Produced with remarkable skill and delicacy, this is a startling picture of two generations, two marriages, and the secret commerce between spouses that rests on the gossamer-thin threads of an unspoken accord.