re:mote voices

Title: The Buenos Aires Quintet
Author: Manuel Vazquez Montalban
Publisher: Serpents Tail

What do you know about Argentina? The Tango, Maradona, the disappeared. This is the question asked by Pepe Carvalho’s Argentine uncle, and the answer he gives. Carvalho is a fifty something private detective from Barcelona, who is struggling financially and romantically. So the invitation to go to Buenos Aires for work sounds good. His cousin Raul was spirited out of Buenos Aires towards the end of the “dirty war”, but has recently become discontent living in Spain, and has returned to his native Argentina. His father, Carvalho’s uncle, wants him back.

The plot seems straightforward. Go to Buenos Aires and find Raul. However across the five parts of the book Carvalho finds himself sucked into Buenos Aires, and seduced by what he finds there. Despite the desire to get past the preconceived ideas of the tango and the disappeared, both in some part define Carvalho’s visit to the city. Especially when everyone he meets was friends with Raul, and to some degree survived the dirty war, even if something inside them has disappeared.

The book as a whole is driven by the search for Raul, by more than just Carvalho. The Captain was a member of the torture squads, responsible directly for the troubles experienced by Raul and his friends. Even if he is now exploiting the biological discoveries Raul made all those years ago, and is working closely with those he had held prisoner. At the same time, Pascuali is one of a new generation of police inspectors who plays by the rules and wants to put the past behind them, and is also keen to get hold of the disturbed and troublesome Raul. But Raul isn’t content to be packed off back to Spain, and despite a couple of meetings with Carvalho, he manages to make a mistake and continue his search for his daughter who was taken from him 20 years ago.

With this complication the book almost takes on the feel of being five short stories to make up the titular quintet. Carvalho, finding himself short of cash, and keen to stay in Buenos Aires till his job is done, finds a local private detective, and sets up business. So each of the parts has it’s own sub-plot, with Carvalho and his new sidekick trying to solve each individual case, while driving on the bigger picture.

The Buenos Aires Quintet is one of those “crime” novels which isn’t really a thriller – not really building up a head of tension, especially as we know who the goodies and baddies are from the start. We also know some of the character’s secrets and revelations before they are revealed, which does create some tension – with the wait to see when folk will work particular things out. Initially the novel seems quite straightforward, and I did start to wonder as the first part drew to a close how they were going to keep the story going. So the addition of the other cases is an interesting development, and allows for more scope and insight into Carvalho’s Buenos Aires. Especially when so many of the characters along the way start to show how they fit into the big picture.

Carvalho is a curious character. His declaration that as a man in his fifties he has never learnt anything from books, leads to his regular book burning sessions, much to the horror of everyone who stumbles into these actions. Coupled with that Carvalho is a gourmet, which leads to a restrained, running commentary on everything he eats through the novel. As The Buenos Aires Quintet progresses, events taken on an increasingly surreal veneer, culminating with the last “chapter” – Murder At The Gourmet Club, where Carvalho finds himself partaking in a sumptuous feast with the cream of the city’s gourmets, including his nemesis the Captain, while all hell breaks loose behind the scenes. Though this stage is reached via an arms dealer become Robinson Crusoe, who travels everywhere with his man Friday, llama and a parrot that can only say “I love gays” and then there is the illegitimate son of Argentina’s premier writer Borges.

The Buenos Aires Quintet has a curious feel, such that it isn’t entirely easy to pin point when in time it is from the main events. Though clearly there are references to the dirty war, the Falklands war and Maradona, there still remains a certain timeless impression that could be from any point in the last 100 or so years – the noir detectives, references to the rich, revolutions, boxers, tangos, and the like defining the text. To a degree this is summed up from Carvalho’s response to questioning of his impressions on Argentina – which are greeted with the response that he doesn’t think it exists, rather it is made up of multiple perceptions. Though ironically this idea is contradicted and reinforced when after this statement there is the first direct reference to a year, and his encounter with fellow Spaniards towards the end shows how differently the young’s perceptions are to his.