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Originally Posted by AnotherCat
I also wondered if the author was unsure how to wind up the story line as it seemed, to me, a bit straggly and compressed at the end. But I find that I feel that way quite often when reading novels.
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I'm also glad that we read this book. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I abandoned
100 Years of Solitude about halfway through so I was a little fearful that the experience would be similar.
I made the comment earlier that I wasn't sure where the book was headed and it seemed to be stories within stories. Then it became clear that my impression was what I think the author wanted the reader to feel when Aravena gives Eva the contract and says:
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As he explained without preliminaries, the script did not even remotely fit the usual patterns; in fact, the whole thing was a jumble of bizarre characters and unrealistic anecdotes; it lacked true romance; the protagonists were neither good-looking nor rich; it was almost impossible to follow the train of events; the audience would be totally lost. In sum it was a mess and no one with an ounce of sense would run the risk of producing it, but he was going to do it because he could not resist the temptation to scandalize the country with such rubbish- and because Mimi had asked him to.
"Keep writing, Eva. I'm curious about how you're going to end such a mishmash," he said as he showed me to the door.
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And of course the reader is wondering too how it's going to end! I do agree with you that the book felt compressed at the end. I was surprised that it took so long for Eva and Rolf's stories to connect. Like somewhere around 75% maybe? I thought that romantic line would occur much sooner. I think part of the issue was how to make the mishmash of story lines all work out with happy endings so that made it a "bit lumpier" and rushed.