Anita de Monte may indeed laugh last, but since it’s beyond
the grave, I don’t think it counts.
Here, her defenestration comes at the hands of her husband, a famous
artist, but Anita’s life and death closely resemble that of a real woman whose
husband was acquitted of her murder.
Obviously, an abundance of magical realism exists in this novel, and I
am not really a fan. Fortunately,
another storyline involves Raquel Toro, whose life parallels Anita’s in many
ways. She is sacrificing her agency to a
successful artist, and she becomes basically his satellite. Anita realizes that her identity is in peril
but keeps thinking that the problem will go away. Raquel, on the other hand, despite opinions
to the contrary from family and friends, thinks that her relationship with Nick
is completely balanced. This novel just
does not really work for me. It’s too
predictable for one thing, and both of these smart, talented women just
frustrated the heck out of me. One
positive is the humor, particularly when Anita’s ghost manifests itself as a
bat who tortures her husband and his girlfriend. Even more funny is when Anita mimics a
Spanish accent at a dinner party in order to humiliate her husband. She is much spunkier than Raquel whose
cluelessness just annoyed me.
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