You Star Trek buffs will remember a very early original series episode in which Captain Kirk gets split into 2 persons in a transporter oopsie. “Good” Kirk is thoughtful, compassionate, and emotional, but unable to make a decision; “evil” Kirk is impulsive, savage, and ruthless, yet afraid. The halves are incomplete and worthless as separate beings. Only by recombining the halves did we get to see “whole” Kirk survive to see another episode.
Thinking about this has improved my response to this book, which admittedly was slightly sour at first. Whereas Molina and Valentin are not two halves of the same coin, each is made more complete by the other during their shared confinement in an Argentine prison in the mid-70s. The story is presented almost completely in dialog and thought, an astonishing achievement.
Molina avoids thinking about his predicament by recounting the plots of movies. Valentin enjoys this because it helps pass the time. It takes several days to get through each movie because Valentin cuts in with commentary which occasionally sends them off onto real-life tangents. Through this, we learn about their crimes, their settings, their loves, their dreams.
Molina dreams of being happily married. Valentin scoffs at monogamy. Can you guess who’s gay?
Later we learn why they share a cell: Molina has been promised early release if he extracts and provides to the authorities information that will bring down Valentin’s operation (he’s in prison for political activism). Initially Molina is happy to do this, but predictably, emotions get in the way as both men evolve in the presence of the other. Molina falls for Valentin and their relationship becomes intimate. Valentin learns to relate via fantasy which ultimately saves him.
I was initially negative towards this book for a couple of reasons. First, the stream-of-consciousness from both characters goes on for pages, at times easily breaking paragraph and sentence records previously held by Dancer from the Dance. Moreover, the thoughts themselves went over my head. Sometimes the thoughts didn’t seem to have anything to do with the adjacent spoken dialog. (Unfinished)