La Mujer de Mi Hermano

Rating:
Summary: ¿Qué le pasó a Bayly?
Review: Debo reconocer que he leído varios libros de Bayly, todos ellos con absoluta pasión literaria. Inluso "Aquí no hay poesía" (título que considero un gran acierto) te llena por completo por esa astucia autodescriptiva del autor. Sin embargo, y para mí pesar, este libro resultó ser completamente desalentador. Entiendo que es el primero de ellos en que deja de ser, tal vez, autobiográfico, pero una trama como esta no se sostiene por sí sola. La magia de los libros de Bayly siempre ha sentido por la conexión tangible entre los protagonistas y su medio, sin embargo, estos personajes parecen emular costumbres y modus vividendi primermundistas y, de manera confusa, se sienten rasgos latinoamericanos en su personalidad. Me parece que el libro está lleno de muletillas que sirven para evitar, precisamente, lograr establecer una conexión real con un medio geográfico determinado. Por otro lado, el asunto del homosexualismo, que al parecer se le ha convertido en un cliché, no era necesario para efectos de la trama, ya que ni siquiera al momento de explicar las actitudes de Gonzalo contra su hermano, resulta ser un hecho determinante y definitivo en el desarrollo de los eventos. A lo mejor le cuesta dejar de lado esa faceta de su personalidad en su literatura, pero no considero que deba aferrarse a ello al punto de dañar la fluidez de las ideas narrativas. Considero que Bayly es un escritor genial, y recomiendo TODAS sus demás obras, pero tal vez "La Mujer de mi Hermano" es una especie de experimento de transisión ante su adaptación al medio primermundista en el que ahora vive... sigue adelante Chino, confiamos en tu detsreza.

Rating:
Summary: A great book about destructive temptations
Review: I started to read Jaime Bayly's books last year when I stumbled upon "Los amigos que perdi" in the bookstore. Not knowing anything about this author, I decided to take a chance and read the book. It turned out that I liked his style, his broad range of vocabulary, and his unique way of expressing himself as an author all of which encouraged me to read other works by Jaime.

"La mujer de mi hermano", his most recent book is very unique as well. Once again, the author has managed to develop sub themes within the main theme of the book, which do play an important role in the plot as well. In a nutshell, this book is about adultery, one of the main characters, Ignacio is a victim of the love affair between Zoe (his wife) and Gonzalo (his brother). Jaime Bayly paints a very real image of the characters, which facilitates reading the novel and also enables the reader to get fully involved in the lives of the three protagonists. As the secret relationship between Zoe and Gonzalo gets more complicated, Ignacio becomes increasingly insecure, jealous, and furious and displays his lack of trust towards Zoe and his brother.

The strongest message that this book has to offer is how human instincts seemingly harmless can complicate the lives of innocent people purposely or not. Zoe and Gonzalo are physically attracted to each other but "she is his brother's wife" which me hands off. However, their uncontrollable desires take over forcing them to break one of the principal "rules of life". They continue to satisfy each other's physical needs and the need to be together on the sly and they themselves discover each other's weakness as they continue their love affair behind Ignacio's back. Overall, the story progresses slowly but is quite interesting via the creative use of internal dialogue by each character and Jaime's vocabulary, which keeps the reading interesting.

The end is painful for Zoe and Gonzalo as she becomes pregnant and learns that Gonzalo is just a classic womanizer and his only intent is to use women regardless. But we see a good side in Ignacio that he does take his wife back in spite of her betrayal and lack of loyalty to the marriage. A classic case of "you don't know how good you have it until it's gone". Once again Jaime Bayly did manage to sneak in the theme of homosexuality as he does in most his novels and once again does not spare any expense when accusing "Ignacio" of possibly being homosexual.

In conclusion, I liked this book, it was intriguing and the theme is very contemporary. What makes the book a good read is Jaime's vocabulary and syntax skills. He has a unique way with words and can be very strong when expressing his ideas. Those who like "contemporary Spanish literature" will find this book by Jaime Bayly a worthwhile read. (I read it in Spanish I would suggest the same. I can't imagine an English version having the same vocabulary and syntax structure with any effect).

PD. I was mislead by the first reviewer's comments. I'm glad that I did decide to read the book as it does have an audience especially those who like Jaime Bayly.