Puerto Rico (United States) / All works
Novel
Macho Camacho's Beat
La guaracha del Macho Camacho
Luis Rafael Sánchez · 1976
Synopsis
On a Wednesday, around five o'clock, a huge traffic jam paralyses San Juan. Senator Vicente Reinosa, stuck in his car, knows he is late to his mistress, a mulatto woman from a poor neighbourhood who dreams of being an actress; his wife Graciela is going through a crisis in her psychiatrist's waiting room; their son Benny, eighteen, makes his way through in his Ferrari. On every radio in the city the same guaracha plays on a loop.
Context
The author's first novel, the book was published in Buenos Aires in 1976 by Ediciones de la Flor. It is made up of fragments broken by radio announcements that follow the rise of the song, and mixes wordplay, advertising slogans and popular culture to satirise the Americanisation of the island. Gregory Rabassa translated it into English in 1980 as Macho Camacho's Beat, and Gallimard published it in French under the title La Rengaine qui déchaîne Germaine.
Who it is for
A short, virtuoso novel in Puerto Rican Spanish, whose rhythm and wordplay call for attention.
Prizes and reception
Some critics regard it as the most important Puerto Rican novel of the twentieth century.
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