The Gentleman from Peru
by André Aciman
A group of young Americans on a trip in Italy end up stranded at a hotel on the Amalfi Coast, after the boat they are on develops unexpected engine trouble. The Americans make the acquaintance of a mysterious fellow guest at the hotel: an elegant, elderly man, who seems to have magical powers and who also appears know a lot about them. This leads to a love story, which is as much of the present, as it is of the past...
Many readers know André Aciman from Call Me By Your Name. I never read that book – or anything else by Aciman, for that matter – except for Abingdon Square, a short story I had come across in a Granta issue many years ago and which has haunted me ever since. I therefore had great expectations for The Gentleman from Peru. Unfortunately, they weren’t really met.
More a novella than a novel, this book is based on an interesting premise with elements of speculative fiction whose full potential, however, I felt remained undeveloped. As a result, the “magical” aspects of the story did not really convince. The protagonist also tended to come across as pompous and sanctimonious. Now, I don’t normally rate a novel on the basis of how “likeable” its characters are, but when a story is based on an unlikely romance, a sometimes-unsufferable lead does not really help matters.
This is a quick and overall
enjoyable read with some interesting ideas, but little more than that. I need
to look up Abingdon Square again.
No comments:
Post a Comment