An accidental meeting between two old acquaintances turns into a
long evening of bitter, drunken humiliations for both. In her
second novel, Deambrosis (Milagrosa, 2002), a French author of
Greek and Spanish descent, offers a brief, almost parable-like tale
that's bent on exposing the arrogance that accompanies success and
the neuroses that pollute a life full of failures. Dorita and
Carmen knew each other in high school, but when they accidentally
meet again on a winter's day outside a bustling Spanish department
store, they're 50-somethings who've settled into very different
lifestyles: Carmen is a mousy, timid schoolteacher caring for her
sister's family instead of starting one of her own, while Dorita
married up, to a cardiologist, and enjoys a ladies-who-lunch
lifestyle of nice clothes and shiny jewelry. Dorita's proud
enough-and insecure enough-to tell anybody who'll listen just how
fortunate she is, and soon after the two decide to go out for
drinks, Dorita turns Carmen into her punching bag, criticizing
Carmen's beverage choices, her coat, her purse, even the
handkerchief she uses to clean her glasses. Dorita becomes only
more verbally abusive as the night drunkenly drags on, which of
course only reveals the depths of her neediness; by the time Dorita
attempts to seduce a young man in a dive bar, she's a thoroughly
grotesque, hollowed-out creature. The familiar, hackneyed version
of a story with two characters like these would end with Dorita's
comeuppance and Carmen's sudden acquisition of a backbone. But
Deambrosis resists the impulse to fall into cliches; though
Dorita's actions are contemptible, she's not entirely wrong about
Carmen, and as we learn more about Carmen's history (including a
long-kept secret relating to the title of the book), she becomes as
pitiable as she is goodhearted. Though it's a relatively
unambitious novel-more like a one-act play than a full-bodied
narrative-it accomplishes quite a bit within its limited
boundaries. Slim but potent. (Kirkus Reviews)
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