Ariel Dorfman Critical Essay | Critical Review by Cecile Pineda

Critical Review by Cecile Pineda

SOURCE: Pineda, Cecile. “Plastic Sorcery.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (30 October 1988): 3.

In the following review, Pineda finds Mascara to be an inventive and successful thriller, comparing Dorfman favorably to Franz Kafka and Kobo Abe.

So we're finally going to meet, Doctor. Face to face, so to speak.

The opening words of Mascara establish the major premises of Ariel Dorfman's first novel written in English. The work will deliver on its promise of a sinister encounter (with astonishing results); and the immediacy of its tone will distinguish it throughout as a literary event as opposed to a flat narration. What is less readily apparent is that its opening pun hints from the start at a narrative strategy that, despite its indirection, will raise what in less consummate hands might remain merely a fantastic thriller to the level of a political and metaphysical metaphor. As such, Mascara places Dorfman...
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