SOURCE: A review of The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata, in The New York Times Book Review, November 19, 1989, p. 24.

In the following excerpt, Stavans finds The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata disappointing.

The future will remember the Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares as the close friend and collaborator of Jorge Luis Borges. It will also acknowledge his novels The Dream of Heroes and the remarkable The Invention of Morel. Unfortunately, The Adventures of a Photographer in La Plata will probably not share this immortality. Published in Spanish in 1985, it describes the weeklong assignment of Nicolasito Almanza, a small-town photographer who is asked by a book publisher to travel to the big city to take pictures of the principal buildings and monuments. La Plata is known for its intricate passageways and sad landscape. In his labyrinthic experience, Almanza gets involved with, and is abused by...