Technically, ["Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages"] is a tour de force. Except for a handful of letters at the end to sew up the plot, it consists entirely of dialogue between its only two speaking characters.

They are Juan Jose Ramirez, an old and ailing Latin-American political leader in exile in Manhattan, and Lawrence John, a cynical young New York graduate student (a sort of careerist grad student) who has been hired to push Ramirez on wheelchair outings in the city.

The speech is presented in what is, I guess, the international style:

—How are you?

—I am fine.

Occasionally one of them does not respond….

Occasionally they exchange silences….

It is maddening because they sound rather alike and unless they call each other by name from time to time you find yourself counting back to see whose voice is saying what.

A further difficulty...