SOURCE: "What's Become of Chile," in The New York Times Book Review, May 29, 1988, p. 9.

[In the following review, Ruta asserts that Curfew is a study of "the many ways politics mutilate and distort the private lives of [those] confronted by Pinochet." In her review, Ruta lauds the novel as "an urbane comedy of manners, a love story, a fairy tale," and praises the book's romantic themes, as well as its commentary on dictatorships.]

The exile's return to his native land is the subject of some of the best writing from Latin America in recent years. Julio Cortazar in Hopscotch and Alejo Carpentier in The Lost Steps have played brilliant variations on the theme "you can go home again." José Donoso returned to Chile in 1980 after 15 years in Europe. He now lives in Santiago. In Curfew he has created a small masterpiece in the familiar genre. The book's protagonist...