SOURCE: "Violence, Politics, and Complex Destinies," in The Christian Science Monitor, June 17, 1992, p. 15.

In the review below, Agosin focuses on the Argentinian themes of Black Novel.

Argentine Luisa Valenzuela and Chilean Isabel Allende are Latin America's best known and most widely translated woen writers. Valenzuela comes from a literary family (her mother, Luisa Mercedes Levinson, was a distinguished writer of prose) and is used to dealing with the intricate complexities of language as well as Argentine politics. She has written five novels and five collections of short stories, as well as numerous journalistic essays. One recurrent theme in Valenzuela's writing is contemporary politics, especially that of her native Argentina. Another is the use, misuse, and abuse of language in order to oppress, control, and censor thought at both the personal and political level.

Valenzuela has been praised for her talent of combining the political, the fictional, and the...