La Muerte Y la Doncella

Overview

Ariel Dorfman's award-winning play is set in a fictional South American country that has recently returned to democracy. Gerardo Escobar has just been chosen to head a commission that will investigate crimes of the old regime. His wife, who was tortured in a military detention center years before, has her own plans for vindication.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews for this product are not available at this time.

Author Information

Bio of Ariel Dorfman

A writer for adults, Ariel Dorfman is an exile from the Pinochet regime in Chile and the child of holocaust refugees. He has written several plays about repression and dictatorship including Death and the Maiden (filmed by Roman Polanski). IF OUR CHARACTER FROM BURNING CITY COULD SPEAK OFF THE RECORD, HE'D SAY . . . Heller Highlander, that's my name, and as for my birth, I'd rather not tell you how long I have been waiting for that father, Ariel, and his son, Joaquin, to decide to write me into existence-create a novel where I could tear down the streets of New York, fall in love, lose my girl, receive protection from an older man, Salim, and then find myself suddenly without his guidance, alone again in the world. A long time. Characters wait in some sort of literary limbo, expectantly peering down (or up?) into the minds of potential authors, wondering if we'll ever get a chance to fully blossom into words, surrounded by other novelistic wannabes, wagering who will get out of here first. I was supposed to be one of the young creatures with not much of a chance of a storybook life: I had to be fictionalized by a father and a son. There was no other way to gestate, that's how it was, those were the rules for me. Like Madame Bovary-you should have seen when our Emma noticed the birth of little Gustave. "He's the one, this Flaubert kid," she said to us and we mocked her a bit. How could she know? She was going to have a deluded life anyway, so why be so enthusiastic to get onto the written page? But she was right and off she went, and I remembered her when my eager-to-be created eyes lit upon Ariel and Joaquin talking up a possible young adult novel, roaming always, my eyes, in search of some manner of delivery. They'll do it! But I kept my thoughts to myself, didn't want anyone, especially Holden Caulfield, making fun of me. (I can see him now: "I got Salinger, ha! And you, Heller, all you can hope for are two Dorfmans. Not one! Two!")

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews available at this time. To add your review, Register or Sign In to your account using our free eBook Library Software.

Additional Info

Imprint

Seven Stories Press

Filesize

532.17 KB

Number of Pages

96

eBook ISBN

9781583220788