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#5 Platform: The Secret in Their Eyes
Apr. 19th, 2012 06:53 pmAt least it's clearer here whose eyes they are, I think.
Book #17: The Secret in Their Eyes
Author: Eduardo Sacheri, translated by John Cullen
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
Here's an example of a book that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise except for the movie adaptation of it, a relatively rare breed. The film, which won Best Foreign Language Film a couple of years back, was masterfully plotted and acted, and brought a real sense of period and style to the darker history of Argentina during the late 1960s through the mid-70s, and then onwards through some changes to the present. If the movie was doing this, and I find books generally usually better and richer than the films they are made into, then surely the book would be a masterpiece of tense historical fiction, I thought.
Alas, this appears to be one of those rare situations in which the book is inferior. The plot is generally the same - an investigative court clerk, whose position changes some over the course of the story, is called in to investigate the rape and murder of a young woman in her home. The mystery of finding the murderer itself is an elusive one, as the culprit was a clever, careful fellow, but the larger story comes from the interplay of how the politics of Argentina at the time deals with the justice system, and how different people react to that problem. It's hard to find the right kind of justice when the government, and its petty, grudge-bearing officials, can step in and make things as they wish it, and that leads to frustrations of different sorts, dependent on how invested you are in doing the right thing and finding justice.
So the characters are still interesting in their viewpoints, and the frame story of Benjamin Chaparro, the lead character, writing the novel for something to do after he retires, and to impress the woman that he's had a crush on forever, is a nice enough one. Benjamin's first-person narration is strong, and you get a real sense of his voice. The other characters, including Benjamin's sidekick Pablo Sandoval (not the Giant slugger; this was written before that), a drunk that goes on epic benders but has a strong investigative mind, and Ricardo Morales, the widower of the murdered woman, and a very thorough, methodical man himself, are pretty vividly painted. It's not a bad book, by any means.
It just suffers from comparison to the film, I suppose. Sacheri was involved in the script for the movie, as well, so maybe he took the opportunity to fix things up. And there are pretty big things to fix; Irene, Benjamin's love interest, is far more included in the story in the film version, the plot seems tighter and less given to coincidence, there are greater sacrifices, and the ending is stronger. The plot follows the same general course, but you won't get everything about the book from having seen the movie. It's a somewhat different, if lesser, experience.
On the whole, I don't really feel bad for having read it, but it was somewhat of a disappointment. I wouldn't go run out and track it down, but you could do worse.
Next up: The Ask and the Answer.
Book #17: The Secret in Their Eyes
Author: Eduardo Sacheri, translated by John Cullen
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
Here's an example of a book that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise except for the movie adaptation of it, a relatively rare breed. The film, which won Best Foreign Language Film a couple of years back, was masterfully plotted and acted, and brought a real sense of period and style to the darker history of Argentina during the late 1960s through the mid-70s, and then onwards through some changes to the present. If the movie was doing this, and I find books generally usually better and richer than the films they are made into, then surely the book would be a masterpiece of tense historical fiction, I thought.
Alas, this appears to be one of those rare situations in which the book is inferior. The plot is generally the same - an investigative court clerk, whose position changes some over the course of the story, is called in to investigate the rape and murder of a young woman in her home. The mystery of finding the murderer itself is an elusive one, as the culprit was a clever, careful fellow, but the larger story comes from the interplay of how the politics of Argentina at the time deals with the justice system, and how different people react to that problem. It's hard to find the right kind of justice when the government, and its petty, grudge-bearing officials, can step in and make things as they wish it, and that leads to frustrations of different sorts, dependent on how invested you are in doing the right thing and finding justice.
So the characters are still interesting in their viewpoints, and the frame story of Benjamin Chaparro, the lead character, writing the novel for something to do after he retires, and to impress the woman that he's had a crush on forever, is a nice enough one. Benjamin's first-person narration is strong, and you get a real sense of his voice. The other characters, including Benjamin's sidekick Pablo Sandoval (not the Giant slugger; this was written before that), a drunk that goes on epic benders but has a strong investigative mind, and Ricardo Morales, the widower of the murdered woman, and a very thorough, methodical man himself, are pretty vividly painted. It's not a bad book, by any means.
It just suffers from comparison to the film, I suppose. Sacheri was involved in the script for the movie, as well, so maybe he took the opportunity to fix things up. And there are pretty big things to fix; Irene, Benjamin's love interest, is far more included in the story in the film version, the plot seems tighter and less given to coincidence, there are greater sacrifices, and the ending is stronger. The plot follows the same general course, but you won't get everything about the book from having seen the movie. It's a somewhat different, if lesser, experience.
On the whole, I don't really feel bad for having read it, but it was somewhat of a disappointment. I wouldn't go run out and track it down, but you could do worse.
Next up: The Ask and the Answer.
