CARMEN'S RUST: A Novel

This brief, allegorical addition to the literature of dictatorship (published in Spanish in 1986) translates the horrors and injustices of life under Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Chile into an inventive, florid tale of family torment and repression. In the 1950s, Carmen, a beautiful and rebellious teenager, lives with her Aunt Malva, cousin Carlitos, Uncle Ascanio, grandmother and half-brother (who is the novel's narrator) in an elegant but decaying house in Santiago. Aunt Malva and Grandmother are uptight beings, insisting on maintaining the impression that all is well when the situation is clearly grim. Though they scrimp and save on toothpaste, they hire a pricey piano teacher for Carmen and pin labels from expensive clothing to Carlitos's shabby clothes so visitors will think he is well-dressed. More significantly, Carmen's incestuous relationship with her half-brother throws the matriarchy into a flurry. Aunt Malva and Grandmother banish Carmen to an isolated bedroom hidden from visitors. They invite a priest to absolve the girl of her sins, and she quickly spirals downward into self-loathing. "She was so pale she seemed like a mere memory of the girl she had once been," her half-brother laments. Eventually, Carmen kills herself. These characters' lives serve as penetrating reminders of the plight of Chileans under Pinochet. The suffering rebels, the brutal and delusional leader, the "innocent" bystanders left behind after the dissidents die—del Río captures them all in miniature, with expressionistic flair. (Sept.)