Thursday Night Widows

Despite the tacky cover, this book is no potboiler. Instead, the cover accurately reflects the values of the beautiful people of Cascade Heights, a gated and walled residential community thirty miles outside Buenos Aires with full-service security-along with a golf course and top-quality tennis. The wealthy residents of The Cascade have left their old lives behind, and low live in elaborately built houses with spectacular landscaping, a world apart. Argentine author Claudia Pineiro carefully analyzes the behavior of these residents, concentrating, in particular, on four couples-Ronie and Virginia Guevara, El Tano and Teresa Scaglia, Gustavo and Carla Masotta, and Martin and Lala Urovich-who live in the same neighborhood. The men play cards at El Tano's house every Thursday night while the women go to the cinema.The novel begins on Thursday night, September 27, 2001, when Teresa Scaglia returns home and doesn't hear any noise from the card room or pool. She soon discovers that El Tano and two of his friends are dead. Using Virginia Guevara, a real estate agent who also lives in the compound, as the primary narrator, the author dissects the lives of these characters in the ten years leading up to this September, 2001 event, skewering their pretenses, their blatant dishonesty, their flouting of the law, and their feeling of entitlement. Recent years have been marked by a severe economic downturn in Argentina, however. As Virginia says: "Many of our neighbors made the mistake of thinking that they could keep spending as much as they earned forever. And what they earned was a lot, and seemed eternal. But there comes a day when the taps are turned off."With her tongue firmly set in her cheek, the author creates a story filled with dark ironies, and by making their problems similar to those of any other self-protecting, upscale suburban community, regardless of country, she succeeds in creating identification between the outrageous characters and her readers. These characters' lives are just close enough to the norm that they seem in many ways "ordinary," their behavior, however extreme, common enough that it is easily recognizable for what it is. Their casual dishonesty is a given. Because they are extreme stereotypes, they are laughable.By the time the reader discovers how the men have died, that revelation comes as no surprise. Interesting for its picture of the effects of a global economic downturn on one community of wealthy businessmen, it is also an unforgettable picture of the empty lives which these men and their wives are happy to lead-the "causes" they adopt which accomplish nothing, their view of reality which is limited to their own social class, the inability to communicate with anyone because their individual lives are so egocentric. Great fun to read and often darkly humorous, this novel is a clear and uncomplicated social commentary which readers from many parts of the world may enjoy. Mary Whipple

My mystery group is doing South American mysteries this month, so I picked this Argentinian mystery. This book won a prize and was made into a movie. In a strange way, it reminded me of GONE GIRL. There were three dead bodies right at the beginning of the book. Then the story reverted back to right before the deaths and told the story of an affluent, gated community in Argentina, and of a few specific couples living there. The how and why of the deaths came right at the end of the book and was a bit of a shocker.Since there was no police or detective involved in this story, the atmosphere and lives of these people was the only clue and build up to the deaths. Much emphasis was on the declining wealth of the affluent after the 9/11 attack in America, which was on the same day as Teacher's Day in Argentina. There was also great emphasis on the exclusivity of this gather community, that pretty much had everything anyone would need within it so that people rarely left those environs. Everything was planned for security and everything had strict rules. Not your average gated community.I have mixed feelings about this book which seemed more like a novel than a mystery. The life and attitudes of a different culture was very interesting, especially how much happenings in America affected this country. Also , the differences in the class structure almost seemed forced and I wonder if this was a little bit like the science fiction of "Stepford Wives". Different but interesting. I would say that it wasn't my favorite read, but it definitely keep me involved in the story right up until the end.

Settle down with a pot of tea, or a bottle of wine, like a denizen of Cascades Heights, and enjoy the rarefied lifestyle inside a gated estate outside Buenos Aires!You never have to lock your doors. Criminals can't get past the perimeter wall and armed security guards. And with all the regulation flowering bushes, the air is overwhelmingly sweet in every season. Argentina is suffering from the post-9/11 economic crisis, but the residents of Cascade Heights can feel perfectly safe.Nonetheless, the book opens with three dead bodies floating at the bottom of a swimming pool.The Cascade (for short) may be a paradise on earth - but not to wives who can't make friends, husbands who can't keep their jobs and children who don't fit the mold.The turnover in luxury homes is one indication of trouble. But at least it's a plus for real estate agent Virginia Guevara. Through her own efforts Virginia manages to hang onto her lovely home, despite an unemployed husband, while other less fortunate residents come and go.We see the dramas going on inside various homes in this book, but I won't give away any of that - or the mystery surrounding the main drama, and the ethical dilemma it raises.Thursday Night Widows is flawless social satire - as well as an entertaining read. It's an excursion into a way of life that's totally foreign (to me, anyway). And it goes beyond any particular economic crisis to grapple with the basic insecurity of the human condition.Claudia Piñeiro has written several books, but this is the only one available in English. I'm hoping a translator is at work on the others.

Claudia Piniero is a writer to watch! Her descriptions of a number of couples living in a new gated community in South America are fascinating. They sound so much like Orange County, which surprised me, yoga, parent-teacher conferences, infidelity...the works. Scary... I liked "All Yours" a bit more, and I'd read more of her novels, but so far they're not available in English. I suspect they will be soon. Please...

The book starts with a multiple murder/suicide but then for the next 16 chapters (so far), there is no reference to what happened in the first chapter. Instead, a picture is painted of life in a wealthy, gated community in Argentina in the early 2000s. There is considerable detail. It is also, in part, set in contrast against those who live outside the community. There is an underlying sense of tension. This is slow burn. I'm hooked. Even slower burn since I am reading it in parallel with the Spanish original, 'Las viudas de los jueves'.Translated by Miranda France.13/3 A few of the later chapters don't seem to serve a purpose. Padding. They could have been left out. Not perfect, but still worth reading, especially when read in parallel with the Spanish version. The language is colloquial and lends itself to easy translation.

I was really interested to read this book as it was about people living in Argentina - a country I know a fair bit about when it comes to its recent history. This history is so full of extraordinary stories from the Perons to the Mothers of the Disappeared with their white head scarves and terrible stories about their loved ones. However, this book is about a lot of rich and not so rich people living in a gated community and frankly I could not summon much enthusiasm or interest in their fate. It starts and ends as a thriller with three dead bodies in a swimming pool - the intervening chapters are about these people and their families and their various financial problems.

Not a whodunnit but a cleverly constructed examination of the lives and prejudices of the Argentinian elite. A deceptively easy read that leaves you thinking. Highly recommended.

Sorry, couldn't even get through this. I don't think it's a bad translation, but the it moves so slowly and the story is so fragmented I just lost interest.

It was billed as a mystery, which, in the very end, it was, I guess...... But it is much more a story of spoiled, rich, South America. Not a traditional mystery, with clues, personae, police, whatever. It wasn't a total slog to get through, but it was not a "traditional" mystery.