CALL ME MAGDALENA

All sorts of genres are imperturbably parodied in this witty, prizewinning 1992 novel from the Argentinean author of Musicians and Watchmakers. Its frame story is a weekend getaway shared by members of an adult “Mind Control” class (they’re “learning various techniques to avoid becoming victims of modern life”); its central action a (supposed) murder mystery; its narrator-protagonist a feisty female counterpart of Melville’s Ishmael, whose fish-out-of-water status among the mind-controllers propels her into deliciously detailed memories of the battles between her Russian Jewish grandparents and Latin Catholic parents. Intricate, sensuous, and frequently hilarious: very much like a really good Luis Buñuel film. Steimberg is one of Latin America’s best writers.