Over forty years of friendship, rivalry, envy, fear, and hatred collide at a semi-annual dinner party held in an unnamed South American country. Even as the three guests arrive at the ornate home of Dr. Daniel Pacheco, an eminent surgeon, a revolution has erupted in the streets of the city. As the violence outside intensifies so does the psychological and physical violence among the four middle aged men assembled to look back over their lives. At the center of it all is Pacheco's housemaid, Antonia Puccini. Pacheco and Puccini have a grisly hold over each other that has stretched out over twenty years. This night, the night of the banquet, reveals all their secrets, strips away all their masks and facades, and culminates in a scene of destroyed lies and lives.

It may appear that it is the outside world working its way into the fragile mental worlds of the dinner goers so carefully constructed over the past four decades. But is that so? Is it really the outside that causes the final unmasking of Pacheco, his maid, and his guests? As their dishonest inner psyches collapse one by one, each person reveals themselves as something of a monster. Dalakis, the sentimental government official, is the least offensive of the lot, although even he is revealed as something of an emotional vampire feeding off the tragedies of others while displaying his own hurt at his wife's leaving him. Malgiolio, a gluttonous ne'er-do-well, destroys his own future and that of his family in pursuit of a humiliating sexual perversion. And Nicolas Batterby, a literary editor and the novel's narrator, denies his past, his son, and wife, all out of wounded pride and vanity. Above them, Pacheco and Puccini act as puppet masters, manipulating the guests and each other, while positioning themselves for the ultimate dramatic reveal at the end. And simultaneous with it all, the world outside is coming apart. It is as if the outer world is the more temporary construct, for after the night of horrors ends, a new world easily emerges.

In terms of exploring psychological depths, Dobyns' novel is among the best. His clarity of style meshes with his ease of form, while focusing on the subtleties of peeling away the layers of self-delusion. Yet at the end, is it at all sure that the truth is known? For even the narrator has proven unreliable and the stories of the others seem altered when their motivations seem to disappear and then reestablish themselves in other ways. Nothing is true, really, except for Pacheco's and Puccini's release from their gradual dance towards destruction. ( )

From the first pages of this book it pulls you in takes place over dinner with old school friends while the city they live is in turmoil all taking place in one night - a thriller with long held secrets and betrayals. ( )

מזכיר מאוד את אהבה בימי הכולרה - אבל כתשליל. גם זה מתרחש בדרום אמריקה (כנראה) אך נכתב על ידי צפון אמריקני. בעוד הראשון כתוב בשפה ברוקית ומפותלת - זה כתוב בצורה ישירה ובהירה. בעוד הראשון על אובססיה של אהבה, זה על אובססיה של תשוקה. בסה"כ אני מעדיף את זה. ( )