Giardinelli's Characters

South Atlantic Modern Language Association
To Be Continued: Mempo Giardinelli's Characters in Search of an Ending

Author(s): Gustavo Pellón
Source: South Atlantic Review, Vol. 67, No. 4, Spanish American Fiction in the 1990s
(Autumn, 2002), pp. 106-123
Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association
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To Be Continued: Mempo Giardinelli's
Characters in Search of an Ending
GUSTAVO PELLON
IMPOSIBLE EQULUBRIO (1995), THE FIRST NOVEL WRITTEN BY MEMPO

Giardinelli after his return to Argentina from years of exile in
Mexico, seduces us with a plot whose improbable premise is the
importation of hippopotamuses to his native Chaco region. As in
the previous cases of his adaptations of pulp fiction genres, the
vertiginous though strangely plausible plot overflows the usual
limits of the genre and evolves into an allegorical commentary
about the political and moral condition of his country. Here I am
interested in showing how Imposible equilibrio is at the same time a
continuation as well as a rewriting and revision in narrative as well
as ideological terms of Giardinelli's earlier novel, Lana cakente (Sultry

Moon) (1983). Both Luna ca/lente and Imposible equilibrio set out in a
realist mode, meeting readers' stylistic expectations of the hard-
boiled novel and the road movie respectively, but as the action
develops these novels abandon the conventions of realism. In both
cases (and this is absent in the rest of Giardinelli's novels), an
event of an unbelievable nature suddenly frustrates the reader's
attempt to continue to read in a realist mode. Gradually the alle-
gorical reading, which up to then had been barely insinuated, be-
comes more and more insistent.
Written during Giardinelli's exile in Mexico, Lana caliente nar-

rates the abortive homecoming of the protagonist, Ramiro
Bernardez.' Having concluded his study of law in Paris, the young
lawyer returns to Argentina and his native Chaco. The action of
the novel takes place in 1977, a year after the military junta's coup
when the dictatorship's brutal repression is at full throttle. Ramiro,
who has not wanted to give credence to the reports made by Ar-
South Atlantic Review 107
gentine exiles in Paris of the regime's violations of

returns to the city of Resistencia with the hope
any political involvement and his prestigious foreig
him obtain a position at the university, a judgesh
portant position in the government of the military
A series of unforeseeable events frustrates irrevo
ambitions. Apparently under the influence of th
moon of the Chaco (a reference to the Algerian
Meursault to murder in Camus's The Stranger), Ram
murders Araceli, the adolescent daughter of his fath
Doctor Braulio Tennembaum. Later that same night,
the physician has discovered the crime, Ramiro kill
next day, to Ramiro's horror, Araceli comes to se
very much alive and with an insatiable sexual app
the third person narrator does not explain how A
being suffocated with her pillow by Ramiro, there
for doubt for the reader to reconstruct a plausi
Ramiro thought that Araceli had stopped breathing
he was wrong. Under police suspicion for the mu
Tennembaum, Ramiro falls further into Araceli's di
when the girl, who does not seem to care that Ra
her father, gives him an unsolicited alibi. Desperate
amounts to sexual slavery, Ramiro kills Araceli a se
this time the description of the murder is more len
and leaves little room for doubt:
Nunca sabria cuanto tiempo estuvo asi, pero no dej6 de

oprimir ni por un instante, muchos[sic] despues de que
Araceli se relaj6 totalmente, con el cuello quebrado y
caido hacia un costado, como un clavel que cuelga de
un tallo partido. (154)
(He would never know how long he was like that, but
he didn't stop pressing for a moment, long after Araceli
became completely limp, her neck broken and hanging
to the side like a carnation hanging from a broken stem.
[99-100])
108 Gustavo Pelldn
Given this brutal turn of events, the nov

pected manner. Ramiro crosses the borde
out in a hotel in Asunci6n, where he expe
moment by the authorities:
En ese momento son6 el telkfono, y

Finalmente legaban a detenerlo. Des
Era el tipo de la conserjeria.
--Sefior, aqui lo busca una sefiorita.
Ramiro apret6 el tubo, conteniendo la

por la ventana, negando con la cabez
Biblia que estaba sobre la mesa de n
Dios, pero e1 no tenia Dios. No lo ha
entonces y para siempre, el recuerdo d
del Chaco, instalada en un pedazo de
excitante que jamas conoceria.
--C6omo dice?
-Que lo busca una sefiorita, sefior, casi

69)
(At that moment the telephone rang and he jumped

from the bed. They were finally coming to arrest him.
He picked up the phone. It was the fellow from the
reception desk.
"Sir, there is a young lady here to see you."
Ramiro gripped the receiver, holding his breath. He

looked out the window, denying it with his head. Then
he looked at the Bible that was on the nightstand, and
thought about God, but he had no God. There was
none. There was only, then and forever, the memory of
the sultry moon in El Chaco, embedded in one piece of
skin, the most exciting skin he would ever know.
"What did you say?"
"That a young lady is here to see you, sir. A

girl, actually." [111])
Faced with the final apparition of Araceli, the rea

has several alternatives, but none of them is sat
ist level.
The allegorical reading suggested by the author

represents the Argentine people and that Araceli
condemned to a vicious cycle of violence and
calente, which began as a hard-boiled novel, end
gory. Giardinelli seems to prepare the ground fo
interpretation toward the end of the novel
Ramiro's thoughts in the stifling hotel room
the phone call. As he tries to understand ho
destroyed his life in barely three nights, Ramir
first to a climatological alibi, "el Chaco es tierra
selva, monte, gente apasionada. Como ella. Ella
y el calor y la luna. Mala junta, se dijo" (167). ("E
land, tropics, jungle, forest, passionate people
who was now nameless--and the heat and the moon. Bad combi-
nation" [109].) Here, as in other cases in the novel, Ramiro reveals
the type of double vision typical in exiles; he sees his homeland
alternately as one who belongs and as a stranger. His climatologi-
cal alibi, "the Chaco made me do it," repeats the European and
North American stereotype of the tropics, where the natives's lack
of self-restraint in sexual matters is always a given. Subsequently,
Ramiro's rambling thoughts veer to Dante's great allegorical work,
the Inferno, and the different punishments meted out to sinners.
He thinks of:
Paolo y Francesca, y en los pecados de la came y en los

danios al pr6jimo. "Pero yo ya no soy un pr6jimo; soy
un proscrito, un condenado", se dijo, y se jur6 el segundo
circulo, con Semiramis, con Dido, con Cleopatra y con
Elena .... Y Giovanni, el monstruo de la torre, un tierno
110 Gustavo Pell6n
enamorado. El mismo era, en cierto mo

enamorado. Pero enamorado de la m
merecia pasar del segundo circulo al s6
dominada por Minotauro y por Geri
(Paolo and Francesca and about sins

harming one's neighbor. "But I am n
bor: I am now an outlaw, condemned,"
he assumed the second circle, with Sem
and with Cleopatra and with Helen
Giovanni, the monster from the tow
love and tenderness. In a certain way h
Giovanni in love, but in love with deat
he deserved to move from the second circle to the sev-
enth, the region ruled by Minotaur and Geryon. [110])
Thus, through the mediation of Dante, the author prepares read-

ers to forsake the realism of the hard-boiled novel and accept an
allegorical ending that will make moral sense out of the living
nightmare suggested by Araceli's presence in the lobby. Punish-
ment has followed crime as in Dostoevsky, and the punishment is
endless and fits the sin perfectly as in Dante. The rapist and mur-
derer is doomed to have sex on demand with his victim, who as
we have seen is insatiable and seems impossible to kill. What be-
gan as a thriller with an exotic setting has overflown the generic
borders to become an indictment of Argentina's self-inflicted cycle
of violence during the Dirty War. Lana caliente carries the burden
of the violence of the period of the dictatorship and is marked by
the mythifying tendencies of exile.
Imposible equiibrio, appearing in print after twelve years of Ar-
gentine democracy, is also situated in the Chaco, but the land de-
scribed in the pages of this novel bears little resemblance to the
landscape of Luna caliente which in contrast seems like a Holly-
wood set. The exotic, threatening, hot moonlight of the Chaco
seen through the imposed otherness of exile (Ramiro's and
Giardinelli's) gives way to a homelier vision of home under the
shadowless glare of the noonday sun as this p

gins:
A una cuadra de distancia del palco en el que se apifiaban

las autoridades, Frank Woodyard se rasc6 la espalda,
inquieto, y mir6 una vez mais el largo muelle atestado de
gente....
El gringo estaba recostado contra el muro de uno de

los enormes galpones abandonados del puerto.... A su
lado Pura Solanas se apantallaba con un abanico de papel
pintado. A los pies de ambos dormitaba un perrito
callejero, completamente ajeno a la importancia de ese
dia. Cada tanto se plumereaba con la cola para espantar
a las moscas. (9)
(A block away from the reviewing stand where the au-

thorities were crowded, Frank Woodyard scratched his
back restlessly, and once again looked at the long dock
crammed with people....
The gringo was leaning against the wall of one of the

huge abandoned warehouses of the port... . Beside
him, Pura Solanas was shading herself with a painted
paper fan. A little street dog was sleeping at their feet,
totally oblivious to the importance of that day. Every
so often he swished his tail to shoo away the flies.2 [9])
"The importance of that day" is equivocal. What they all are wait-
ing for is the disembarkation of a family of hippos imported to
the Chaco in order to establish a native population of these ani-
mals, which will help to control the excessive river vegetation and
thereby impose an ecological equilibrium. What no one expects is
the kidnapping of the hippos by three idealists who cannot bear
the exploitation of the project for its public relations potential by
the federal, state and local governments nor the mass frenzy cre-
ated by the media in all its postmodern manifestations: bumper
stickers, tee-shirts, hippo-naming contests, and television surveys.
112 Gustavo Pelldn
The police chase and flight of the liberators

the roads of the Chaco and the retrospect
the project of importing the hippos came to
tance to that project grew make up the fram
In narrative and ideological terms, Imposibl
clear contrast with Luna caliente. The first d
feels is the narrative voice. Ltna caliente is n
person, following consistently Ramiro's poin
tion is spare, the novel reads at breakneck sp
action is set in the Chaco, there are only t
sary to create the mood (the summer moon,
in Luna caliente is subservient to the plot.
The narrative structure of Imposibk equilibr
varied, and multi-voiced, offers a sharp contr
of Luna caliente. At the same time, the techn
single narrative voice and many voices reflec
logical emphasis.3
Just as Luna caliente relates what I have call
coming, Imposible equilibrio marks a true re
the Chaco. While in the former, a mythified
served as the backdrop, in the latter the Cha
and ethnological aspects shares the stage as
Imposible equilibrio reclaims and recuperates
and yearned for in exile. It is a homage to
(with great emphasis on its ethnic diversity
(described with the meticulousness of a bota
But unlike Lana caliente, Imposible equilibrio
The moon also shines in this novel, and it is
value attributed by the author in Luna calien
sentation of the Chaco in Imposibk equiibr
pable, and contingent as that of the many c
in the novel.
Araceli and Ramiro, Lana ca/iente's Meph

and Dantesque couple, find their counterparts
Clelia and Victorio. Victorio Lagomarsino is th
rilla, who years after serving time in prison
ship, has not been able to reconcile himself

utopian dreams and integrate himself into the
cratic Argentina. It is Victorio, together with Pu
ex-guerrilla fighter and ex-prisoner, and Frank
nam war veteran, ex-priest, and lover of Pura
hippos. Clelia Riganti is a twenty-one year old w
joins forces with the kidnappers because, acco
gust6 ver que un hombre grande puede ser tan
Sos el tipo que yo esperaba conocer y me pare
a enamorarme de vos hasta el caracu" (78). ("I
grown man could be so bold and crazy. You're th
ing to meet and I think I could fall in love with
marrow of my bones.")
A major theme of the novel is the reconciliatio
tion with its history and its future. Pura, Frank
presented in the novel as people, who after livin
surviving under extreme circumstances, have no
not adapt to the moral gray areas of life in a
plays a crucial role in the novel because she r
generation that was too young to take par
"Proceso" or Dirty War. Clelia is the answer to
gentina represented by Araceli in Luna cakente.
sess Araceli/Argentina leads Ramiro/the Arge
and although Ramiro considers himself a mon
only a normal man who succumbs to violence at
By becoming a couple, Clelia and Victorio rescue
draws Victorio out of his resentment, and he
of direction and an example of commitment t
of the rewriting of the male/female relationshi
the national drama in these two novels, it is p
that in marked contrast to Araceli and Ramiro,
do not engage in sex in Imposibl equikbtio. Instead
to their courtship and verbal sparring. It is not u
en Patagonia that Giardinelli describes their love-
derness could not be farther from the violence
114 Gustavo Pelldn
Imposibl equilibrio adheres to the deman

to the conventions of realism for 226
point in the novel, Clelia is shopping at t
meets a mysterious couple who someho
how she describes them to Victorio:
Ella es muy hermosa, y es impactant

largo, grueso. Tiene una cara delgada
unos ojos oscuros, brillantes, de mirada
Flaca y alta, tendra" treinta afios y un
como de nena, que la embellece auin
por su parte, debe bordear los cincuenta
un tipo atractivo. Tiene hermosas ca
pero tambien una expresi6n muy
estuviera lleno de culpas. (227)
(She's very beautiful, and her thick, lo

imposing. She has a slender face in whi
ing eyes stand out, with a languid and s
der and tall, she must be about thir
strange baby-like expression that mak
beautiful. The man, on the other han
fifty and is still attractive. He has beaut
but also a very sad expression. As if
guilt.)
Later, this mysterious couple comes to the house where Clelia and
Victorio are hiding, and we are given another description, this time
by a narrator who is not a character:
2l es un hombre moreno, curtido, con cara de haber

navegado tormentas y borrascas, en efecto, pero tambi6n
se le nota una serenidad y una plenitud de esas que se
diria que s61o se alcanzan con el paso de los afios y si en
esos afios uno ha sido bien amado. Ella es bastante mais
joven que 61 y muy bella, delgada y alta, y con una figura

excepcional bajo el vestido de algod6n. Su pelo es
impactante y su rostro ligeramente modiglianesco.
-No tienen nada que temer-dice el h

acercindose-. Me Ilamo Ramiro Bernirde
Araceli Tennembaum. Somos del mismo pal
(He is a dark man, tanned, with a face tha

through storms and squalls, indeed, but you
a serenity and a kind of plenitude that come
passing years, if one has been well-loved d
years. She is quite a bit younger than he and
tiful, slender and tall, and with an excepti
under her cotton dress. Her hair is impressiv
face slightly Modiglianesque. "There is not
afraid of," the man says, coming over. "M
Ramiro Bernirdez and she is Araceli Tennembaum.
We're cut from the same cloth."4)
The phrase "we're cut from the same cloth" is ambiguous in its
reference.4 Primarily, it refers to Araceli and Ramiro, but it might
also be that Ramiro suggests a kinship between the two couples.
In this manner, Giardinelli underscores the internovelistic mirror-
ing of these four characters who are at once conceived in a realist
and allegorical light. Readers of Luna cakente will be surprised, to
say the least, at the way the story of Araceli and Ramiro has evolved.
Readers of Imposibk equilibrio unfamiliar with Luna calente of course
will not be aware of the internovelistic mirroring nor of the fact
that characters have seeped from one novel to another and have
traveled in time. In that sense, veteran readers of Giardinelli's novels
are given an inkling of the novel's ending (or non-ending as we
shall see). The point, however, seems to be that Araceli and Ramiro
have already left, and Clelia and Victorio are about to leave the
constraints of their novels and enter the realm of literature.
Araceli and Ramiro help their fellow fugitives Clelia and Victorio
to escape. As they leave the town:
Hay mucha gente rara a la vera del camino, y todos se

dirigen hacia el mismo sitio: por alla, y secindose la
pronunciada calvicie, marcha un hombre de barba
116 Gustavo Pelldn
morena y tupida en cuyas cejas oscura

epilepsias y destierros en Siberia, u
religiosidad y el haber caminado San Peter
crimenes horribles y delineado personaje
se ve un mexicano entrafiable y menu
todas las voces de la sierra jaliciense. Y
una inesperada, divina reuni6n de person
de todas las cpocas al costado del cam
muchos, muchisimos mis: en realidad
cifra de sus nombres y el cuerpo innu
testimonios seguramente desbord
bibliotecas y computadoras que en el m
son y seran.
-Parece un carnaval maravilloso -dice Victorio,

deslumbrado.
-Lo es ---dice Ramiro sonriente.
Y los cuatro miran hacia todos los lados como cuando

uno se sube a un carrousel. Y ven todas las formas
posibles, y tambien las imposibles, del mismo modo que
ve quien pone el ojo en la embocadura de un
caleidoscopio. Y empiezan a sentirse perennes, como
cuando en los suefios los tiempos y las distancias
adquieren otro sentido. (231-32)
(There are a lot of strange people on the sides of the

road, and all are walking the same way. Up ahead, dry-
ing his large bald head, walks a man with a thick dark
beard in whose dark eyebrows are concentrated epilep-
tic seizures and exiles in Siberia, a deep religiosity and a
knowledge of every street in St. Petersburg, the writing
of horrible crimes and the sketching of eternal charac-
ters. Over there you can see a lovable small Mexican
whose voice is all the voices of the sierras of Jalisco.
And so on, it all looks like an unexpected, divine re-
union of people and characters from all ti

side of the road. ... In truth there are thousands and
their names and the body of their innumerable testi-
monies would surely overwhelm all the libraries and
computers that there have been, are, and will be in the
world.
"It looks like a marvelous carnival," Victorio says

dazzled.
"It is," Ramiro says, smiling.
And the four of them look all around them like when
you get on a merry-go-round. They see all possible as
well as impossible forms, like a person who looks into
the eye-piece of a kaleidoscope. They begin to feel pe-
rennial, like in dreams when time and distance acquire
another meaning.)
From the description of the unusual crowd of pedestrians, read-

ers will recognize Dostoevsky,s Rulfo, Homer, Melville, Virginia
Woolf, Alejandra Pizarnik, Cortizar, Quiroga, Dante, Shakespeare,
and, significantly, Borges. Significantly because in the scene just
cited, Giardinelli evokes two of Borges's best-known stories "The
Aleph" (with its simultaneous vision of the universe) and "The
Library of Babel"(the collection of all possible texts). And the
words "They begin to feel perennial, like in dreams when time
and distance acquire another meaning," explain in part why Araceli
and Ramiro can appear out of context.
The reappearance of these previously demonic characters in
their present benign avatars stretches verisimilitude to the break-
ing point. Nevertheless, I can imagine the following explanation
that justifies their appearance in this altered form. Materializing at
the conclusion of Imposible equiibdrio, Araceli and Ramiro no longer
exist in the psychological context and political climate of Luna
caliente; instead they appear as timeless characters in the parade of
world literature described here. Extending the allegorical reading
118 Gustavo Pelldn
of Luna caliente, I can also suggest that the relation
and Ramiro has changed as that of Argentina and
people has during the course of the last decades o
Still, Giardinelli is faced with the problem of fin
for Imposible equikbrio, and he resolves it by means of a
The god in this case is Jules Verne, and the machin
balloon of Around the World in Eighty Days. What
conclusion though not the ending of Imposible equil
Veinte minutos despues, en magnifico silencio, l

la laguna Totora, a cuya orilla arenosa hay amarr
enorme globo aerostitico en el que parecen h
convocado todos los colores, como un gigante
iris de papel .... Lo dirige un hombre de pelo
y cano, nariz recta, barba tipica de finales d
diecinueve. .... Araceli y Ramiro dicen que se t
visionario que previ6 el submarino, el aeropl
televisi6n y los viajes a la Luna y al centro de la
que, por supuesto, pueden confiar en 61.
Un altoparlante llama a los sefiores pasajeros a

bordo.
Ni Clelia ni Victorio preguntan a d6nde iran. Pero

Araceli y Ramiro, sonrientes, de todos modos les dicen:
--Aqui nunca, nadie, los va a joder. Estin entrando en

la literatura. (232-33)
(Twenty minutes later, in magnificent silence, they reach

Totora lake, at whose sandy shore is tied an enormous
balloon which seems to be the meeting place of all col-
ors, like a giant paper rainbow.... The one giving or-
ders is a man with tousled gray hair, straight nose, a
typical turn of the century beard.... Araceli and Ramiro
say it is none other than the visionary who foresaw the
submarine, the airplane, television and trips to the Moon
and to the center of the Earth, and of course th

trust him.'
A loudspeaker instructs all passengers to com
Neither Clelia nor Victorio ask where they ar

But Araceli and Ramiro, smiling, tell them anyw
"No one is ever going to bother you here. You

tering literature.")
The conclusion of Imposibk equiibrio fashions an ep

caiente but leaves open the fate of Clelia and Vic
learn the ending of Imposible equikbdo, readers wil
Giardinelli's latest novel Final de novela en Patagonia
Patagonia) (2000).
Mempo Giardinelli has tried his hand at many nar
in his novels. In fact, one could say that the trait t
terizes Giardinelli's novels is precisely the element
constant reinvention of his narrative project. W
had not yet seen him do was to mix several genres
tion and non-fiction in one work. Finalde novela en
cinating to read but impossible to label. A work
the crossing of all types of borders, this novel i
neric and even ontological borders constantly.
To begin with, it is presented as a travel book
ontological plane of non-fiction. It announces t
trip to and through Patagonia in the company
friend, Fernando Oper6, a professor of Latin Amer
at the University of Virginia. Very soon, however,
rative begins to be filled with rich anecdotes, t
Giardinelli's own dreams, memories of his youth
Curiously, the farther the protagonists are from R
point of departure, the more the author's mind see
the time and space of his childhood in the province
farthest geographical extreme from Patagonia. P
120 Gustavo Pelldn
up, and above all there is the obsessive pres

end is announced in the very title of this m
From the time he won the complete work
championship among writers in Buenos Air
an attentive reader of his compatriot's w
Giardinelli makes use of the Borgesian trick
without actually writing it all out. The n
other than the sequel to Imposibk equilbtio. Jus
offers an ending to the story of Araceli an
nists of Lana caliente, Final de novela en Patago
of Imposible equilibrio. While Giardinelli an
drive through the routes of Patagonia, the
of the fugitives Clelia and Victorio gradu
thoughts of Giardinelli. Readers are made
tions, possible outcomes and actual fragmen
which appear on the pages of Final de nove
were reading them on the screen of the aut
In a dizzying manner, the itinerary of the
rors that of Giardinelli and his friend as
and towns of Patagonia offer the author th
unclog the stagnant novel whose ending h
journey. Thus, on the eve of the trip to
suddenly given what they realize is a fragm
sequel to Imposible equiibrio:
La luminosa mahiana de enero en que e

multicolor se descolg6 del cielo como una
techo, et&rea y segura a la caza de la m
Lagomarsino contempl6 el paisaje sintien
se le filtraba en las venas como para cam
su coraz6n... . Despeinado y con el asp
ha pasado los cincuenta afios y debe emp
de sus muchas derrotas, Victorio s
enseguida gir6 para extender la mano a e
mis j6ven, que podia parecer su hija per
hija, y que tampoco era demasiado bel
poseedora de la hermosa insolencia de la

Montada sobre la barandilla de la g6ndola, e
mano de 61 y tambien salt6 graciosamente
Inmediatamente el gigantesco globo aerostAti

a elevarse nuevamente, con velocidad y fuer
todos los fuegos del mundo hincharan el a
remontaba, como si los aires calientes que l
como una teta magnifica tuvieran urge
desaparecer entre las nubes..... (26-27)
(That luminous January morning when the

multi-colored balloon came down from the
spider falls from the ceiling, ethereal and accu
hunt for a fly, Victorio Lagomarsino behel
scape feeling that the green of the landscape
ing into his veins so as to change the color of
... . Disheveled and with the look of someo
passed the age of fifty and must begin to set
counts of his many defeats, Victorio jum
ground and immediately turned to offer h
that much younger woman, who might seem
daughter but who was not his daughter, an
wasn't excessively beautiful but was aware of
tiful insolence of youth. From the railing o
dola, she took his hand and also jumped gr
the ground....
Immediately the gigantic hot-air balloon be

again, with great speed, as if all the fires of
were expanding the air that gave it lift, as if
air that was inflating it like a magnificent bre
urgency of disappearing among the clouds
Immediately following this fragment, Giardinell

terior es el inicio de la novela que yo habia em
antes de viajar a la Patagonia. Algo me decia que e
122 Gustavo Pelldn
reservaba el resto de ese texto que yo bu

tiempo." (27) ("The previous text is the b
that I began to write before the trip to Pat
me that territory held in reserve for me the
I had been seeking for such a long time.")
At intervals throughout the book, Giardin
quote from his novel in progress, weighing
ments and at times summarizing rather tha
to write. In fact, the status of the novel
Giardinelli offers two totally different poss
ending, Clelia and Victorio meet with dis
Giardinelli imagines a happier ending for t
ending seems to borrow a page or two fr
and Araceli.
Final de novela en Patagonia brings many e
The friends make their journey without
write many poems, and Giardinelli manag
plausible and beautiful end to the adventure
In Final de novela en Patagonia, Impossible eq
converge; their characters have found an en
University of Virginia
NOTES
For a focus on different aspects of Luna caliente, se
Chichester and Espinoza.
2 All translations from Imposible equilbrio and Final de
page references are to the published edition in Spanish
For a discussion of how the narrative structure of Sa
flects Giardinelli's ideological concerns, see my "Ideology
Santo Ofido de la Memoria." Studies in 20th Century Liter
'In Spanish the phrase is "somos del mismo palo," whi
suit" as in spades, hearts and diamonds in playing card
' The fact that the author of Crime and Punishment is t
strange procession is particularly apposite in light of
Dante are among the authors most valued by Giardinel
6 It is natural that the parade of literature should be m
the characters they have created. It is interesting that t
of Jules Verne seems also to suggest his character Phi
Around the WorM in Eighby Days, who employs a hot-air
7 During a visit to one of my classes at the University of Virgi
1998, Giardinelli was asked by a student why he had imagined that en
equilibrio. His answer was typically candid, "What was I supposed
What alternatives did I have? They could escape and live abroad
caught and killed by the police, and I didn't want Victorio and Cle
' In addition to the allusions to Borges's stories "The Aleph" and
Babel" in Imposibit equiibrio mentioned above, Giardinelli has written
"La entrevista" [The Interview], and "El libro perdido de Borges" [B
in which he imagines encounters with Borges. Both stories are co
completos.
WORKS CITED
Buchanan, Rhonda Dahl. "El genero negro como radiografia de una
caliente de Mempo Giardinelli." Narrativa hispanoamericana contem
vanguardiay elposboom. Ed. Ana Maria Hernindez de L6pez. Mad
155-66.
Espinoza, Pilar. "Luna caliente de Mempo Giardinelli y Lolita de Vladimir Nabokov."

Atenea: Revista de Ciencia, Artey Literatura de la Universidad de Concepcidn. 475 (1997):
187-97.
Garcia Chichester, Ana. "Jerarquia de los g neros sexuales en Luna cakente de Mempo
Giardinelli." Romance Notes. 34.2 (1993): 169-76.
Giardinelli, Mempo, Luna ca/ente. Barcelona: Bruguera, 1986.
. Imposibk equilbrio. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta Argentina, 1995.
SSultry Moon. Trans. Patricia J. Duncan. Pittsburgh: Latin American Literary Re-
view Press, 1998.
. Cuentos completos. Buenos Aires: Seix Barral, 1999.
. Final de novela en Patagonia. Barcelona: Editorial B, 2000.
Mathieu, Corina S. "Santo oficio de la memoria: Liberacion y compromiso." Romance
Languages Annual 7 (1995): 532-35.
Pell6n, Gustavo. "Ideology and Structure in Giardinelli's Santo Ofcio de la memotia."
Studies in Twentieth Century 19.1 (1995): 81-99.

Giardinelli's Characters

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South Atlantic Modern Language Association

To Be Continued: Mempo Giardinelli's Characters in Search of an Ending

South Atlantic Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,

IMPOSIBLE EQULUBRIO (1995), THE FIRST NOVEL WRITTEN BY MEMPO

as ideological terms of Giardinelli's earlier novel, Lana cakente (Sultry

Written during Giardinelli's exile in Mexico, Lana caliente nar-

gentine exiles in Paris of the regime's violations of

Nunca sabria cuanto tiempo estuvo asi, pero no dej6 de

Given this brutal turn of events, the nov

En ese momento son6 el telkfono, y

--Sefior, aqui lo busca una sefiorita.

Ramiro apret6 el tubo, conteniendo la

-Que lo busca una sefiorita, sefior, casi

(At that moment the telephone rang and he jumped

"Sir, there is a young lady here to see you."

Ramiro gripped the receiver, holding his breath. He

"What did you say?"

"That a young lady is here to see you, sir. A

Faced with the final apparition of Araceli, the rea

The allegorical reading suggested by the author

Paolo y Francesca, y en los pecados de la came y en los

enamorado. El mismo era, en cierto mo

(Paolo and Francesca and about sins

enth, the region ruled by Minotaur and Geryon. [110])

Thus, through the mediation of Dante, the author prepares read-

shadowless glare of the noonday sun as this p

A una cuadra de distancia del palco en el que se apifiaban

El gringo estaba recostado contra el muro de uno de

(A block away from the reviewing stand where the au-

The gringo was leaning against the wall of one of the

The police chase and flight of the liberators

Araceli and Ramiro, Lana ca/iente's Meph

ship, has not been able to reconcile himself

Imposibl equilibrio adheres to the deman

Ella es muy hermosa, y es impactant

(She's very beautiful, and her thick, lo

2l es un hombre moreno, curtido, con cara de haber

joven que 61 y muy bella, delgada y alta, y con una figura

-No tienen nada que temer-dice el h

(He is a dark man, tanned, with a face tha

Hay mucha gente rara a la vera del camino, y todos se

morena y tupida en cuyas cejas oscura

-Parece un carnaval maravilloso -dice Victorio,

-Lo es ---dice Ramiro sonriente.

Y los cuatro miran hacia todos los lados como cuando

(There are a lot of strange people on the sides of the

union of people and characters from all ti

"It looks like a marvelous carnival," Victorio says

"It is," Ramiro says, smiling.

From the description of the unusual crowd of pedestrians, read-

Veinte minutos despues, en magnifico silencio, l

Un altoparlante llama a los sefiores pasajeros a

Ni Clelia ni Victorio preguntan a d6nde iran. Pero

--Aqui nunca, nadie, los va a joder. Estin entrando en

(Twenty minutes later, in magnificent silence, they reach

and to the center of the Earth, and of course th

A loudspeaker instructs all passengers to com

Neither Clelia nor Victorio ask where they ar

"No one is ever going to bother you here. You

The conclusion of Imposibk equiibrio fashions an ep

up, and above all there is the obsessive pres

La luminosa mahiana de enero en que e