Lima Nights Book

I picked this book up based solely on the title of an academic article, which analyzed certain elements of this novel. I wish I had read at least some of the article, so that I would have had a better idea of what this book was about before I picked it up.

This is a tale of star-crossed lovers, a wealthy-ish Peruvian businessman of German descent (Carlos) and a Native American girl (Maria) who came from a hovel. This isn't some book that's probing some deeper meaning or wrestling with deeper questions. It's simply an "odd couple" story, and it's incredibly problematic. First off, the relationship between the two main characters begins when the (married) man is 45 and the girl is 16 ("younger than his youngest son," as the book mentions several times). They meet at a night club, where she has lied about her age in order to get work. When Carlos is in the midst of this affair with a minor, he gets all up in arms about his wife wondering about where he goes and what he does (how dare she! How dare she be upset with his other friend who carries on a long-term affair under his wife's nose!).

Then, even though his wife, mother, and children leave him in an empty house after his affair is discovered, the man really appears to pay no price. He really doesn't seem to care at all (it's just whatevs, I guess). He doesn't really miss his children or regret the loss of his marriage or contact with his mother. And all of his boyhood friends are just like, "Oh, that's just Carlos."

Also, everyone is super racist. Sex with a Native American is equated to having sex with a goat. Every single Amerindian character smells bad, is uncultured, and/or is a sex maniac looking to take advantage of you. People don't ever question Carlos's decision to have an affair--they question that he had it with someone who wasn't white. No, no, no, that cannot be because the Peruvians with German blood, white skin, and blonde hair are much superior. I mean, for goodness's sake, people even say that inter-racial relationships are bad because "there is just something different between races." Really?!?

I get it--there are people who think like this, and it can be a role of literature to draw our attention to these prejudices so that we can interrogate them and (hopefully) move beyond them. But this book doesn't aim, or even attempt, to do that. No one ever defends Maria after a racist remark. Not even Carlos! No one ever remarks upon the fact that Carlos stops caring about his sons after his divorce, or that his friends know his sons better than he does. Any place outside of the Miraflores neighborhood is infernal, a hellish place overfilled with people looking to rob and kill. Again, this sort of "haves" and "have-nots" situation could be really interesting, but this is just reinforcing stereotypes. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly "Limeño" about this book either--switch out the neighborhood names and you could just as easily be discussing another city with a huge wealth gap and widespread poverty.

I picked this book up hoping to learn something about Lima in the 1980's, but I put it down disappointed and upset.