Demasiados héroes Book

Perhaps this book lost something in translation, or perhaps it just isn't my style. This is the blurb that made me want to read the book:

"From one of the most accomplished writers to emerge from Latin America, No Place for Heroes is a darkly comic novel about a mother and son who return to Buenos Aires in search of her former lover, whom she met during Argentina's Dirty War."

The son, Mateo, is referred to as an adolescent early in the book, but he often acts like a much younger child, sometimes he is called a man and he is old enough to shave. Late in the book, he was called a teenager, but I could never determine his true age, He wants his mother to repeat a story that she has told "a thousand times." Mateo pouts, whines, bullies, hides his eyes, and generally behaves like a rude, spoiled, precocious five-year old.

Much of the story is told in dialogue between Mateo and his mother, Lorenza/Aurelia, and I became bored with the dialogue. Aurelia and Ramon, Mateo's father, had been part of the resistance trying to overthrow the Argentinian dictatorship. Lorenza, her true name rather than her code name, seemed weak despite her involvement in the resistance, seemed like she was just along for the ride. Revolution, secret meetings, double identities, possible torture and death, how could it be boring? Somehow, it managed just that. The book was supposed to be "darkly comic" with "hilarious misunderstandings." I couldn't find the humor in it, just found the characters to be sad and pathetic.

Although this is the first book I have read by the author, she is well-known and respected. Some people may understand and enjoy the book more than I did. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

I was given this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.