Translated by Brian Schwarz
Originally published Thursday, December 10, 2009 in "El Nacional" (elnacional.com.do) under the heading
Influyentes logran bloquear circulación libro by Pilar Moreno (p.moreno@elnacional.com.do)
SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - The powers that be blocked the countrywide distribution of the novel “Memoirs of a Lady”, which tells the story of excesses committed against Dominican and Cuban societies under dictators Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and Fulgencio Batista, as well as the economic mafias that subjugated both nations.
The book was written by lauded Peruvian writer Santiago Recangliolo and edited by the Spanish publisher Alfaguara.
The controversy surrounding “Memoirs of a Lady” is the second great scandal of its kind to play out in the Dominican Republic involving the distribution of a book. The first occurred during the government of president and leader of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) Joaquín Balaguer when the secretary of education refused [government order] to recall the award that had been given to Dominican writer Viriato Sención for the book “They Forged the Signature of God”.
In its Spanish headquarters as well as in Santo Domingo, the publisher Alfaguara refused to refer to the situation in an official capacity. “We cannot comment on this,” Ruth Herrera, Alfaguara’s representative in the Dominican Republic, assured in a curt manner.
Nevertheless, an executive for Alfaguara confirmed the existence of the dispute on conditions that his name be withheld, but he would not comment on the reasons the book's blocked distribution. “There is some confusion on this matter, but it is out of our hands,” the Alfaguara executive confirmed on the insistence of El Nacional as it sought an official opinion about the difficult situation, the details of which have been shyly circulating among Dominican intellectuals.
“The problem is not with us. The situation has other facets that are not within Alfaguara’s sphere of influence. This is above us,” the source insisted.
The Dominican literati have commented that the book makes reference to characters from the tyrannical Trujillo regime who are still seated in the upper echelon of power in the Dominican Republic.
[According to the publisher], the novel tells the story of a “lady from high Caribbean society who…wants to pen her memoirs, a story full of glamour and high society parties in London and Paris. Instead she contracts the work to a mediocre, social-climbing, all-but-illegal Peruvian writer who wants to publish a successful book at any cost.”
During an investigation, the biographer discovers links between the lady’s family and the fascist Italian mafia, the CIA, and the Caribbean dictators Trujillo and Batista. He decides to write a very different story from the one his client wants.”
Jackie Kennedy, Benito Mussolini, the Cuban Revolution, Lucky Luciano, [and] Mario Vargas Llosa parade through this book, which is a mix of comedy, thriller, and historical novel about lies, money and ‘good’ families.”
Santiago Rafael Roncagliogo Lohmann was born in Lima in 1975. He is a journalist, playwright, script writer and translator. He won the Alfaguara Award in 2006 for his book “Red April”, which tells of the violent world in which the protagonist finds himself immersed in his own fight against the human rights violations of the Fujimori government [in Peru].
Translated by Brian Schwarz
