Related essay coming soon in Tin House. ( )

This is a hard book for me to review. It’s clearly some form of dreamy fantasy, almost fairy-tale like, but the book equally obviously targets real-life societal disillusionment. I suspect that parts of it may be, if not allegory, then at least socio-political commentary on issues I know too little about, which is why I find this hard to review.

Things start of very simple. Naïve and good-humoured Count Aleardo di Grees, from Milan, sets out on his yacht for a lucrative trip around the western Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast. He ends up on a Portuguese island that cannot be found on any of his maps and that is owned by an impoverished set of three brothers, nobles all. Their domestic help is a walking, talking iguana called Estrellita, a long-suffering menial servant who behaves at times like a ten-year-old child. Most cruelly, Estrellita’s obvious affections for one of her owners are unscrupulously abused. Count Aleardo takes pity on the poor creature, but finds that he, too, finds himself becoming very fond of Estrellita’s crush, Marquis Felipe.

Initially, this tale that has all the trappings of an allegory -- the fairy-tale quality, the sea voyage into unknown lands, a barely-inhabited island, a talking animal, the focus on aristocracy, the well-worn stereotypes (decrepit aristocracy; profit-obsessed American business moguls; naïve and well-willing main characters, the evil step-siblings). Some of the social commentary is blindingly obvious -- money-hungry capitalism, the impractical benign benevolence of the upper crust. But as the narrative lurches from revelation to revelation, it loses more and more of its attitude of simplicity and one-to-one correspondences. The story gains a few levels of depth and complexity that feel radically different from how it all started. I’ll readily admit that some of it went over my head, but I think I know enough about 1950s (dis)illusions to follow at least Ortese's general direction. ( )

Eine wunderbare Geschichte zum Träumen ( )

L'iguane est considéré comme le chef-d'oeuvre de Anna Maria Ortese et un critique l'a justement classé dans "romans hallucinatoires". Il semble que l'on soit sur une ile portugaise, où des voyageurs à la recherche d'un manuscrit font halte, chez deux frères nobliaux et plus qu'étranges. Leur pauvre servante est un iguane...Ortese ne se rattache a aucun auteur ou style.Mais son étrangeté extrême est aussi attirante.