He sees a certain validity in true Marxism, while acknowledging its apparent weaknesses and the dangers it can pose. He places a particular emphasis on Marx's own bourgeois lifestyle, from his acceptance of his wife's considerable inheritance, to his attitude towards the family's longtime servant, Helen Demuth. Shifting between Marx's historical life and scenes from the present, Goytisolo presents a virtuoso performance. The novel reads with the pace of a thriller, it is intellectually gripping at every turn, utterly absorbing, Goytisolo has written a superb novel. Goytisolo's work, written from a vantage point sufficiently far removed, is truly global in scope.
Few books encapsulate an era.
This one does. Beyond that it manages not only to describe this historical moment, but also to analyze it. We can not recommend this book highly enough. Eminently readable, there is no doubt in our minds that this is one of the most significant texts of the 1990s. He is the author of numerous highly regarded novels.