Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. A friend of the narrator's dies, and the forty-day period marks that difficult time after her death. He returns to his wife in Paris, who expresses no surprise about his absence. Among the guides to this novel is Dante, his account of the journeys in Divine Comedy in some ways similar to the experiences recounted here. Modernity and ancient visions clash and come together.
Quarantine is often trancelike.
The narrator expresses a great deal of uncertainty as to what is real and what is not. It is an appropriate background to the narrator's otherworldly experiences. Rich and occasionally overly lyrical, Quarantine is not among Goytisolo's most accessible texts. Despite being relatively short it is a complex text. The translator's note helpfully explains some of the Islamic references, but this is a work that places considerable demands on it readers.