Whatever ''really'' happened between them is, however, firmly lodged in Josemar's unreachable unconscious. Since he is such an inveterate liar, we can only guess at the hidden injuries of class and race behind his violent sexuality. Much of the first part of the novel revolves around what he did or did not do with Maria da Gloria, whose voice, like the reality principle, occasionally interrupts his daydreams. Sometimes he also remembers a dark girl, Azucena, sometimes a schoolteacher. However, since sex is inevitably linked to the exercise of violence and power, what almost always fascinates Josemar is the memory of the first seduction, of the woman's pain when virginity is lost.
Women are cars that respond to acceleration, or they are animals to be mounted.
In his fantasies, they answer in the same inelegant jargon, having become grotesque echoes of himself. All in all, Josemar is a sad sack, an object lesson in macho narcissism. Blood of Requited Love,'' however, often seems to come dangerously close to the banality the author wants to parody. And here Jan L. Grayson's translation is no help. It is in politics rather than in soccer that ''left leaders'' are to be found, and in English it is usual for players to pass the ball rather than to serve it.