Dándole pena a la tristeza

Esta novela relata los avatares de una acaudalada y muy limeña familia. El autor nos ofrece el vivido retrato del fundador de esta saga un minero de finales del siglo XIX que con enorme creatividad y no poco sacrificio funda un gran imperio financiero y de sus descendientes. A juzgar por el dramático curso que toman las vidas de estos, el barniz de civilización con el que adornan sus vidas no los libra de los instintos más primarios que laten en su ser. Solo ello explica que el juego de la vida consista, para algunos de los personajes, en dirigir otras vidas, contrariar destinos y, en un extremo sobrecogedor, deshacerse de quienes ponen en riesgo el orden señorial. Con esta novela Bryce logra el retrato tierno, violento, feroz e incluso inmisericorde de una familia que lo pierde absolutamente todo y cuyos últimos descendientes encarnan la más atroz decadencia de un linaje.
This novel tells of the vicissitudes of a wealthy family with a long history living in Lima. The author offers us a vivid portrait of the founder of this saga: a miner at the end of the nineteenth century who with enormous creativity and no small sacrifice creates a great financial empire. We are also told the story of his descendants. Judging by the dramatic lives lived by these family members, the veneer of civilization with which they adorn their lives does not free them of the most basic instincts that beat within them. Only this can explain that the game of life consists, for some of the characters, in controlling other lives, opposing destinies, and in an overwhelming extreme, getting rid of those who threaten the established order of things. With this novel Bryce has achieved a violent, tender, ferocious and even merciless portrait of a family that loses absolutely everything anf whose last descendants embody the most horrific decadance of lineage. “A suffocating portrait of the Peruvian oligarchy with a rabelesque humour”” (Ricardo González Vigil, El Comercio). ” “This novel is made elegant by its brilliant sense of humour and its baroque syntax, filled with digressions. Without doubt, the best novel to come from Bryce since Don´t Wait For Me in April” (Javier Agreda, La República).