Santa Evita - Supernormal Reads

Paperback, 416 pages

English, Spanish language

Published Jan. 1, 1997 by Anchor Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-86230-002-6

(1 review)

Among the great corpses of our age are Lenin, Mao Zedong and Stalin. Mao, at least, is still on view for the masses to see, some two decades after his demise. But no corpse engendered as much intrigue as that of Eva Peron. Elevated to near sainthood in Argentina after her death in 1952, her perfectly preserved corpse was seized by the Argentine Army following the ouster of her husband in 1955. By then, her corpse was the equivalent of a sacred relic, and while army officials wanted to keep it out of the hands of Peronists, they were loath to destroy the corpse for fear of the wrath that might follow. Tomas Eloy Martinez has reassembled the story of the corpse of Eve Peron in Santa Evita, and in the process, produced a riveting, rich book that not only tells the tale of one of the more bizarre sagas …

Among the great corpses of our age are Lenin, Mao Zedong and Stalin. Mao, at least, is still on view for the masses to see, some two decades after his demise. But no corpse engendered as much intrigue as that of Eva Peron. Elevated to near sainthood in Argentina after her death in 1952, her perfectly preserved corpse was seized by the Argentine Army following the ouster of her husband in 1955. By then, her corpse was the equivalent of a sacred relic, and while army officials wanted to keep it out of the hands of Peronists, they were loath to destroy the corpse for fear of the wrath that might follow. Tomas Eloy Martinez has reassembled the story of the corpse of Eve Peron in Santa Evita, and in the process, produced a riveting, rich book that not only tells the tale of one of the more bizarre sagas in the history of South American politics, but that also gets to the heart of the age-old human impulse to create myths and tell stories.

2 editions

ralentina reviewed Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez

Why men

3 stars

Santa Evita is a remarkable book, no doubt about it: beautifully written, original, with a captivating premise, complex characters, and multiple layers of meaning. It narrates the story of Evita's body after her death, of the men who lost their mind and peace after crossing its path, including the authors. It plays with the boundaries between history, fiction and myth, drawing a portrait of Evita, but, more to the point, of Argentina, over the course of five decades. Finishing took me ages, and a certain commitment. From browsing other goodreads users' reviews, I am not alone there. That's not necessarily an indictment of the book, but by the end I found myself growing tired of Evita and her myth, which - fundamentally - is just another version of the woman as madonna / whore, and her devastating effects on men. For a while I was hoping Eloy Martinez was going …

Santa Evita is a remarkable book, no doubt about it: beautifully written, original, with a captivating premise, complex characters, and multiple layers of meaning. It narrates the story of Evita's body after her death, of the men who lost their mind and peace after crossing its path, including the authors. It plays with the boundaries between history, fiction and myth, drawing a portrait of Evita, but, more to the point, of Argentina, over the course of five decades. Finishing took me ages, and a certain commitment. From browsing other goodreads users' reviews, I am not alone there. That's not necessarily an indictment of the book, but by the end I found myself growing tired of Evita and her myth, which - fundamentally - is just another version of the woman as madonna / whore, and her devastating effects on men. For a while I was hoping Eloy Martinez was going to snap his author's fingers and wake his readers up, pointing out that the trope is shallow, trite, and sexist too. In vain: he is in it up to his ears. (Read in the English translation Helen R. Lane)