Mascara
by Ariel Dorfman
On This Page
Description
Mascara delves into the dark terrain of identity and disguise when the lives of three people collide. A nameless man with a face no one remembers has the devastating ability to see and capture on film the brutal truths lurking inside each person he encounters. Oriana, a beautiful woman with the memory of an innocent child, is relentlessly pursued by mysterious figures from her past. Doctor Mavirelli is a brilliant and power-hungry plastic surgeon who controls society’s most prominent show more figures by shaping their faces. The twining of these three fates plays out in a climactic unmasking. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
An interesting idea, but I found that the writing style made this novel very difficult to get into. (Perhaps this is the fault of the translation; I can't say.) I had thought this would be more of a mystery story, with Oriana's amnesia at the center of it. I did enjoy the surreal elements of this and the small things that show an accomplished writer at work (what's the plastic surgeon's name, after all?). Overall, though, I found the novel disappointing, especially toward the end.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
89+ Works 2,781 Members
Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, Ariel Dorfman is a Chilean citizen. A supporter of Salvador Allende, he was forced into exile and has lived in the United States for many years. Since writing his legendary essay, "How to Read Donald Duck", Dorfman has built up an impressive body of work that has translated into more than thirty languages. Besides show more poetry, essays and novels--"Hard Rain" (Readers International, 1990), winner of the Sudamericana Award; "Widows" (Pluto Press, 1983); "The Last Song of Manuel Sendero" (Viking, 1987); "Mascara" (Viking, 1988); "Konfidenz" (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1995)--he has written plays, including "Death and the Maiden", and produced in ninety countries. He has won various international awards, including two Kennedy Center Theatre Awards. With his son, Rodrigo, he received an award for best television drama in Britain for "Prisoners of Time" in 1996. A professor at Duke University, Dorfman lives in Durham, North Carolina. (Publisher Provided) Ariel Dorfman, Dorfman is a Walter Hines Page Research Professor of Literature and Latin American Studies and has a Licenciatura in Comparative Literature from the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, 1965. He has taught at the Universidad de Chile, the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and the University of Amsterdam. Dorfman has written essays that include "How to Read Donald Duck" (coll. With Armand Mattlelart, 1971), "The Empire's Old Clothes" (1983) and "Someone Writes to the Future: Essays on Contemporary Latin American Fiction" (1991). He has also written a collection of poetry titled "Last Waltz in Santiago and Other Poems of Exile and Disappearance" (1988) and a collection of stories titled "My House Is One Fire." His novels include "Widows" (1983), "The Last Song of Manuel Sendero" (1986), "Mascara" (1988), "Hard Rain" (1990), "Konfidenz" (1995), and "The Nanny and the Iceburg" (1999). The play "Widows" won a New American Plays Award from the Kennedy Center and "Reader" won the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center. "Death and the Maiden" also won many awards and was made into a Roman Polanski film and "Mascara" (with son Rodrigo Dorfman) premiered in Bonn in 1998. He created a collection of his plays, "The Resistance Trilogy," which includes "Death and the Maiden," "Reader," and "Widows." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1988
- First words
- So we're finally going to meet, Doctor.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 74
- Popularity
- 424,006
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.88)
- Languages
- English, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
