Osvaldo Soriano

The novel chronicles Marlowe and Soriano’s investigation into the vicissitudes of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The style aspires to evoke that of Chandler, and the narrative is punctuated by frequent clashes in which the two protagonists invariably come off worst. The vision of society that emerges is one wherein interpersonal relations are consistently resolved through violence, most often at the hands of the police themselves. The result is a bleak pessimism regarding the prospects of civil coexistence.