SOURCE: Byrne, Jack. Review of Hard Rain, by Ariel Dorfman. Review of Contemporary Fiction 12, no. 1 (spring 1992): 151-52.

In the following review, Byrne praises Dorfman's fragmentary narrative in Hard Rain, calling the work a “brilliant anti-novel.”

“All you need are a body, a killer, and a detective. Perfect first ingredients. Season well with a few other characteristics (a list of suspects, limited to residents and visitors who had access to the closed space where the crime took place; authorities who feel bewildered and impotent; a criminal who threatens to strike again; a detective who is emotionally involved in the case; an explosive atmosphere) and we've got ourselves a first-rate mystery novel.” This is a bewildering opening paragraph to a “novel” about the short, happy presidential life of Salvador Allende of Chile [Hard Rain], but it is one way to get the reader's attention. It doesn't take long, however, to...