SOURCE: "Tale of a Politicized Bard," in The New Leader, Vol. LXXII, No. 2, January 23, 1989, pp. 21-2.

[In the following review, Rodman discusses the plot of Curfew. Faulting it for not adequately fleshing out the two main characters, Rodman feels the novel does succeed in the end because of the change produced in the protagonists.]

Pablo Neruda, the great poet, divided his time while in his native Chile between two houses he owned. In the one at Isla Negra, south of Valparaiso on the Pacific Ocean, he kept his collection of monumental mermaids, angels and ships' figureheads, wrote most of his poems, and entertained those of his friends who could appreciate his art. In the one in Santiago, high on the outcropping called San Cristóbal, near the zoo, he and his lovely wife Matilde held more formal functions and (presumably) conferred with officials of the Communist Party, to...