SOURCE: Alegriá, Fernando. “Good-bye to Metaphor: Curfew.” The Review of Contemporary Fiction 12, no. 2 (summer 1992): 77-79.

In the following essay, Alegría says that, in his later novel Curfew, Donoso abandons his usual metaphorical technique and offers an obvious condemnation of the Pinochet regime.

For years José Donoso has beaten the path of metaphor to express his way of feeling and understanding Chile, a path both difficult and dangerous. In a bold effort he produced a beautiful and well-structured synthesis of nostalgia, emotions, and sorrows. It was called A House in the Country. It deeply impressed readers in Spain and Latin America, but Chileans did not seem moved. They were dazzled and amused by the novel; yet they couldn't get over a feeling of playfulness, of clues to be deciphered, and failed to grasp the profound tension that surely seized the author when he opened and closed the doors...