Following his fish-out-of-water venture in Argentina in The Buenos Aires Quartet, bon-vivant detective Pepe Carvalho is once more in his beloved Barcelona, and back to his usual nonchalant style of sleuthing between slap-up meals and the appreciation of female pulchritude.
Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian, 24 December 2005, Guardian
reviewing Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's The Man of My Life. Amazon
Ludmila's pulchritude is relevant, since many of the men she encounters sexually harass her.
Sophie Harrison, The New York Times, 21 May 2006, New York Times
reviewing D.B.C. Pierre's Ludmila's Broken English. Amazon
Forget the "sweeping sagas" of advertising campaigns, the "wild yarns" of artists who paint pulchritude and also want to possess it sexually.
Erica Yong, The New York Times, 12 March 2006, New York Times
reviewing Sarah Dunant's In the Company of the Courtesan. Amazon
The women are all mock pulchritude, full of Wonderbra uplift in the corsets that Mr. Loquasto has given them, and they pursue the men, who quiver and shake.
Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, 10 March 2003. New York Times
