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Fernando Schwartz. El desencuentro. Barcelona. Planeta. 1997 ( 1996). 289 pages. ISBN 84-08-1901-5.
Not since Galdos's creation of the love-struck cousins in Dona Perfecta has a Spanish author, as Fernando Schwartz has done here, transmitted the intense attraction between a woman and a man in spite of, or perhaps because of, their consanguinity. In Dona Perfecta the love was between first cousins Pepe Rey and Rosario Polentinos. In El desencuentro it is between first cousins Africa Angles and Carlos Mata. There are other striking parallels between Dona Perfecta and El desencuentro: Pepe Rey and Africa Angles are madrilenos who fall victim to the mores of provincial Spain and Mexico respectively, and both incur the wrath of the fanatical mothers of their respective cousins. Dona Perfecta demonizes...