Tarantula Woman eBook Donald O'Donovan
Download As PDF : Tarantula Woman eBook Donald O'Donovan 
Located across the U.S.-Mexican border in Ciudad Juarez, Mariscal Street (otherwise known as the Boulevard of Broken Dreams) harbors Donald O’Donovan’s quintessential character, Jerzy Mulvaney, as he unsuccessfully courts the Tarantula Woman—a prostitute named Ysela with a tattoo of a tarantula on her left shoulder blade. She is just one of many women in one man’s unapologetic and aimless existence in Mexico where each day brings another round of whorehouses, drunken stupors, odd jobs, eruptions of violence and encounters with equally directionless individuals.
Not since Charles Bukowski’s Factotum has a transgressive autobiographical novel touched upon with such rawness the everyday realities of a modern-day American desperado. Yet somewhere in the midst of all the strident nihilism, O’Donovan’s alter ego, Jerzy Mulvaney, manages to stumble upon an ambition of sorts to become a real Mexican. “I wanted to destroy whatever remained of my identity, my American identity; to melt down into a primal being, because the greatest thing is to be unknown, anonymous, and truly free.”
Rather than a work of fiction, Tarantula Woman is a refreshingly honest document that subtly addresses such essential subjects as life, love, death and the challenge of simply being.
Tarantula Woman eBook Donald O'Donovan
"Tarantula Woman" tells the story of an American guy living in Juarez, Mexico and making (little) money translating letters into English for local whores, whom he frequents quite often while inebriated. The whores are writing mainly to ex-customers who went back home, in the hope these men will agree to marry them and thus put an end to their miserable existence.The characters in the book are quite well-developed, but the story doesn't really go anywhere. Page after page we are treated with more drinking and more whoring, which in and of itself wouldn't be so not bad, if it were to serve a higher literary purpose. In this book, it doesn't. It is a dark book, a tale of lives lived miserably, with little or no direction, and with no real hope for change.
One might learn a lot from this book about life in lowest rungs of Mexican society (if this book is indeed a true reflection of this life), but not much beyond. The supposedly main character - the "Tarantula Woman" - doesn't leave a lasting impression on the reader and, as stated, it is unclear what it is she, or the American lowlife that is the narrator of the story, are really doing (except drinking and whoring).
Disclosure: I didn't finish the book (something that rarely happens to me). I managed to get just half way through before giving up. So perhaps the story does pick up after at some point, but I doubt it (I read the last chapter). Read another book.
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Tarantula Woman eBook Donald O'Donovan Reviews
This is a story about an American man living in Juarez, Mexico. He has a job translating and writing letters in English for his clients in Juarez, who are mainly whores. Aside from them being his clients, he is also frequently theirs.
It seems the author does have a personal experience with Juarez, or at least Mexico. He details the city and the characters well. However, other than that, he does not really seem to have a very intriguing story line. The book goes on and on about the main characters exploits with different whores. Other than that, the main character never seems to have any money, but always seems to have plenty of drink and women.
I did find it fascinating to imagine this life that I have no idea about, this life in Juarez, one of the more dangerous cities, and it's seduction to Americans who can easily go over the border and enjoy what it has to offer. The author makes Juarez seem like a fun and exciting place to be, whereas I always pictured it as a mixture of gangs, violence and drugs.
I was also interested when he spoke a little about the Mexicans trying to marry an American in order to get a green card. In one passage a girl he liked at the time wanted to marry him but he wasn't ready so she tried to sneak over the border through a culvert. It rained really hard and she and several others got washed from the culvert and caught by the authorities. Again, the struggle intrigues me. I like to be able to feel what others feel and by reading this section of the book, I had an idea of how hard it must be.
I think this author is trying too hard to be a modern day Hemingway. Just like Hemingway, the focus of the book is on booze and women. The only thing he is missing is fishing or bullfighting or some other manly sport. However, as fun as booze and women can seem, I think it is missing an actual story. You can't have an entire plot based on getting drunk and getting laid.
In conclusion, I would have to give this book 2 out of 5 stars. Although the characters had the potential to be very interesting and several of the scenes were eye-opening to me, it did not have a very developed story line.
'Tarantula Woman' is a book which reeks of sex. And it's not sanitised, airbrushed sex, either - it's animalistic, sometimes violent sex, described by a narrator who lives in a world of whorehouses, drunkenness and hopeless dreams. But what a narrator Jerzy Mulvaney is you can open this book at virtually any page and find a series of effortlessly convincing phrases, transporting you to 'the Real Mexico', with 'the pulse of the music, the drinks poured down the gullet...the heat-damp-touch-throb excitement, the gut-level sex-joy, and the trumpets of the mariachis showering despair over it all.'
For the most part, Jerzy's story is brilliantly told, and the range of characters we meet are never less than fascinating, from Angel Mike, the macho bartender, to Reymundo, the cross-dressing hairdresser, to Ysela, the deeply religious prostitute from whom the novel gets its title. It's only towards the middle of the book, where an incongruous 'dear reader' style of narration appears on occasion, that O'Donovan breaks the spell he has cast.
That's not a major criticism by any means and, a couple of minor structural issues notwithstanding, it's the only one I really have. The 'heroes of love' that populate this gritty and philosophical novel make it one of the most grimly entertaining things I've read for some time, and I'll be recommending it widely.
Gregory Heath, author of 'Thoughts of Maria'
Thoughts of Maria
"Tarantula Woman" tells the story of an American guy living in Juarez, Mexico and making (little) money translating letters into English for local whores, whom he frequents quite often while inebriated. The whores are writing mainly to ex-customers who went back home, in the hope these men will agree to marry them and thus put an end to their miserable existence.
The characters in the book are quite well-developed, but the story doesn't really go anywhere. Page after page we are treated with more drinking and more whoring, which in and of itself wouldn't be so not bad, if it were to serve a higher literary purpose. In this book, it doesn't. It is a dark book, a tale of lives lived miserably, with little or no direction, and with no real hope for change.
One might learn a lot from this book about life in lowest rungs of Mexican society (if this book is indeed a true reflection of this life), but not much beyond. The supposedly main character - the "Tarantula Woman" - doesn't leave a lasting impression on the reader and, as stated, it is unclear what it is she, or the American lowlife that is the narrator of the story, are really doing (except drinking and whoring).
Disclosure I didn't finish the book (something that rarely happens to me). I managed to get just half way through before giving up. So perhaps the story does pick up after at some point, but I doubt it (I read the last chapter). Read another book.
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