The ages of lulu full#

This is a cry against decades of oppression and conservatism. This book for me is interesting as a historical piece - as a political artefact. What saves this is Grandes´ writing, which is good, if basic, and especially the setting: the last years of Franco and ´ the movida´, the years right after the dictator´s death when the country, especially Madrid, started a party that would go on for years. By the end you´re staring at the ceiling and thinking of England while there is a lot of dirty panting and manouvering going on around you. And even the sex starts to get boring, as wild and perverted as it is. Knowing what´s going to happen next is dull with any book - this is no exception. So you pad through the well-written parts in between the filth knowing what´s going to happen a page or so later. You know more sex is coming (whoops!) because - well, that´s what this book is about. What didn´t I like? That a book which describes sex so explicitly, yet insists on being a novel, can only be a bore. I liked the twisting of the usual orthodoxy as regards sex: Lulu loves watching gay men make love - and why not? Men like watching lesbians, right? What did I like? I liked the open provocation of it - of just going to for it, throwing it all into the reader´s face.

The ages of lulu full#

It´s filthy, all right, so full points there - at least for the first few chapters. The sex is deliciously described, in lingering detail, and no holds are barred. You can´t really dress up the plot of a book where the eponymous protagonist is fifteen when she starts sleeping with her lover, nor that transvestites, incest and threesomes with gay men play a part in the story. I´d never heard of the book til I saw it on the shelves but apparently it´s famous and there have been films about it. I came across (er.) this book because I live in Spain and I wanted to read more Spanish writers.Īlmudena Grandes is famous in Spain as a columnist, novelist and for holding trenchant left-wing views. Years ago I read the Secret Life of Walter and I´ve read bits of Colette and Erica Jong.

You can´t really dress up the First off, I don´t usually read erotic novels. Almudena Grandes is famous in Spain as a columnist, novelist and for holding trenchant left-wing views. I came across (er.) this book because I live in Spain and I wanted to read more Spanish writers. First off, I don´t usually read erotic novels.