Eva Peron [Paperback]

A biography of Evita, the saintly madonna of Argentina which leans more toward entertainment than heavy history. Ortiz recounts Eva Peron's humble birth, her extraordinary rise to power in Argentina at the side of her husband General Juan Peron, and her short and legendary reign as a virtual queen, dispensing comfort to the masses before she died from cancer at 33. Evita was christened Eva Maria Duarte by her mother, whose liberal sex life was a necessary response to poverty. The beautiful Eva found the same necessity when she went to find work as an actress in Buenos Aires. Eva's power over men eventually caught General Peron, and together their hatred of the ruling oligarchy reshaped the country. It is a political story with enough spice to make a dozen bodice-ripping novels. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Argentineans have cried over or vilified the peroxided patron saint of Peronism since her death at 33 in 1952. Mistress, then wife of the ambitious colonel who fashioned a populist fascism supported by the trade unions, Eva Peron exploited her ascendancy to become a philanthropic force in his regime, shows the author. Cleverly extracting from Peter to pay Paul, she set up an Eva Peron Foundation to succor the poor and sucker businessmen dependent on the president's tolerance. On the side, the pair enriched themselves, while "Evita" became a world figure. A minor, moneyless radio actress from the provinces at the beginning, at her end she was mummified, like Lenin, for veneration in a glass-topped casket that would undergo more vicissitudes after Peron's ouster than she'd experienced in life. It is the stuff of a compelling story?and a hit musical soon to be a film (starring Madonna), which may explain why this virtually unsourced apologia is being published. More than 30 biographies of Evita have appeared in Spanish alone, perhaps a dozen in English. This one is not a distinguished addition to that company. French journalist Ortiz's meandering, sentimental prose may be less disconcerting in the original Spanish than in Fields's translation, but the book often strains logic as well as language. Photos not seen by PW. History Book Club and QPB selections; audio rights to Books on Tape.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.