Don't make time for "Time of the Flies"

If you intend to read Time of the Flies by Claudia Piñeiro and translated by Frances Riddle stop reading this blog. There will be spoilers.

Here's is how the publisher describeds the novel, which was shortlisted for the Mario Vargas Llosa Prize for Novels (and one reason why I bought the paperback. "Fifteen years after killing her husband’s lover, Inés is fresh out of prison and trying to put together a new life. Her old friend Manca is out now too, and they’ve started a business – FFF, or Females, Fumigation, and Flies – dedicated to pest control and private investigation, by women, for women. But Señora Bonar, an affluent TV producer, one of her clients, wants Inés to do more than kill bugs – she wants her expertise, and her criminal past, to help her kill her husband’s lover." 

It's an interesting setup and the prose is smoothly translated (and there's a lot of it). I was interested that a woman found guilty of homicide in Argentine can serve just fifteen years. 

Bonar wants Inêz to buy a poison that only she as a licensed pest control company can buy. Complicating the situation is Manca's cancerous breast. With Bonar's money Inés can pay for a life-saving operation. Inéz and Manca discuss the situation at length and Inéz decides to buy the poison (but couldn't the cops trace such a purchase?), charging Bonar $10,000 for the service which she agrees to pay. But Bonar is apparently single so who is she planning to kill? Herself? 

Not with her bags packed, her bridges burned, and a ticket for Singapore in hand.

Another complication: Bonar had a son who was transitioning to female, something Bonar could not accept, and who killed himself. Another complication: Inéz has an estranged daughter Laura who is married and who works as Bonar's housecleaner. 

Just as Inéz and Manca are finally coming down to the story's thrilling conclusion, Piñeiro interrupts the forward movement once again for a little essay, one of several, this one on transphobic people. "Feminism has to be committed to gender freedom, to radical equality, and to alliances with other minoritarian positions, sexual dissidents. Transphobic feminism is no feminism, that cannot happen." Okay, but is this the best place for the discussion? I almost threw the book against the wall.

Maybe the way to enjoy Time of the Flies is by skipping these little didactic essays. I couldn't and didn't and regret the time I spent reading it.