On a Night of a Thousand Stars
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
In this moving, emotional narrative of love and resilience, a young couple confronts the start of Argentina's Dirty War in the 1970s, and a daughter searches for truth twenty years later. New York, 1998. Santiago Larrea, a wealthy Argentine diplomat, is holding court alongside his wife, Lila, and their daughter, Paloma, a college student and budding jewelry designer, at their annual summer polo match and soiree. All seems perfect in the Larreas’ world—until an unexpected party guest from Santiago's university days shakes his usually unflappable demeanor. The woman's cryptic comments spark Paloma’s curiosity about her father’s past, of which she knows little. When the family travels to Buenos Aires for Santiago's UN ambassadorial appointment, Paloma is determined to learn more about his life in the years leading up to the military dictatorship of 1976. With the help of a local university student, Franco Bonetti, an activist member of H.I.J.O.S.—a group whose members are the children of the desaparecidos, or the “disappeared,” men and women who were forcibly disappeared by the state during Argentina’s “Dirty War”—Paloma unleashes a chain of events that not only leads her to question her family and her identity, but also puts her life in danger. In compelling fashion, On a Night of a Thousand Stars speaks to relationships, morality, and identity during a brutal period in Argentinian history, and the understanding—and redemption—people crave in the face of tragedy. Includes a Reading Group Guide.
Reviews with the most likes.
DNF at 25%. The book's not awful, but it's definitely not for me. Half of the story is a low-stakes romance set amidst Argentina's Dirty War. The other half, where a young socialite investigates whether her rich, handsome, urbane father was also a hero during the Dirty War, has even lower stakes. (For a while, I held out hope that we'd learn he had actually done bad things which could at least create the potential for drama, but this did not strike me as that type of book.)
While there are is some good information about Argentine culture and history, much of it is communicated through these info dumps that while often related to what's going on are poorly integrated into the character's voice & journeys.
Also, to be just a little political, but every time the rich male protagonist claims that his family–large land owners who are also “good Catholics”–has a reputation for being “politically neutral,” I cringed. Considering the role of class and religion in Argentina's history this is, at best, tone deaf.
I think the book is trying to balance information about Argentina and its often tragic history with a lightweight romance plot. But its blindspots and blandness made it an experience I felt I had to walk away from.
