Malena de cinco mundos.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

Malena de cinco mundos, by Ana Teresa Torres. Washington, D.C.: Literal, 1997.

Malena de cinco mundos, a charming new novel by Venezuelan writer Ana Teresa Torres, is a humorous, but biting account of the condition of women over the centuries. Malena, a thirty-five-year old, divorced, working mother, is spending a brief vacation with her boyfriend, Martin, on a Caribbean island. The skies are blue and the breezes heavenly, but the irritants of everyday life persist, even here in this earthly paradise. Malena cannot escape psychologically from her nagging mother, her critical ex-husband, her resentful siblings, her needy son. Furthermore, the rich but insecure Martin requires constant reassurance of his power and importance. Divorced and of immigrant stock, he must prove himself over and over again, complaining about the service, insulting the help, flaunting his money. When he and Malena run into friends of his, he can't resist accepting their invitation to lunch, even though he and Malena have gone to the island to be alone. Malena doesn't fit in--Martin's friends know his ex-wife and see her as the other woman--yet Martin continues to put her in awkward social situations. Although he views himself as "hip" and open minded, Martin feels threatened by Malena's previous sexual experiences, and his possessiveness produces tension. Shopping in expensive tourist shops or dozing in the sun, Malena finds her mind drifting toward an old flame, Alfredo Rivero.

Malena is a modem woman. She is an executive in an insurance company. She uses contraceptives, and she makes her own decisions. Yet, in reality, she is no different from women through the ages. Episodes from Malena's previous lives, interspersed among scenes of her Caribbean vacation, reveal that since Roman times she has been as she is now: emotionally dependent on men, a slave to love and sex.

For, indeed, Malena is in her fifth incarnation. As Giulia Metella, wife of the Roman consul, Lucio Quinto Lucamio, she was ambitious for her husband and guided him into an exalted political position. When his career fell apart, and he decided to retire to his country estate in order to devote himself to the quiet, scholarly life he had always wanted, she supported him entirely. She solved family problems, ran the household, and took care that no one disturb or distract him. And yet, when she died (possibly murdered by him), he condemned her for making his happiness her own, for catering to his every...