2 ?b90

85
Nothing has been concealed from the reader. Indeed it seems that
every nuance of the magnetism drawing the families together inexorably
has been documented minutely. How, then, can the wedding scene take
the reader by surprise, when he has been so well prepared by the author?
Lezama appears to be quite vague about the ages of his characters
from time to time. The last reference to Josd Eugenio's age comes in
a conversation between Doffa Munda and her son Luis Ruda, in which they
decide to send him to college. This would tend to suggest that he is
around twelve to fourteen years of age, since we are told that he is
"aun de doce afios" (1,89) earlier in the same chapter. Some isolated
incidents concerning his first day at college, a conversation with his
classmate Fibo which suggests they are still getting to know each other,
and an ambiguous episode in the showers with Alberto Olaya give no clue
to the amount of time passing. All these events could have taken
place within the first week at school, or they could have been selected
from a period of some years. The sense of time passing is also dis-
rupted by the fact that the reader's attention is diverted away from
Jos6 Eugenio's development at this point so that Lezama can concentrate
on Alberto's adolescent trauma. The exploits described could occupy
a single night in which Alberto moves from one new experience to ano-
ther, meeting the girl with the pitahaya flower, the old man in charge
of the carros'whip' who pursues him to the cinema., and lastly Oppiano
Licario in the"Reinode siete meses"bar, returning to the girl with the
flower much later that same night. The heated exchange between Dofia
Augusta and Sr. Jordi Cuevarolliot is set in the early forenoon follow-
ing Alberto's "primera noche fuera de la casa" (1.143) which also leads
one to think that little time has passed. Josd Eugenio reappears in
the novel in response to Alberto's invitation to the dance and while he
("criado
en un ambiente provinciano y es. paffol") finds her gracious manner