The lady from Guatemala

de V. S. Pritchett

Disclaimer: I have not read the entire book but have read the title story "The Lady from Guatemala" a hilarious tale of stalking, reversals of affection, and political correctness and hypocrisy written in the most humorous way. A famous lecturer in Copenhagen finds himself being stalked by a woman from Guatemala who resembles an artifact from an archeological ruin. She proclaims he is her hero, as he has liberated her people and their women with his lectures on human rights; as a result they have come into their own as human beings. She proceeds to stalk him all over Europe and appear at his various lectures, and then attempts to attach herself to him erotically. He tries to elude her but finds himself paradoxically questioning all his previous assumptions about her in a frantic *cherchez la femme* denouement.