Abstract

David Leavitt writes: "if the novel is the marriage, the novella is a prolonged infatuation, an extended holiday." Although Leavitt is discussing the relationship of the writer to his work, infatuations and extended holidays tend also to be the favourite subjects of the novella. El Nino, keeps with this tradition. Written from the perspective of Charlotte Winters it tells the story of her infatuation with her boyfriend, Green, and their road trip trough the South Western U.S. and Mexico. As they travel, their relationship disintegrates into a war of intimate terrorism and they become entangled in a psychodrama of projected hostility, envy and pity. The question that El Nino grapples with is "how is it that the love between men and women can seem like an increasingly scarce resource that needs to be fought over like land or language or money?" And is it?