Sábato's third novel [Abaddón el exterminador] is a long and sprawling work which reviews and intensifies many of the themes and concerns of El túnel … and Sobre héroes y tumbas…. The work is divided into two sections of which the first is extremely short and functions like a prologue. The second section contains 114 chapters or fragments which are not numbered, and the author frequently uses the first words of each chapter as a chapter heading. The novel has no plot and its organizational configuration is a labyrinth through which the reader wanders, at times accompanied by Sábato, who is a character in the novel. At one point the anguish and frustration in the work is so intense that a polarization of the entity Sábato takes place, and Sábato-character meets and contemplates Sábato-author. Significantly, no communication takes place and tears are shed. All centers of authority have disappeared and nothing exists that can offer a coherent view of existence. The author has reduced himself to a character who is as confused and anxiety ridden as his other creations. The only hope seems to lie in man's blind capacity to struggle against hopeless odds, and this is best conveyed by the poignant narrations of the death of Che Guevara and the brutal torture of Marcelo by the police.

Although a major part of the novel takes place in 1972 and 1973, there are many excursions into the past. Characters from Sábato's previous works appear and one, Bruno, is a major figure. In addition to Bruno there are appearances by Martín, Alejandra and Pablo Castel, and in one episode an unidentified character appears to be Fernando. They haunt and torment their creator and at times even heap ridicule on him…. [There are] light moments in the novel, particularly when the author uses irony to parody aspects of popular culture, but on the whole it is a seriously grim work that pursues the preoccupations of his earlier novels. Some of the concerns in Abaddón el exterminador are the problem of good and evil, the search for meaning in a fragmented and incoherent world, the obsession with blindness, the exploration of subterranean tunnels, the examination of the creative process, the consideration of the role of the writer and his responsibilities to society, and the search for conspiracies. To a large extent the novel is a review of the entity that carries the label "Sábato" and the work conveys the feeling of a man who senses that his existence is drawing to a close. However while life lingers, his feverish and at times desperate search for tranquility continues. (pp. 384-85)

The novel's organization and plotless meanderings will cause many readers to experience a great deal of frustration, but the work has powerful moments and exerts a lingering and compelling attraction over its reader. What Sábato has done is to offer us a great deal of himself. Some will question the novel's egocentricity and unconventional form, others will applaud its openness and emotional power, few will be unmoved by the anguish it reveals, for they will see in its pages the distortions produced by a dangerous and confused age. (p. 385)