Two Crimes

One of the best stories I have ever read. In either English or Spanish. Haunting.

A leftist activist is chased by the police in 60's Mexico, and so he decides to flee the city and seek refuge in a small town, where his uncle and cousins live. He is absolutely penniless, but his uncle is the town's richest man. He is happy to see his nephew again, but the cousins are hostile and suspicious of his presence. Marcos -the nephew- tells his uncle he needs his help to make a big business that will give them both a lot of money (the business, of course, does not exist). The uncle decides to help him, and suddenly strange and dangerous things begin to happen. With all the lies he tells, the passions he arouses, his own passions, and the ambition of his cousins, Marcos provokes two crimes, and an extraordinary plot which develops in the midst of low and turbulent affairs.Ibarguengoitia has a splendid use of the language, simple and cynical. As in his other, much-recommended novels, in this one he creates real characters, flesh and blood, as well as hilarious situations. This novel is a permanent sarcasm.

It is a pity that AVON-Bard series went bottoms up and took with it this great novel by the "King of Black Humor," Jorge Ibarguengoitia, famed Mexican fiction writer and columnist-his country's H. L. Mencken. The novel is short but many things and ever exciting: a satire of 60's style politics, both of the crooked establishment and the pretentious left, an erotic adventure story and a who-done-it told by an unreliable narrator.Ernie Rehder [email protected]