The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll

This may be the most beautifully written, wise, and fun book I have ever read. Maqroll is the perfect companion: he goes everywhere, knows many remarkable and delightful people in every spot, and speaks with wisdom, joy, and sadness all at once. Each sentence is a gem: taken together, they create a world that transports the reader into a world of adventure, danger, love, friendship, and insight. Imagine Cervantes mixed with Pynchon, with a little Groucho Marx thrown in: this is a work to savor and Maqroll is a wise and loving guide to a world of breath-taking beauty, where each day holds new treasures. This is the closest thing to a perfect book I have come across. It is a true classic, as readers of Spanish literature have known for some years.

El delicioso dominio del idioma y el profundo sentido poético de que Mutis hace gala con maestría sin igual, serían suficientes para motivar a los pocos que todavía no lo hayan leído. Si a esto le sumamos el encanto innegable del Gaviero y esa sensibilidad tan suya por todos aquellos que se mueven por los bordes esquivos de la fortuna y que nos pone la carne de gallina, cuando nos dejamos llevar de la mano sabia de Mutis por todos esos parajes de una salvaje belleza o de un sórdido atractivo, no nos quedará ninguna duda de que tenemos en nuestras manos el pensamiento, la poesía y la sensibilidad de un gigante de las letras latinoamericanas. Motivo de justificadísimo orgullo para todos aquellos que tenemos la fortuna de compartir, con él, la patria.

I discovered the Adventures of Maqroll on the discount table outside my neighborhood bookstore. After reading the first few pages I was hooked. Mutis is one of those rare authors who, in a few words, can take you inside the soul of a character. He creates men and women who desire and seek out the perfect something that they know is out there, somewhere, in the next port or just over the horizon. Mutis can make you feel their experience as he describes it. I find parallels with John Steinbeck in the work of Alvaro Mutis. Both writers created characters outside the mainstream who, nontheless, appeal to us as human beings. Both find beauty and excitement as clearly in rusty iron as in a pair of enticing eyes. The Adventures of Maqroll is a 20th century quest that will be appreciated by anyone who admires the self-directed life.

This book is in the top 10 of my lifetime reading list. A mix of Conrad and Don Quijote. the first paragraph of "Amirbar" is stunning. Out of print already? Don't we read foreign authors or translations?

Adventure readers will enjoy this obscure (to non-Spanish readers) little collection of four stories. Maqroll has it all: South American hijinks;gold mining in remote jungle locales; lusty love stories entertwined with entertaining storytelling; and two wonderful fellows: Maqroll the Gaviero,a man of "uncertain" nationality and his pal Abdul Bashur, Dreamer of Ships. If you like exotic and out-of-the-way ports of call, tramp steamers and unusual characters you will adore this book. Mysteriously enough, look for the very interesting appearance in the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a good friend of the writer. Alvaro Mutis is a well thought of Colombian writer who lives and works in Mexico, D.F