Synopses & Reviews
The Shadow of the Shadow follows four men who meet to play dominos in a hotel bar in Mexico City in 1922. They are a motley group—a gun-toting poet who makes a living writing advertisements for patent medicine, a radical Chinese-Mexican union organizer, a lawyer who represents prostitutes, and a newspaper crime reporter who churns out pages of copy “like links of sausage in a chorizo factory.”
Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza’s presidency in their own quietly besotted fashion, ignoring the betrayal of the Mexican Revolution. But they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists.
Critics have hailed The Shadow of the Shadow as the best of Paco Ignacio Taibo II’s historical novels. Issues of oil, American imperialism, extortion, and government corruption give the novel a distinctly contemporary ring.
Review
"This glorious novel reads as if James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett had collaborated with Gabriel Garcia Marquez on a version of The Three Musketeers set in 1920s, postrevolutionary Mexico City. Taibos (An Easy Thing) four memorable protagonists champion the rights of the common man against corrupt military and police officials, Chinese tongs, a secret anarchist cadre and assorted criminals in this romp through turbulent and romantic times. Caught unwittingly in an intrigue spawned between Mexican army officials and U.S. oil barons, these four not-so-young friendsa war veteran/poet, a disreputable lawyer, a Chinese Mexican union organizer and a crusading crime reporterwalk through a landscape of dead bodies and mysterious women to prove that the power of the press and true commitment to ideals can beat all odds. Insights into each character and delightful surprises on nearly every page of this literate historical thriller support one of the characters contention that crime writing is 'where you find the real literature of life.' " —Publisher's Weekly
"Mexico's foremost crime novelist masterfully evokes a bygone era. His quirky characters are as endearing as they are well-drawn." —Library Journal
"The book is a fictionalized account of trade unions growing pains and big oils sleazy trigger-pulling within Obregons government. Taibo is Mexicos premier crime novelist, with history and politics always participating in the murder and mayhem...Taibos nimble and colorful prose and his picture of early twentieth-century Mexico City is beyond compare." —ForeWord Magazine
"A high-spirited historical fantasy...Every new revelation seems to give Taibo's madly spinning top another lash." — Kirkus Reviews
"The Shadow of the Shadow is ostensibly about imperialism (foreign oil interests might be behind all the murders) and nationalism (with a small "n") and the struggle to establish labor unions in an anarchic country. But Taibo never beats the reader with the message. His characters talk and drink and sometimes fight; then they talk some more. They escape attempts on their lives, all the while moving closer to the Shadow, a nebulous presence that threatens them all.
"The heroes are warmblooded creatures, living and breathing in a palpable world, expertly described by their creator...These are easy characters to root for -- beaten down but not defeated, bewildered but unafraid, smart but brutal. Taibo has it both ways: He paints modest studies of humans as well as a mural of Mexican politics, history and the labor movement." —Columbus Dispatch
Review
"This glorious novel reads as if James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett had collaborated with Gabriel Garcia Marquez on a version of The Three Musketeers set in 1920s, postrevolutionary Mexico City…Nearly every page of this literate historical thriller support one of the characters contention that crime writing is 'where you find the real literature of life.' " Publisher's Weekly
"Mexico's foremost crime novelist masterfully evokes a bygone era. His quirky characters are as endearing as they are well-drawn." Library Journal
"Taibo is Mexicos premier crime novelist, with history and politics always participating in the murder and mayhem...Taibos nimble and colorful prose and his picture of early twentieth-century Mexico City is beyond compare." ForeWord Magazine
"A high-spirited historical fantasy...Every new revelation seems to give Taibo's madly spinning top another lash." Kirkus Reviews
"The Shadow of the Shadow is ostensibly about imperialism (foreign oil interests might be behind all the murders) and nationalism (with a small "n") and the struggle to establish labor unions in an anarchic country. But Taibo never beats the reader with the message…Taibo has it both ways: He paints modest studies of humans as well as a mural of Mexican politics, history and the labor movement." Columbus Dispatch
Synopsis
Sex, murder, and gun-toting poets in post-Revolutionary Mexico City. Dominoes are played by all.
The Shadow of the Shadow follows four men who meet to play dominos in a hotel bar in Mexico City in 1922. They are a motley group--a gun-toting poet who makes a living writing advertisements for patent medicine, a radical Chinese-Mexican union organizer, a lawyer who represents prostitutes, and a newspaper crime reporter who churns out pages of copy like links of sausage in a chorizo factory.
Left to their own devices, the group would have waited out Carranza's presidency in their own quietly besotted fashion, ignoring the betrayal of the Mexican Revolution. But they witness a series of strangely related murders and begin to suspect a conspiracy involving the oil-rich lands of the Gulf Coast, greedy army officers, and American industrialists.
Critics have hailed The Shadow of the Shadow as the best of Paco Ignacio Taibo II's historical novels. Issues of oil, American imperialism, extortion, and government corruption give the novel a distinctly contemporary ring.
Synopsis
Sex, murder, and gun-toting poets in post-Revolutionary Mexico City. Dominoes are played by all.
About the Author
Paco Ignacio Taibo II (born 11 January 1949 in Gijn, Asturias), birth name Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo, has lived in Mexico City since 1958 when his family fled from Spain to escape the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Taibo II (or PIT, as he likes to be called) is a spanish leftist intellectual, historian, professor, journalist, social activist, union organizer, and world-renowned writer. Widely known for his policial novels, he is considered the founder of the neopolicial genre in Latin America and is the president of the International Association of Policial Writers. One of the most prolific writers in Mexico today, over 500 editions of his 51 books have been published in 29 countries and over a dozen languages, and include novels, narrative, historical essays, chronicles, and poetry.