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Speed Reader
By Noah Masterson, Gaylon M. Parsons, Dorthy Cole
NOVEMBER 23, 1998:
El Camino del Rio
by Jim Sanderson (UNM Press, cloth, $21.95)
Presidio, Texas, is a hell hole--a tiny, corrupt border town with
two paved streets and unrelenting heat. Dolph Martinez lives in
this hell hole, as a member of the U.S. Border Patrol. His job
is to catch Mexicans attempting to cross into the land o' freedom
and ship them back across the river. Life gets interesting when
guns, drugs and dead bodies start piling up around the border,
and the mystery begins. True to the formula of the genre, El
Camino del Rio has a complex plot, enough characters to keep
us guessing and even a tall, leggy blonde. The region itself plays
an integral role, as the unforgiving climate affects each character
in different ways. Dolph, as a five-foot-six half-Mexican named
by his cruel father after Adolf Hitler, is a fairly original protagonist,
but ultimately author Jim Sanderson loses track of his many characters
and has trouble grappling with the spiritual themes in which he
occasionally indulges. There are some great lines, though, my
favorite being, "And this is basically what we did every
morning, except we didn't always have whores join us for breakfast."
(NM)
Damascus Gate
by Robert Stone (Houghton Mifflin, cloth, $26)
Some cultures believe the American Southwest is the center of
the world; three world religions, in contrast, believe the ancient
city of Jerusalem is the center. Christians, Jews and Muslims
all regard that land as holy, and they tend to fight like hell
over what the city should be. Robert Stone's new novel records
otherworldly and political events in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip
with a pen borrowed from Cold War-era spy novelists. Against
the backstory of a man writing a book on the Jesus Syndrome, characters
and forces of history interweave in dangerous ways. Allegiances
shift and shimmer like mirages, and religious identities alternate
between zealous faith and the logistics of pragmatism. A rich
man from Louisiana believes he is the Messiah; American Bible-thumpers
hatch bomb plots; Sufi jazz musicians herald the end of history;
Palestinians struggle for water, and all the while embittered
or newly pious journalists create the news. This is a masterpiece
of intrigue within religious experience within labyrinthine histories
of secrets. (GMP)
Marking the Sparrow's Fall
by Wallace Stegner (Henry Holt, cloth, $25)
If you're familiar with Wallace Stegner's various writings and
preoccupations, this posthumous collection of short pieces makes
a good overview. If you're unfamiliar with Stegner, it's a good
way to introduce yourself. Subtitled "Wallace Stegner's American
West, edited and with a preface by Page Stegner," the book
includes five sections. Four are groups of essays and memoirs
separated by emphasis; the fifth is the short novel "Genesis,"
a sort of Call of the Wild for humans. Because these pieces
were written over a period of many years, for many different periodicals,
the sections overlap a bit and phrases repeat themselves. Rather
than being irritated by this, I found the recurrences increased
the feeling of being engaged in conversation with the two writers,
father and son, who created the collection. Two main themes run
through the articles included here. The first is an appreciation
for "The West" and how it differs from Eastern and more
settled culture; the second, a crusading anger at the forces that
would devalue the region's natural gifts. (DC)
Purple Dots
by Jim Lehrer (Random House, cloth, $23.95)
"News Hour" patriarch Jim Lehrer has been writing fiction
for years. All of a sudden his previous novel, White Widow,
became a best seller. Now everyone notices Lehrer writing fiction.
The new book is pretty good--a cross between Le Carré and
Theroux, with a little bit of Sinclair Lewis thrown in. Lehrer's
touch is light, his diction vaguely British and his plot amusing.
One of the main characters is a retired spy and the other an up-and-coming
Republican staff lawyer. Their victim, besides the American people,
is a fictional senator from New Mexico who bears more of a resemblance
to Bruce King than to any of this state's Washington representatives.
The guessing game, to discover Lehrer's acquaintances in disguise,
has already begun. The most recognizable character is Washington
itself. If I ever go back there to visit, I hope the restaurants
and landmarks Lehrer talks about will be as easy to find as they
sound here. Those menus are mouth-watering. (DC)
--Noah Masterson, Gaylon M. Parsons and Dorothy Cole

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