Poor Player

Pauline Carey is the author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

“Life doesn’t unfold very neatly, does it?” So says Hugh, the
narrator of this novel, a Canadian former war correspondent who has
spent 20 years in Latin America and ended up as a freelance journalist
in Mexico, growing fat on his favorite food, collecting Latin American
folk art, and hoping to return to a steady staff job. But editors are
bored with his analysis of Latin America; they want funny dictator
stories. Into Hugh’s life crashes a former Canadian actor who has fled
California to work for human rights in Central America. He moves in
temporarily with Maru, a young Mexican who hopes to become what she
calls a “modern woman.”

The story that develops is mysterious and confusing. Hugo tries to
unravel the mystery surrounding the murder of a young Mexican man and at
the same time faces the daunting task of transforming the chaos into a
book. Acts of casual violence abound. People drift through their lives
in a world where drug trafficking, land seizures, and murder are common
place. Neither the narrator nor the reader ever quite knows what is
going on. An uneasy picture emerges of a country where life is full of
frustration, mystery, and fear.