Some Clouds

Rating:
Summary: DIFFERENT STYLE, DIFFERENT FORCE
Review: OF ALL PACO IGNACIO TAIBO'S BOOKS THIS IS HIS TIGHTEST. I'VE READ TWO OTHERS AND A PART OF A FOURTH THINKING ONE MAY BE BETTER THAN THIS, BUT IF YOU LIKE AN AUTHOR IT'S A PERSONAL DECISION. I WAS ATTRACTED BY A MYSTERY AUTHOR FROM ANOTHER CULTURE WRITING ABOUT A PRIVATE EYE IN THAT CULTURE AND IN THAT RESPECT SOME CLOUDS WAS A SUCCESS. THE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS, THE DIFFERENT SETTING. SATURDAY AFTERNOON READING.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent mystery -- & Feliz Cumpleaños to Taibo II !
Review: Sitting in Mexico on an unseasonably cloudy day, I picked up my newly-purchased copy of Some Clouds, feeling a certain amount of order in the cosmos, along with happy anticipation. Then I discovered that today (as I'm writing this) is Paco Ignacio Taibo II's birthday. Then I discovered that Some Clouds, the third in his Hector Belascoarán Shayne detective series, seemed to have an undeservedly low number of Amazon-stars. (The Spanish version has -- at the moment -- one more star than the English, which is plain strange. Not only are both versions excellent reading, but William I. Neuman, who translated this volume into English, is really brilliant. I think that Spanish-to-English translators of contemporary Mexican literature could probably use Algunas Nubes/Some Clouds as a sort of how-to text.)

So on this serendipitous day for me and natal day for the author, and having just finished this excellent, many-layered mystery, I wanted to highly recommend it -- and all the wild and edifying series that features Basque-Irish-absurdist detective Hector Belascoarán Shayne, presenting the city of Mexico in such an authentic and ironic light. While the series hardly needs to be read in any sort of order, I believe the chronology for titles is: (Días de Combate), An Easy Thing, Some Clouds, No Happy Ending, Return to the Same City, (Amorosas Frantasmas), Frontera Dreams, (Desvanecidos Difuntos), (Adiós, Madrid)-- with those yet-to-appear-in-English in parentheses.

and, Feliz Cumpleaños to Paco Ignacio Taibo II !