Panama: A Novel

by Carlos Ledson Miller

PANAMA captures the sweep of this country's tumultuous history. Moving from pivotal events in Panama's past to the American withdrawal in 1999, this is the action-filled saga of a man and a nation searching for their identities.Hank Duque is a third-generation Canal Zonian, a hybrid of American and Panamanian ancestry, who returns to Panama in 1989, after a twenty-five year exile. Immediately upon his arrival, a La Guardia intelligence officer, Major Carlos Mejias, recognizes Hank and knows of his role in the bloody 1964 student riot. Hank wonders how the major was able to identify him so quickly.Hank's odyssey takes him throughout Panama, from the teeming streets of Panama City to the impenetrable jungle of the interior, from the landscaped boulevards of the American Canal Zone to a squalid cell in a Panamanian prison known as La Preventiva.'Sal si puedes,' Hank's Panamanian grandfather had implored. 'Get out if you can.'Now, twenty-five years later, Hank has returned.

328 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book read like a good amateur effort. I think the author went to great lengths to give the book an interesting plot, including prerequisite amounts of romance, violence, good and bad guys, etc. - everything you could ask for in an adventure story. It also gave a good overview of Panamanian history, people, cultures, and tourist sites. Having recently visited Panama for the first time, I recognized a lot of what was described. I had, however, completely missed Noriega's sordid role in Panamanian history, and learned a lot about this from this book.

Without ripping into it too much, this book was amateurish in terms of character development, unconnected historical flashbacks which did not tie up nicely, an incredibly far-fetched plot and poor writing style. There was a genealogy in the front of the book which showed that the two main characters were very distantly related to each other. While some of their common relatives did make cameos in the narrative, the author never tied it all together and explained that they were actually related. You were left to notice this on your own from the family tree... just one example of poor editing.

Having now gone back to Amazon to check again why I had decided to read this book, I see that at least one other reader, like me, was misled into reading this book by the overwhelmingly positive reviews on the website. I also see that the publisher is BookSurge which offers a prominent self-publishing option, which would explain a lot. Does Amazon sell self-published books? If so, perhaps it should be explicitly stated on the site? As a gift for my grandfather's 90th birthday last year, my mom compiled and printed his amateur memoirs that he's been working on for 10 years as part of an evening class in his retirement community. That book is much better-written and better-edited than this one, perhaps we should sell copies on Amazon and post rave reviews to mislead people into buying it.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this novel while in Panama and loved the imagery, Panamisms, and page-turning quality (though somehow found it hard to believe the protagonist was always in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time). Great to read while on Panamanian soil.

[Judi Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction on the history of the lives of americans and panamanians living in the canal zone over a long period of time. Very interesting

[Nonamedufus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating fictional novel set against the historical backdrop of Panamanian/canal independence. Good read.