The Uncomfortable Dead

Héctor Belascoarán Shayne #10

by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Subcomandante Marcos, Carlos Lopez (Translator)

In alternating chapters, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos and the consistently excellent Paco Ignacio Taibo II create an uproarious murder mystery with two intersecting story lines.

The chapters written by the famously masked Marcos originate in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico. There, the fictional “Subcomandante Marcos” assigns Elias Contreras—an odd but charming mountain man—to travel to Mexico City in search of an elusive and hideous murderer named Morales.

The second story line, penned by Taibo, stars his famous series detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne. Héctor guzzles Coca-Cola and smokes cigarettes furiously amidst his philosophical and always charming approach to investigating crimes—in this case, the search for his own “Morales.”

The two stories collide absurdly and dramatically in the urban sprawl of Mexico City. The ugly history of the city’s political violence rears its head, and both detectives find themselves in an unpredictable dance of death with forces at once criminal, historical, and political.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Politics, Indigenous, Latinx, Detective

268 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Paco Ignacio Taibo II, birth name Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo, is a popular Mexican writer and novelist. He is the son of the late journalist Paco Ignacio Taibo I.

Reviews

[Jack Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t been locked into the reading game lately but this was a LOT of fun

it’s messy and not amazing, but learning about the Zapatistas was awesome and i’m super impressed with Eñ Sup’s writing given that he’s literally the leader of the Zapatistas who wrote this on the side??? like all of the place but he had some KILLER lines wow

[Μιχάλης Παπαχατζάκης · Rating 3 out of 5]

Και οι δυο είναι χαρισματικές προσωπικότητες του Μεξικού. Ο ΠΙΤ ο 2ος είναι ο καλύτερος μυθιστοριογράφος του Μεξικού και ο σουμπκομαντάντε Μάρκος ο επικεφαλής ενός επαναστατικού κινήματος ακτημόνων ιθαγενών που δίνει έμπνευση στο παγκόσμιο προοδευτικό κίνημα. Τα δε πολιτικά κείμενα του δεύτερου χαρακτηρίζονται και από την λογοτεχνική μορφή που συνήθως έχουν.
Το βιβλίο γράφτηκε ως εξής: Καταρχήν ήταν ιδέα του Μάρκος. Αυτός έγραψε το πρώτο κεφάλαιο και το έστειλε στον ΠΙΤ τον 2ο. Ο ΠΙΤ ο 2ος είχε εννιά μέρες καιρό να στείλει το δεύτερο κεφάλαιο πίσω για να γραφτεί το τρίτο (πάλι εννιά μέρες προθεσμία) κοκ. Συνολικά, το βιβλίο τελείωσε στις 12 βδομάδες και ένα ένα τα κεφάλαια προδημοσιευόταν (μέχρι το τέταρτο θαρρώ) στην εφημερίδα του Μεξικού "Λα Χορνάδα", η οποία βέβαια αύξησε κατά πολύ το τιράζ της. Το τελικό αποτέλεσμα ήταν ενδιαφέρον, αν και είχε κάποια μειονεκτήματα, που οφείλονται βασικά στον Μάρκος, ο οποίος δεν είναι λογοτέχνης ασφαλώς

[Margaret Killjoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this book five stars.

It's a fascinating story comparing two leftist detectives in Mexico, one from the Zapatistas and one from Mexico City, as they unravel a web of injustices perpetrated on the struggling poor. It's written in a fairly unique style, and even though I'm not terribly familiar with mexican radical history, I was able to keep up and learn quite a bit. It was slow for moments, but in ways that I felt served the story.

It just lost a star because of some really, really, awfully trite shit in relation to a trans character.

[Justin Podur · Rating 5 out of 5]

13 years ago I spent a summer as an international human rights observer in Chiapas, and thought of an idea for a detective novel while I was there. I got into political writing and kept the novel on the back burner, though I thought a detective novel would be a great way to introduce the conflict and the Zapatistas to people. When one of the best detective novelists in the world co-wrote a detective novel with the military leader and spokesperson of the Zapatistas, I thought maybe my book would be redundant. I'll still probably publish it some day, but Muertos Incomodos (The Uncomfortable Dead) is fantastic.

I had read Taibo's biography of Che Guevara (also highly recommended) and was a follower of everything that Marcos writes. I loved watching their collaboration and the idea of Taibo's detective, Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, working with a peasant detective from the Zapatista communities, was so much fun to read. I like that they discussed both the organized right wing in Mexico as well as the corporate land takeover angle. This is a little bit more than a novel, it is kind of a piece of history, like everything Marcos writes.

[Ourania Topa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐ Επιπλέον μισό προς τιμήν του PIT II που το έσωσε με το ευρηματικό τέλος και έδωσε κάποιο βάθος στην ιστορία. Διότι δεν διαβάζουμε λογοτεχνία για επιμόρφωση, με όλον τον σεβασμό Υπο...

[Israel Laureano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro totalmente de tramas semiparalelas que se llegan a tocar en varios puntos. Ambas tramas son del tipo policiaco y de invesrigación, esto es, de novela negra, pero ambas cimentadas en la corrupción, codicia y trampas de los malos gobiernos neoliberales de fines del siglo XX y principios del XXI en México (la novela fue escrita a fines de 2004 - principios de 2005). Los capítulos escritos por el Subcomandante Marcos –conocido en México simplemente como “el Sup”– muestran claramente su estilo abierto, sencillo, con una narrativa que sigue la forma de hablar y pensar de los chiapanecos zapatistas. La narración escrita por Paco Ignacio Taibo II siguen estilo duro y misterioso de la novela negra.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

[Άγης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πόλη του Μεξικού, 2004. Ο Έκτορ Μοντεβέρδε, ένας δημόσιος υπάλληλος που στο παρελθόν, κατά τη διάρκεια του “βρώμικου πολέμου” υπήρξε πολιτικός κρατούμενος, δέχεται αλλεπάλληλα τηλεφωνήματα που μοιάζουν με φάρσα, με τον τηλεφωνητή να ισχυρίζεται ότι είναι ο παλιός του σύντροφος Χεσούς Μαρία Αλβαράδο. Το πρόβλημα είναι ότι ο Αλβαράδο δολοφονήθηκε από παρακρατικές οργανώσεις αμέσως μετά την αποφυλάκιση του. Καθώς οι νεκροί δεν συνηθίζουν να τηλεφωνούν, αλλά και λόγο του ακατάλυπτου περιεχομένου των τηλεφωνημάτων του που φαίνεται να οδηγεί σε ένα άτομο ονόματι “Μοράλες” που φαίνεται να σχετίζεται με την σκοτεινή πλευρά του Μεξικάνικου Κρατικού μηχανισμού, ο Έκτορ Μοντεβέρδε απευθύνεται στον συνονόματο του, ανεξάρτητο και ιδιότυπο ντετεκτιβ Έκτορ Μπελασκοαράν Σάυν, ώστε να εντοπίσει τα ίχνη του Μοράλες.

Ταυτόχρονα, αρκετά νοτιότερα, στην ζούγκλα της Τσιάπας, μια σειρά από πληροφορίες, σταλμένες από την οικογένεια του, πρόσφατα αποθανόντα Ισπανού συγγραφέα Μανουέλ Βάθκεθ Μονταλμπάν, φτάνουν στον EZLN(στρατός των Ζαπατίστας για την Εθνική απελευθέρωση). Οι πληροφορίες αυτές αφορούν την έρευνα γύρω από τις δραστηριότητες ενός κάποιου “Μοράλες” που τα τελευταία χρόνια φαίνεται να εμπλέκεται σε πλειάδα σκιώδης και εγκληματικές ενέργειες που εκτείνονται από την Βαρκελώνη ως το Μεξικό και την Τσιάπας. Ο Ελίας Κοντρέρας, ερευνητής των Ζαπατίστας, αναλαμβάνει να ερευνήσει τις πληροφορίες αυτές και σύντομα το νήμα της υπόθεσης θα τον οδηγήσει στην Πόλη του Μεξικού και στον Έκτορ Μπελασκοαράν που αναζητά και αυτός κάποιον Μοράλες. Δύο έρευνες που ενδέχεται να συγκλίνουν και οι οποίες ξεκίνησαν χάρη σε “ανήσυχους νεκρούς”, τον Αλβαράδο και τον Βάθκεθ Μονταλμπάν.

“Ανήσυχοι νεκροί(και ότι λείπει λείπει)” είναι και ο τίτλος αυτού του αστυνομικού μυθιστορήματος που γράφτηκε “με τέσσερα χέρια” και σε πολύ ιδιαίτερες συνθήκες, από τον Πάκο Ιγνάτιο Τάιμπο ΙΙ και τον Εξεγερμένο Υποδιοικητή Μάρκος των Ζαπατίστας.

Ποιοι είναι όμως αυτοί;

Ο μεξικοισπανός Πάκο Ιγνάτιο Τάιμπο ΙΙ, είναι ένας ιδιαίτερα δημοφιλής συγγραφέας αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων, από τους ανανεωτές του είδους για την λατινική αμερική και με την σειρά που πρωταγωνιστή έχε τον Έκτορ Μπελασκοαράν Σάυν να τον αναδεικνύει ως έναν από τους σπουδαιότερους συγγραφείς αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων διεθνώς. Η υπερβατική γραφή του που ξεφεύγει από τα στενά όρια του αστυνομικού και φλερτάρει με το πολιτικοκοινωνικό, τον τοποθετεί στην ομάδα λογοτεχνών όπως ο Ζαν-Κλωντ Ιζζό, Μορίς Ατιά, ή ακόμη και του Μανουέλ Βάθκεθ Μονταλμπάν.

Ο Εξεγερμένος Υποδιοικητής Μάρκος, είναι το ψευδώνυμο με το οποίο είναι γνωστό ένα από τα πιο αναγνωρίσιμα μέλη των Ζαπατίστας, του Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente που υπήρξε εκπρόσωπος του κινήματος. Οι Ζαπατίστας, είναι ένα ιδιαίτερο κοινωνικό κίνημα, που γεννήθηκε στην πολιτεία Τσιάπας του Μεξικού του 1994, οταν οι Ιθαγενείς και μια χούφτα αριστεροί αντάρτες εξεγέρθηκαν ενάντια στις νεοφιλελεύθερες πολιτικές του Μεξικάνικου κράτους και στις διακρίσεις που δεχόταν και δέχονται ακόμη και σήμερα οι αυτόχθονες πληθυσμοί. Τριάντα χρόνια αργότερα, το κίνημα έχει πλέον εγκαταλείψει την ένοπλη δράση και έχει επικεντρωθεί στην διακυβέρνηση των περιοχών που ελέγχει μέσα από ένα πρωτοπόρο σύστημα αυτοοργάνωση και διακυβέρνησης που ξεκινά “από τα κάτω”, αποτελώντας νησίδα δημοκρατίας και έχοντας καταφέρει να κερδίσει την διεθνή αναγνώριση και συμπάθεια. Ο Υποδιοικητής Μάρκος που για χρόνια αποτελούσε το “πρόσωπο” των Ζαπατίστας και όντας απόφοιτος Φιλοσοφίας και Λογοτεχνίας, συνέβαλε με τις ανακοινώσεις του στην κατάκτηση αυτής της διεθνής φήμης.

Στα τέλη του 2004 ο Υποδιοικητής Μάρκος πρότεινε στον Τάιμπο ΙΙ να γράψουν από κοινού, “από τα βουνά του νοτιοανατολικού Μεξικού” αυτό το αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα, το οποίο δημοσιεύτηκε σε δώδεκα συνέχειες στο κυριακάτικο τεύχος της εφημερίδας La Jornada. Στα ελληνικά μεταφράστηκε σε συμπαραγωγή των εκδόσεων Άγρα με τις εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη, και σε πλήρη αρμονία με τους υπόλοιπους διυσμούς του βιβλίου, μεταφράστηκε από δύο μεταφραστές, την Βασιλική Κνήτου και τον Κρίτωνα Ηλιόπουλο.

Στο βιβλίο, τα κεφάλαια με την μονή αρίθμηση έχουν γραφτεί από τον Υποδιοικητή Μάρκος ενώ αυτά με ζυγή από τον Πάκο Ιγνάτιο Τάιμπο ΙΙ. Η γραφή του τελευταίου, δοκιμασμένη στο λογοτεχνικό στίβο, δίνει στον αναγνώστη όσα υπόσχεται το βιογραφικό του, και δικαιώνει την θέση του μονόφθαλμου Μπελασκοαράν δίπλα στον Πέπε Καρβάλιο του Βάθκεθ Μονταλμπάν που κάνει και μια σύντομη εμφάνιση στο βιβλίο ως ο ένας από τους δύο “ανήσυχους νεκρούς” που βάζουν σε κίνηση την πλοκή. Η γραφή του Υπό Μάρκος από την άλλη, ποιο πειραματική και εκτός τον συνηθισμένων φορμών, χαρίζει μια μερικές από τις πιο δυνατές στιγμές του βιβλίου όπως το κεφάλαιο “Το Κακό και ο Κακός”, ενώ ταυτόχρονα προσφέρει μια ματιά “εκ των έσω” στην κοινωνία των Ζαπατίστας.

Οι δύο συγγραφείς, συνδυάζουν με επιτυχία τα ταλέντα τους και μας δίνουν ένα πρωτότυπο και ιδιαίτερο αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα που θα αποτελέσει “την κάθοδο στα κολαστήρια της κατάχρησης εξουσίας στο Μεξικό” όπως χαρακτηριστικά γράφετε στο οπισθόφυλλο της ελληνικής έκδοσης, η οποία συμπληρώνεται από ένα εξαιρετικό Παράρτημα για την ιστορία των Ζαπατίστας, γραμμένο από την Ευγενία Μιχαλοπούλου και τον Σταύρο Σταυρίδη.

Ένα δυνατό αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα με όλα τα απαραίτητα συστατικά για να κάνουν τους φίλους του είδους να αναφωνησουν “Τι βιβλίο!”.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 5 out of 5]

review of
Subcomandante Marcos & Paco Ignacio Taibo II's the uncomfortable DEAD
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 20, 2024

I have to admit to my bias right away: as an anarchist, the EZLN / Zapatista revolution has been very important to me as one of the most recent anti-authoritarian revolts on a large scale in the present times. Subcomandante Marcos, as prominent figure in this revolt has, therefore, been of great interest. I have one other bk of his but I haven't read it. One of the great delights of this bk is not just that Marcos collaborated w/ one of my favorite political crime fiction writers but that he's so damned good. As a 1st bk read by Marcos I was definitely impressed. This bk is genius.

"The authors' share of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Mexico-U.S. Solidarity Network, a nongovernmental agency that works to improve relations between Mexico and the United States." - p 13

The chapters alternate between odd numbered written by Marcos & even by Taibo. Here're the 1st 2 paragraphs of Marcos's beginning:

"Anything that takes more than six months is either a pregnancy or not worth the trouble.

"That there's what El Sup told me, and I just looked at him to see if he was joking or what. Cause the thing is, El Sup sometimes mixes things up and jokes with the city folks like he's talking to us, or he jokes with us like he's talking to the city folk. And then nobody much understands him, but he doesn't really care a whole lot. He just laughs to himself." - p 15

Another favorite political crime fiction writer for me is Vázquez Montalbán & who shd appear here but Montalbán himself.

"El Sup said after he spent some time talking to a certain Pepe Carvalho, who'd just got into La realidad with a message from Don Manolo Vázquez Montalbán" - p 15

Pepe Carvalho being Montalbán's main detective character.

"Yes, I began to get interested in the Zapatista movement because I read about it in a book by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán." - p 49

That's Marcos's 2nd chapter, from a different narrator's perspective.

"Grabbing the radio, the major barks, "Lama gama. If you copy, tell the big eye to buy his telescope tomorrow or whenever he can."

"High up on a hill, the operator receives the message and relays, "Lovebird, Lovebird, if you copy, there's a forty for Elias, and Cloud says he's to go tomorrow."" - page 19

Code language, I wasn't expecting that, that's something that I enjoy.

Marcos writes about the Zapatistas w/ knowledge based on 1st-hand experience. That, in itself, makes this bk important for me - but it's so much more.

"And that April accepted that she should be punished for lying about being Women's Commission, but that she was not going back to be mistreated again, that she was a Zapatista and she was acting like one." - p 28

Taibo, too, is a marvel - full of astute observations of people & their political positions.

""And what is a progressive official?"

""Same as the others, only they're not on the take, and this one's got a chocolate stain on his tie and a crippled dog."" - p 31

Taibo's recurring detective is Héctor Belascorán.

"He took a deep breath. "My brother says I'm a leftist, but a natural one, which means unawares," Héctor said, smiling. "And that means I'm a leftist but I never read Marx when I was sixteen and I never went to demonstrations to speak of and I don't have a poster of Che Guevara in my house. So, well, yes, I'm a leftist."" - p 32

A mystery arises based around a man known to be dead but who has someone pretending to be him spreading what might be clues.

"Yet Jesús María Alvarado was indeed dead, although not in 1969 like the progressive official Monteverde said, but in '71. So it was prehistoric, thirty-four years ago. He had been murdered as he left prison. A bullet in the back of the head for the first political pirsoner to be freed after the 1968 movement. Execution-style . . . and no official explanations." - p 35

Taibo can conjure up interesting & entertaining theories - by putting them in this fictional context there's no need for the reader to 'believe' them, they're just possibilities.

"what if it was the Bushes who've been making the bin Laden communiqués, those messages from hell, in a porno studio in Burbank, California, where they even have all the desert you might want? What if they concoctedthe whole thing? What if it's all a dream factory starring a Mexican taco vendor by the name of Juancho? But to tell the truth, even I couldn't believe that crock, and I kept telling myself, You can't be serious . . . But it does make a cool story, doesn't it?"" - p 38

Marcos is self-reflexive.

"You might be asking me what exactly a foreign campamentista is doing in this mysety novel. Actually, that's what I keep asking myself, I can't really help you out with that. While we check out what's going o, I can tell you a bit about myself. Maybe that way we can, together, figure out what the hell I'm doing in this book." pp 47-48

There're many things about Marcos, expressed thru his writing, that confirm that he's a revolutionary after my own heart, a revolutionary not made from the molds of the old school, one w/ an attitude that seems less likely to replace the old burtality w/ a new one. For one, he has a sense of humor.

"he was going to buy tickets for the jazz festival in Mexico City and that El Sup was going disguised as a saxophone, and after that he was going to do some table-dancing at a "girls only" club to raise money for the cause." - p 61

& there's more intertextuality, displaying his awareness of contemporary literary technique.

"Because the thing is, as opposed to every other month in our Broken Calendar, I had already the first chapter of this book, The Uncomfortable Dead, and although there was a lot missing, I already knew why Elias was going into Mexico City.

"And I was afraid, very afraid." - p 63

"The takecarofits had appeared in the last few years. You would park your car on some lonely street and out of nowhere would appear a character with a flannel chamois over his shoulder and a broad smile, saying, Takecarofit for ya, boss with the implicit threat that every malediction in the Talmud and every earthquake in Mexico without his protection." - p 87

It was of particular interest to read about that in Mexico b/c the same type of hustler existed in BalTimOre in the early 1990s when I lived in a warehouse downtown near the corner of BalTimOre & Howard streets. I was the owner of a bkstore at the time & we had a very borderline station wagon that had been given to us. Sometimes I'd drive the car near my warehouse where it was close to impossible to park for free. There was a back alley place where I cd park so I'd usually aim for that. W/in seconds of parking a husler wd appear offering to 'look after the car' for a few dollars. I'd always have to diplomatically explain to the guy that the reason why I was parking in this spot was b/c I cdn't afford pay parking & that I actually lived in the neighborhood (wch was considered too dangerous to even go into at night for many people).

The look at revolutionary Mexican security culture is interesting - even if it's totally fictional or deliberately misleading to the police state.

"Then I says real soft without even looking at him, "The giraffes walk like they're rock 'n' roll dancing." And the young man answers without looking at me, "Giraffes united can never be defeated." So I could tell he was the one, and he left his bread bag by the fence and walked away without another word." - p 94

Now, as a political activist, I've been in many protest situations where the chant, in English, "The People United will never be Defeated" is a mainstay - so the variation above is funny for me. It's particularly funny b/c I wd often chant variations such as w/ Elvis Presley style inflections for amusement. That was usually received as if it were blasphemy by humorless protestors who thought they were reaaallllyyyy serious people when they were just puritanical. I get some satisfaction out of seeing the authors of this bk, activists who I deeply respect, having a similar sense of humor.

A villain in the novel is a man named Morales who Héctor Belascorán is trying to find.

""Do you know what Morales did on his twenty-fith birthday? He turned his ex-wife in to the political police and she wound up getting tortured in the cellars of their facilities facing the Monument to the Revolution. Can you imagine what Morales did to justify that treason? He said he was saving her from certain death.["]" - p 112

Argentina is notorious for its "Dirty War" in wch thousands of people were disappeared, tortured & then dropped in the sea. I'd never read about a Dirty War in Mexico but this bk touches on that.

"In later years, he joined (may have joined) the White Brigade (according to the Vázquez Montalbán papers) in the period known as the Dirty War. The notebook entitled The Black Book of the White Brigade contained eight pages of an anonymous text run off an ancient mimeograph machine and bound with a pale blue cover. It was an overwhelming catalogue of horrors connected to that police-military organization that arose in 1974 during the presidency of Luis Echeverría." - p 148

One of the hero(ine)s of the bk is a transexual prostitute who becomes friends w/ the Zapatista investigator who's working w/ Belascorán.

"Evil, Daddy Elías, is incomprehension, discrimination, and intolerance. It's everywhere . . . or nowhere." - p 166

"THE BAD AND THE EVIL, ACCORDING TO LEONARD PELTIER, NATIVE AMERICAN, ARTIST, WRITER, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST, ILLEGALLY AND UNFAIRLY IMPRISONED." - p 171

Morales is, predictably, a self-rationalizer - ever-ready w/ a justification for any behavior of his own.

"Okay, so maybe I didn't always buy—I took, I pillaged—but if it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else. There are people who are born to be screwed. It's like they have it tattooed on their foreheads: Screw me."

[..]

"No, I never killed face-to-face. But it wasn't a question of cowardice, no, it's just that I felt sorry staring into the eyes of a future corpse. Besides, they were going to die anyway. All I did was expedite their departure."

[..]

"Why do you say I cheated? I didn't cheat any more than any politician or businessman." - p 172

"THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO ANGELA Y. DAVIS, ACTIVIST AGAINST RACISM AND POLITICAL REPRESSION, SENT TO PRISON ILLEGALLY AND UNFAIRLY." - p 174

"THE BAD AND THE EVIL ACCORDING TO MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, JOURNALIST AND ACTIVIST AGAINST RACISM, ILLEGALLY AND UNFAIRLY CONDEMNED TO DEATH IN THE U.S." - p 177

Well, Mumia is off Death Row now, at least that much has been accomplished for him. I was very active in the Western Pennsylvania Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal in the late 1990s & early 2000s. If only he cd be gotten out of prison altogether. His long-term imprisonment is a tragedy.

"the rich and the bad government leaders—are trying to convince everyone that their agenda, is the only good one for everybody, even for the screwed. So they are constantly telling us about the concerns of the powerful and convincing us that it's all that's important and it's what we have to be concerned about. So you see, they have us looking one way while they're stealing everything and selling the country down the river, and our natural resources, like our water, oil, electric power, and even our people." - p 214

Even if it were true that everyone were looking out for the best interests of everyone else it wd never really work out that way, wd it? - b/c people don't have the omnisicience to really see the consequences of all actions. Exploitation is most easily self-justified when the people who're getting the most screwed are somewhere where they can't be seen by the exploiter. If the ultra-rich had to actually live in the conditions they create in order to make sure most of the money goes to them they'd be hard-pressed to survive. Maybe even someone as sickening as Bill Gates believes his own self-justifying hype.

After the novel ends, there's, 1st, an interview w/ Taibo about its making.

"Juan Felipe Herrera: How did this unique collaboration with Sucomandante Marcos begin?

"Paco Ignacio Taibo II: A man I had never seen before visited me at my house one day and said: "I bring a letter from Subcomandante Marcos." And I replied, "Well, give it to me." He sat in front of me while I read the letter. In it, Marcos asked if I was interested in writing a novel by four hands with him. It was an old project that he had conceived with Manolo Vázquez Montalbán, to be worked out by six hands. However, Manolo had just died that year and he had been the one who was supposed to explain the story to me. Now it was all left up in the air and Marcos wanted to know if I was interested." - p 266

Think of the skill that it takes to pull something like this off.

That's followed by an interview w/ Marcos by Gabriel Garcia Márquez & Roberto Pombo before the novel was written. I particularly love this interview b/c of the following.

"SM: We were formed in an army, the EZLN. It has a military structure. Subcomandante Marcos is the military chief of an army. But our army is very differen from others, because its proposal is to cease being an army. A soldier is an absurd person who has to resort to arms in order to convince others, and in that sense the movement has no future if its future is military. If the EZLN perpetuates itself as an armed military structure, it is headed for failure. Failure as an alternative set of ideas, an alternative attitude to the world." - pp 274-275

It's the expression of that vision that endears me to the EZLN & to Marcos the most. Permanent militaries create a permanent state of war, it's self-perpetuating. That's where the US has been for my 70 yrs of life. Marcos sees & proposes a way out. THAT'S a real revolution, not just a rehashing of whoever's-the-most-violent-wins.

"GGM: Hasn't Fox in practice accepted that table when he says he wants to talk to you, and will receive you in the Presidential Palace or wherever you please?

"SM: What Fox is saying is that he wants his slice of the media cake, in what has become a popularity contest, rather than a dialogue or negotiation. Fox is looking for a photo opportunity to maintain his grip on the media. But a peace process is not to be constructed by a spectacle, but by serious signals, sitting down at a table and dedicating yourself to a real dialogue." - p 280

As a late 20th century / early 21st century revolutionary Marcos really seems to nail w/ great clarity a fresh awareness of what's important.

"GGM: Do you still find time to read, in the midst of all these distractions?

"SM: Yes, because if not . . . what would we do? In previous armies, soldiers used their time to clean their weapons and stock up ammunition. Our weapons are words, and we may need our arsenal at any moment." - pp 284-285

Even if the above is wishful thinking, it's a wishful thinking I share. In fact, in the ultraviolent life of Baltimore, where I spent the 1st 40 yrs of my life, my words were what kept me from getting killed. I didn't usually carry weapons.

Taibo writes about the Zapatistas next.

"They have announced that they took up arms against a government founded on an electoral fraud, that they have decreed a new agrarian reform, that they will no longer endure any abuses by the police. the army, and the latifundios's caciques, that the Nortn American Free Trade Agreement is the final kick in the stomach to the indigenous communities." - p 291

& here, in North America, the biggest resistance mvmt I've ever persoanlly been involved in, was one against Gobalization & the Free Trade Agreement. I think this resistance was somewhat successful. Alas, I also think that the QUARANTYRANNY, disguised as a transnational medical emergency, is actually a reinstating of Globalization in disguise, one that's very successfully fooled most leftists & een most anarchists.

"he is only a subcomandante, and he warns that the name "Marcos" is interchangeable—anyone can put on a ski mask and say, "I am Marcos." He invites people to do so." - p 297

This is another very late 20th century revolutionary strategy. In Neoism, "Monty Cantsin" has been a collective identity, "Marcos" is the Zapatista collective identity. This is nothing to scoff at.

Be warned:

"On TV there are images of soldiers vaccinating children and distributing food. The women standing in line for food in Ocosingo's plaza don't get any the second day if they don't bring their husbands. The soldiers distributing food are there to identify Zapatistas." - p 299

Before deciding against biting the hand that feeds you ask why it has so much food in the 1st place. - tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

"Are we nearing the end of the oldest dictatorship in the world? From 1920 to 1994 they have governed this country in the name of modernity and a betrayed revolution. Has their moment passed?" - p 300

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love love love Paco Taibo. His sections are wonderful and dark and grim and bleakly funny. Commandante Marcos, on the other hand, speaks about himself in the third person and, if I may be so bold with a political hero, is a bit annoying. Yet still, his sections are fascinating in the mix of real life and propaganda and ruminations they bring together. I quite enjoyed it in its entirety, though I was always happy to get back to Belascoarán.

[Isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taibo Hive!!!!! EZLN Hive!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ed Cound · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quería que me gustase esta novela. Soy anarquista y simpatizante zapatista, pero tengo que respetar el arte de la narración. Fue penoso leer la mayoría de este libro, aunque sin duda llegan momentos de narrativa bien construida.

Los capítulos escritos por Subcomandante Marcos fueron los más frustrantes. El estilo de escribir la mitad de la historia desde el punto de vista de Elías Contreras fue el mayor problema. No soporto la inundación de frases que comienzan 'y entonces' y cláusulas 'que sea que'. Es que nunca he visto prosa tan repetitiva. No había tanta necesidad de establecer lo revuelta que tiene la cabeza nuestro prota, más bien esa decisión estilística a Elías le volvió bastante unidimensional. Se notaba que un hombre complejo quería estallar de esa representación pero ese hombre complejo no tenía don de letras. Entonces por qué contar la historia desde su perspectiva? También fue un afán leer párrafo tras párrafo de descripciones poco imaginativas de minuciedades y accioncillas que ya se implicaban sin necesidad de palabras. Casi me sentía insultado como lector. Yo no me creo un ser de mucho sentido común, pero me encantaría conocer a una persona quien se satisface con escritura tan rimbombante y obvia y preguntarle cómo lleva tanto tiempo vivo sin pasar alguna torpeza letal.

Tengo que admitir que, entre los párrafos de banalidades, el Sup ha construído una narrativa bastante cautivadora. Aunque se niega a enseñar lo bien que sabe escribir en esta novela, nos enseña algo que sigue siendo obra de un hombre de conocimientos profundos y variados, con revelaciones factuales apoderando un argumento ameno. Fue una educación importante de los malos que se esconden en plena vista de las sociedades capitalistas, con ilustraciones amplias de la neocolonización de latinoamérica, fenómeno universal que exporta cantidades impermisibles de sufrimiento al sur global. Muchos izquierdistas se han concienciado de forma generalizada de estos horrores pero solo los más educados nos pueden dar cuenta de cómo funciona a nivel tan específico con tanto detalle. Evidentemente me refiero a una educación que viene de vivir la política en primera persona, porque pocas escuelas van a enseñar de esos temas. Los datos de la novela no solo educan, sino generan enfado moral que aumenta el interés del lector en la persecución del tal Morales. A pesar de la puntuación que he dado, no tengo la sensación de haber perdido tiempo leyendo esta novela por lo que me ha educado de los malos clandestinos de la ultraderecha hispana y los posibles sistemas de justicia bajo el anarquismo u el socialismo libertario.

La mitad del libro escrita por Paco Ignacio Taibo II fue mucho más placentero leer pero menos memorable. La prosa me daba un gran alivio al terminar otro capítulo de los balbuceos de Elías. Sin embargo nunca me enganchó la misión de Héctor Belascoarán Shayne. El humor me parecía muy típico de la narrativa policíaca. Al menos no había colaboración con la policía misma. Con esa habría cerrado el libro sin terminarlo nunca. No obstante nunca llegaron sentimientos muy fuertes a su mitad del cuento. Me está costando encontrar cosas que escribir sobre algo que me dejó tan sin más. La verdad es que Taibo a veces parecía un cómplice de esta novela en lugar de un escritor.

Que leas esta historia si acaso te guste más que a mí. Algo conseguirás de haberla leído. Yo nunca me he enfadado tanto con una novela, pero se me queda en la memoria. No voy a hablar de mis pensamientos de la representación torpe de la Magdalena porque primero quiero leer de Loa Otroa en las ficciones zapatistas infantiles para ver cómo ha desarrollado la representación
zapatista de lo cuir.

[e v · Rating 5 out of 5]

just as there isn't one world but many (as long as your rifle is pointed towards imperialism) there isn't one historical time but many (as long as the ski mask retains the right of opacity) , but the many worlds , the many times , are of the dead , whose tenuous existence is constantly negotiated by those who struggle to the death with them and for them , the dead who continue to live to haunt to call you in the middle of the night and leave you messages on your answering machine as long as their murderers subjugate the world

so two revolutionary detectives set out to solve the mystery of the murder of the world

the bolshoi dancers are on strike the subcomandante is smoking a pipe on the moon marx's predecessor don quixote is fighting the falangists leonard peltier and angela davis are having a conversation about broken calendars osama bin laden was just a taco vendor in the pocket of the cia recording communiques in a porn studio in burbank the russian was a maoist and the chinese a trotskyist and the restless dead are missing vive the dead !

Well, Belascoarán leaned back and lit a cigarette and stared at me as he asked me why I said that, what connection I saw between all the papers.
And that’s when I said: “The dead.”

Well, everybody just kept real quiet, and not on account of free democratic discipline neither, but cause they were expecting me to go on explaining. So I started explaining that the investigations were being done cause the dead had started them.

But they were dead people who weren’t just hanging around waiting for All Souls’ Day to come on out and have some coffee and tamales and atole made with pozol —no sir, they were speaking up, or out.

[Barney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how to rate this book. I really enjoyed it, although it had various flaws.

In essence it's two interconnected books. Marcos wrote a really weird, playful book with a lot of information about the Zapatistas (which I'm very curious about), constant breaking of the fourth wall, a protagonist whose point of view is clearly supposed to be rural and hardly knowing about how things work in the modern world (although learning fast and taking it in stride, not spending too much time criticizing), a variety of styles and even occasional jokes. The plot is really interesting, although a bit on the nose (perhaps to be expected): without spoiling too much, it's about bad state actors and political corruption.

Marcos' prose is sometimes awkward and it felt like a lot of the information was unnecessary (although perhaps it was building a certain atmosphere and style which makes sense subconsciously? I don't know).

PIT's book seemed to me better written in terms of prose, although I enjoyed it less (but still quite a bit). The plot was quite interesting here too. It sometimes felt a bit vulgar or awkward, although I'm guessing some of that is because of the translation and the cultural distance (I read it in Greek). PIT's part was full of references to Mexican political history, which made me frequently stop and read more about the mentioned subjects, both because it was interesting and to be able to follow the plot better (I appreciate the Greek translator whose footnotes were illuminating). I was amazed about how much of the political references turned out to be real, despite them feeling too far fetched to be so.

All in all, this book is really worth it, in my opinion, despite being quirky and befuddling at times.

[Miguel Soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disfruté la novela porque tiene cosas que me interesan: intriga política mexicana, movidas debajo del agua, entretejidos de las cúpulas internacionales con la resistencia del EZLN, y demás... además la manera en que se escribió es muy interesante, un capítulo escrito por PIT, y uno por el sup, alternando uno y otro, dándole protagonismo a sus personajes respectivos: Héctor Belascoarán y Elías Contreras, detective y comisión de investigación.

Los capítulos de Elías Contreras me parecieron geniales al estar escritos en su voz, con su manera de hablar y su "pensamiento muy revuelto", aunque por lo mismo de pronto me costaba trabajo seguirle el hilo a la lectura. No así con los de Belascoarán, que son más rectos pero igualmente van revelando detalles del misterio que al final no era lo que se esperaba, o tal vez sí, porque de todas maneras siempre falta lo que falta.

[Simon B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly unusual Mexican crime/PI caper by two authors who each wrote alternating chapters and contribute two different endings. I'd long wanted to read this as one of the authors is Subcommandante Marcos of the Zapatistas but I bided my time as it's out of print and not readily available in the UK. But I felicitously came across a secondhand copy on a charity table in a small town in Scotland. It's readable but also a bit weird: Marcos writes himself in the Chiapas jungle as a character. It's also somewhat didactic as you might expect... For example there are a few long (but also very good) quotes from Leonard Peltier, Angela Davis and Mumia Abu Jamal. among others. But anyone who is too put off by that kind of thing really has no business picking up a novel by a Zapatista and a famous Mexican leftist author in the first place.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skip to the second half of following review for my take on The Uncomfortable Dead, if you're so inclined.

Call of the grisly
http://www.sfbg.com/2010/08/10/call-g...
Paco Ignacio Taibo II constructs a guide to corruption in Mexico City Noir
08.10.10 - 5:04 pm | Ben Terrall

LIT With volumes devoted to numerous U.S. cities and quite a few foreign capitals, it sometimes seems as if Akashic Books' expanding line of noir story anthologies will wind up covering virtually every major metropolis on earth. Because less gritty burgs like Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Phoenix all have entries in the crime fiction series, it's only fair that Mexico City gets a nod.

Akashic must be commended for waiting several years until the great novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo II agreed to take on editing duties for Mexico City Noir (Akashic Books, 250 pages, $15.95). Taibo, who was born in Spain but has lived in Mexico since 1958, is the author of wildly entertaining and internationally successful mysteries that push the genre's boundaries in interesting directions. In addition to a dense biography of Che Guevara, he has written a doorstop-size book about Pancho Villa that should have been translated into English years ago.

In his introduction to Mexico City Noir, Taibo describes the capital city as having "the most corrupt police force on the planet." (A recent guidebook cites research showing that 13 percent of the megacity's incarcerated population are veterans of the police corps.) Taibo writes of the corruption and mayhem sewn by members and ex-members of "security" forces: "If you're lucky, you can stay away from it, you can keep your distance ... until, suddenly, without a clear explanation of how, you fall into the web and become trapped." He concludes, "You wake up in the morning with the uneasy feeling that the law of probabilities is working against you." If that's not noir, what the hell is?

The stories Taibo assembles shine a harsh light on systematic injustice and dire poverty amid, as Taibo puts it, "an economic crisis that's been going on for 25 years." Among the book's highlights are a street drunk who may have witnessed a police killing, a demented priest with some unsavory urges, and plenty of street-level contemplation of the violence of everyday life. There's also enough grisly narco-related mayhem to satisfy fans of the Saw movie franchise (assuming they can read).

But while stateside crime fiction often achieves such levels of violence at the expense of a moral center, and rarely works on more than one fairly obvious (if lucrative) level, these short stories are rooted in rage at the injustice that permeates life in Mexico City. The sometimes experimental narratives lay out the harsh socioeconomic realities of post-NAFTA Mexico, where the less-than-magical realism of the market makes the rich richer and the poor poorer — and the U.S.-backed drug war provides plenty of bad men with more guns. The warped humor here, especially in Taibo's contribution about the struggle for the soul of an embattled street corner, is part of the survival mechanism of people who have seen too much of life at its worst but must keep laughing anyway.

Akashic is complementing the release of Mexico City Noir by reissuing The Uncomfortable Dead (Akashic Books, 268 pages, $15.95), the novel Taibo wrote in collaboration with Zapatista spokesperson and strategist Subcommandante Marcos. In an interview included as part of the new edition's supplementary materials, Taibo describes the frenetic pace at which he and Marcos wrote alternate chapters for serialization in Mexican paper La Jornada, for a total of 12 chapters over 12 weeks. That ongoing deadline pressure has produced a giddy read, and if it doesn't deliver the kind of straightforward narrative and tight plotting that U.S. mystery readers look for, the literary pyrotechnics of these two impressive wordsmiths offer undeniable pleasures that eschew formulaic predictability.

Taibo's chapters feature his Coca-Cola-and-tobacco-addled, one-eyed detective Hector Belascoarn Shayne on the trail of a murderer named Morales. Marcos in turn writes about a Zapatista investigator named Elias, who is also searching for a man named Morales. The two stories wind up intersecting in a sometimes surreal jumble in Mexico City, where, in Taibo's words, there are "more movie theatres than Paris, more abortions than London, and more universities than New York."

The 1968 Mexico City police massacre of student activists is a key reference point in both books. That bloody repression was clearly a watershed period for Taibo and Marcos, profoundly influencing both of them. In the early 1980s, Marcos went south to Chiapas and joined the guerrillas who evolved into Zapatistas. Taibo became a history professor at the Metropolitan University of Mexico City and president of the International Association of Political Writers; He also went on to write '68, a memoir of sorts available in English from Seven Stories Press, and the experimental novel Calling All Heroes: A Manual for Taking Power (which features a survivor of the 1968 police massacres who enlists the aid of his childhood heroes Sherlock Holmes, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and D'Artagnan to help him in a new reform movement) just reprinted by local publisher PM Press.

Both Taibo and Marcos retained their radical politics and commitment to class struggle. They also share a fondness for absurdist humor, and both display an endearing willingness to laugh at themselves. Self-effacing humor is not a trait one usually associates with committed leftists, alas. The writing of Taibo and Marcos is a fine corrective to the unfortunate association of strident humorlessness with radical activism.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun detective noir wherein most of the value comes from the non-fictional aspects about the repressive Mexican state and the opposition indigenous Zapatista movement. There are some touching moments, some enraging moments, and some lighthearted moments, making for an engaging and breezy read, though the mystery plot itself only serves as a skeleton frame for the more important non-fictional social issues explored by the authors. Readers of the Zapatista communiques would instantly recognize Marcos' chapters even if they weren't explicitly told he wrote the odd-numbered ones. Definitely worth reading if you are sympathetic to the cause.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

un roman inedit, scris la 4 maini, intr-o maniera aproape jurnalistica.
o carte care pare un manifest pentru dreptate, pentru atitudine si pentru justutie.
pe alocuri, aveam impresia ca vorbeste de romania, desi era vorba de mexic.
chiar daca mi luat ceva vreme sa inteleg contextul social si istoric al romanului( asta e unul din punctele lui slabe, iti da senzatia ca tu ar trebui sa fii deja la curent cu ceea ce se relateaza), am gustat din plin ironia, umorul si varietatea capitolelor scrise de cei doi autori.

[Stelios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μερικά βιβλία τα έχεις χρόνια στη βιβλιοθήκη σου και για λόγους που ούτε εσύ δεν ξέρεις δεν τα έχεις διαβάσει.Μια τέτοια περίπτωση είναι και το συγκεκριμένο, δώρο από έναν καλό φίλο πριν από τουλάχιστον 15 χρόνια. Το διάβασα λοιπόν τώρα και ευτυχώς , γιατί σαν πιο «ώριμος» αναγνώστης το εκτίμησα όπως του έπρεπε. Σίγουρα πρόκειται για ένα ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο και αυτή του η ιδιαιτερότητα είναι που του δίνει και την ομορφιά που εκπέμπει.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging overall; effective chapter weaving with the 2 writers; and funny how the cover still operates in a discourse that implies Criminal, Historical, and Political might be separable, especially in a novel of these power struggles. Also, energetic in a rather unique way--the two styles and approaches to a resonant ideology vibrate.

[Brian Grover · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was co-written by a Mexican author of detective novels and the former head of the Zapatistas. It's moderately entertaining, but nothing really works. My sense is that the guy who writes the crime novels (Paco Ignacio Taibo) is a pretty decent writer whose heart really wasn't in this assignment. Can't recommend.

[Kate Savage · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written hastily and without a plan beyond reminding people how great the Zapatistas are. It's feminist in that sort of 90s way when feminism didn't have to pass the Bechdel test. The Taibo chapters were cold and brutal; the Marcos chapters were cute and mostly propaganda.

But hell if it didn't succeed in reminding me how great the Zapatistas are.

[Bogdan Neagu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Am ales cartea de pe raftul librariei bazat pe blurb-ul de pe coperta spate. E cea mai faina parte din toata cartea. Prea mexicana, prea dubios stilul (stilurile), prea plina de inutilitati. Probabil un mexican sau un pasionat de istorie mexicana ar aprecia aceasta lectura, in rest - keep away, nu recomand.

[Claudio Valverde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bueno, pero me resultó algo dificil de leer debido a la gran cantidad de modismos mexicanos. Se intercalan la autoría de cada capítulo en tre Paco Ignacio Taibo II y el subcomandante Marcos. Lectura interesante.

[Ernesto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lamentablemente nunca llegué a sentir conexión entre ambos autores. Pasan hojas y hojas y las partes escritas por Marcos no me dicen mucho, mientras que las escritas por Taibo me parecen de las más flojas de todas las historias de Belascoarán Shayne.

[Yules · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more boring than it could have been, though kudos to Subcomandante Marcos for not only fighting for the rights of indigenous people in the neo-Zapatista movement, but also finding time to write quirky postmodern detective fiction. What a mensch.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly fuck the neoliberal west, down the with government, up with the people! A story that suggests a different way of being and organising people, and shows us how to do it through a cast of Normal People who care about each other and the world. Must read more about the zapatistas !

[Tomek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ultimately, I found the shift in tone between authors to be jarring and the plot convoluted.

[Sara Gaviria Piedrahita · Rating 5 out of 5]

"hay heridas que no sanan manque uno las platique y que, al contrario, más sangran cuando se visten de palabras".