The Sinaloa Story

by Barry Gifford

The Sinaloa Story tells of DelRay Mudo and Ava Varazo, two down-and-outs looking for a reasonable life and maybe even a little redemption in a corrupt and violent world. Ava is a Mexican prostitute, beautiful and no victim of circumstance. When DelRay falls in love with her at the drive-in whorehouse where she is the prize, she seizes the chance to break free. They take off for Sinaloa ,Texas, the lone-dog state where "nothin’ good ever happens." The far-out border flunkies they meet — Thankful Priest, the one-eyed former football player; Indio Desacato, Ava’s pimp and a small-town racketeer; Arkadelphia Quantrill Smith, an octogenarian whose father marched with Shelby in the Iron Brigade; and many others — fill out the sinister and electrifying ride.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Barry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.

He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barry Gifford's writing always entrances me.

Maybe it's the characters, who are marginal, young castoffs or ogre-like predators, or both.

Maybe it's the style that pulls me in; Gifford is spare and direct, moving swiftly from one character to another with back stories, pungent dialogue and the occasional, well-placed killer metaphor.

The Sinaloa Story aligns with the best of his novels, and delves into recurrent themes, such as moments of lost innocence, the hunter and the hunted, and lambs against the world.
The story pops around from Sinaloa, Texas, to New Orleans, to Bad Leopard, Idaho, to Cairo, Illinois, and beyond, with very few descriptive elements of place; in spite of that (or maybe because of it, we all skim over excessive landscape descriptions, don't we?) each location is imbued with a singular and redolent atmosphere.

Finally, if I wanted to be 100% objective, I would point out a few minor weaknesses. But I won't, because I don't want to break the spell!

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me of Tom Waits subject matter mixed with some David Lynch imagery then some Palanuik pace. But I enjoyed the book: The story was sad and excellently handled I thought and there was some "weight" to the story. I am unclear, reverting to some primitive speech here. And I am aware of this, and cannot change it at the moment, because I want to eat, and just don't feel like being super articulate. I liked the book. Will probably read more Gifford.

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of the gritty low-life stuff this author specialises in, and very entertaining.

[Benja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gifford likes his directionless stories. He likes his stories within stories. He likes road trips because then his protagonists get to stop along the way and talk with small-town weirdoes. Their anecdotes are pulpy and lurid, weirdly specific and rich in detail, yet retold in such an amused, offhanded way that they have a documentary texture to them. Sometimes you feel Gifford himself has only to make up the names like Thankful Priest, or Cobra Box, or Heaven Cure. It’s a crazy world out there.

The first half of the story is a pulpy, deceptively straightforward love triangle between a john, a whore and her pimp. Ostensibly a road trip between star-crossed lovers, The Sinaloa Story starts off towards familiar “Sailor and Lula” territory but then quickly tangents into small-town vignettes and sort of spirals out of focus by the end, to the point you wonder what the focus was to begin with. One brief chapter after another, it's like being fed short stories of ominous but unclear implications. And all the while violence threatens to surge, ready to rob anyone of any lesson and put an end to things in the most unceremonious way possible.

[AL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off great, but about half way through, too many newly introduced characters die and the book ends with barely any resolution except people die, and they don't just fade away, they are somehow brutally murdered or meet with some other random fatal violence. I guess this what you should expect from Gifford's books, a lazy resolve that hides under the possible explanation that life is chaos and does not end cleanly. It's not that it has to be "happy," but there seems little purpose to leaving such loose ends in fiction other than laziness or wanting to annoy the reader. I am certainly annoyed, but I do really love his writing, although I do get sick of his excessive violence. Yeah I got the point that life is filled with violence, but then again I'll bet it's not.

[Guy Salvidge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t give Gifford one star, but this is borderline. At his worst, Gifford’s plots are diffuse, his characters wooden. This is him at his worst.

[Piojo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empieza bien, pero no termina: deja la historia inconclusa

[Andy Haddon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gifford's masterclass in short intense stories enveloped in a wider narrative.

Story arcs developed over 2 or 3 page chapters, told by an assorted collection of pimps, whores, chancers, grifters, and Cairo Fly, arguably the bestest named antagonist in all of Gifford's amazingly drawn rogues.

I must have read this book a dozen times, I always leave just long enough a gap between reads so that I vaguely remember these characters like long lost relatives, and their stories never cease to amaze.

[PhattandyPDX · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Pancho Villa responded: “twice we drove them out of Mexico and allowed them to Return with the same rights as Mexicans, and they use these rights to steal away our land, to make our people slaves, and to take up arms against the cause of liberty. They thrust on us the greatest superstition the world has ever known the Catholic Church. They ought to be killed for that alone.”’

[Al Reynolds · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

People sure do have a lot of nicknames.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book, regarding the events in Sinaloa, but when it Nieves from there and turned more and more into a meandering quilt of characters it lost a lot of momentum for me.

[Juan Espinoza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciertamente aunque la naturaleza fragmentada de la historia funciona a veces, en otras se pierde algo del impacto. Lo que si es fascinante es ver como Gifford con pocas palabras ya puede darle identidad a personajes, su historia, sus intenciones, obsesiones y deseos.

Eso sin mencionar lo que parece ser un verdadero talento para crear nombres inolvidables.

[Father · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing? Some may disagree, but I enjoyed the time and character jumps. They actually tied the story together in a way few authors can do. I will say, this is not a "light" read.

[Carlos Escobedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty bleak stuff but fascinating nonetheless. Respectful to the reader in avoiding cliches.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Barry Gifford.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Features a skeletal attorney named Robespierre Dufour. Rock solid.