Rating
3.29 of 5 Votes: 2
ISBN
044651747X (ISBN13: 9780446517478)
Publisher
grand central publishing
http://www.jamesrament.com/book-revie...Puerto Vallarta Squeeze by Robert James Waller, 1995I recently heard a speech by a literary man who has been in the book industry for over thirty years. He said that publishers love good books that sell...and bad books that sell. The only real criteria is that they sell. He made reference to Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County, which was reviled by the cultured despisers but sold millions of copies—an example of the “bad” but highly successful book. Although I saw the movie, I never read The Bridges of Madison County. I did read Waller's Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend, which was unmemorable. One could safely say that Waller isn’t in the league of Steinbeck (not many are), but I surely did enjoy Puerto Vallarta Squeeze. Goodness, I read it in 1995 and again in 2003. The 2004 movie was unfortunately, quite mediocre.I love this little tale. It made me think of my adolescent fantasy relating to the Walter Huston character in the movie, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, where near the end, Howard the old man, is dead broke but happy, knowing his final days will be spent in a small peasant village being attended to by two lovely Mexican maidens. In the same mold, Puerto Vallarta Squeeze could be called a really good trashy book for aging men—a prayer to the god of indolence.The book is about a middle-aged novelist, Danny Pastor, who can’t seem to write, lazing around Puerto Vallarta with a pretty young whore with sort of a heart of gold, named Luz Maria. Luz wears a t-shirt showing two half limes on her breasts and the words Puerto Vallarta Squeeze. They like a place called Mamma Mia’s and spend their evenings listening to Willie and Lobo (who I happen to have seen live. I also own some of their CD’s—flamenco guitar and a violin—gypsy boogaloo music). The crap hits the fan when Danny accidentally sees a killing by an ex-government agent and ends up with the shooter, Luz and himself running for el Norte in an old beat-up Ford Bronco named Vito.I enjoyed the banter, like when the shooter and Danny are bitching about Americans, born in luxury’s cradle, “escaping” to Mexico looking for the “meaning of life” then complaining about the sanitation setup. Or when they discussed the ethics of bullfights and hunting and slaughterhouses. Or their discussion of the machismo philosophy of Mexican men regarding their wives: “If they are pregnant, they will not wonder” and the fear of a wife learning the erotic arts: “she might like it too much.” Such matters are reserved for mistresses and bad women, not wives. I liked the author’s delving into the psychological makeup of an assassin. It’ a breezy read.This little adventure twists and turns, it’s fast-paced, with smart dialog, humor, and a wild ending—and it’s easy to get sucked into believing that it would have been fun to have been there (except for the dying part).Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 James Ament
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