- Editorial:
- EDITORIALES VARIAS-AUTOR EDITOR
- Any d'edició:
- 2024
- Matèria:
- Histórica
- ISBN:
- 978-84-09-62321-1
- PÃ gines:
- 268
DESERT OF SOLITUDE
HARRIS, STEVEN RICHARD
Desert of Solitude tells the story of two travellers, Dan and Max, who are on a journey through Mexico. Dan has recently recovered from brain surgery and been given a year to live. He studied anthropology and is keen to explore as many ancient archaeological sites as possible on the trip. Max, from whose point of view the story is told, has no such plans. He´s just going through the motions, filling in time and fighting a mix of rage, apathy and hopelessness inside.
As the two travel companions visit as many cities, sites and bars as possible it becomes clear that Max resents Dan´s intelligence and desire for knowledge. He also begins to see a side of Mexico that he was hitherto unaware of: the poverty that the indigenous population faces. After Dan meets Maggie, a lone backpacker travelling the Yucatán peninsula, Max decides that he and Dan should go their separate ways. Max then heads to the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende. There, he learns more about the current political state of Mexico, the new presidential candidate Colosio, and the effect the North American Free Trade Agreement will have on the country. He also meets a Spanish teacher called Lina and he falls for her passion almost immediately. Their love blooms and she awakens a determination to fight for a better world in him, until one day she disappears without explanation.
A newspaper published by an armed indigenous revolutionary group, the EZLN, which Max found in Lina´s flat, leads him on his search. While desperately looking for Lina and the EZLN, he is kidnapped by revolutionaries who are suspicious of his motives. During captivity he is seduced by the charming Subcomandante Marcos to join the indigenous revolution. However, he is constantly plagued by his inadequacies compared to Dan, while at the same time he cannot get Lina out of his mind and the desire to find her. He starts to have strange dreams about mythical Aztec and Mayan creatures, blurring the boundaries of what is real and imaginary.
An indigenous comandante, Javi, is tasked with Max´s wellbeing and military training, giving him the opportunity to see and hear first-hand the plight of the indian population in the jungle. The revolution begins on 01st January 1994. Max and Javi find themselves in the midst of a violent attack by the federal army in Ocosingo. Javi sacrifices himself so that Max and a handful of civilians can escape the city but their bus is torn apart by machine guns, Max is shot and then thrown into a mass grave by the roadside.
With a ceasefire having been brokered, Max wakes up in hospital. He is interrogated and then transferred to a high-security prison. After slowly recovering his health, he is visited by a politician who has his passport and shows him a photograph of Dan and Lina together. Max is distraught. Everything that he thought he knew was a lie. The politician offers him a way out of prison and the possibility to see Lina again, although it is not clear if she is being held captive. If he assassinates the presidential candidate, who is trying to clean up Mexican politics and the government, then he will be released.
And so, after having shot Colosio, Max finds himself sitting in an airport departure lounge waiting for a flight out of Mexico. He looks down at the name on the boarding pass. Dan´s name is there. They are two parts of the same person. Max was nothing more than an alternative personality of Dan, who suffers dissociative personality disorder – a result of the brain surgery or a coping mechanism to deal with the prognosis that he only has months to live. Lina´s disappearance remains a mystery.
