Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Mamista

Mamista
Mamista
Author: Len Deighton
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 158 more book reviews


Deighton's longest, most complex and passionate novel in years: an epic tale, set in a South American jungle, of good men and women crushed beneath the heel of Realpolitik. There's valor in his new, brilliantly realized huge cast of characters, beginning with two men who travel for different reasons to Spanish Guiana: Australian M.D. Ralph Lucas, sent by a relief group to research medical conditions in the area controlled by the MAMista Marxist guerrilla movement; and Angel Paz, an idealistic young ``Yanqui'' Marxist determined to fight for revolution. The spirits of Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad hover over this stately, outstanding mix of tragedy and black farce that builds slowly--but inexorably--to its piercing conclusion.