I
came across a very unusual book by F.G. Haghenbeck, Mexican novelist of
German origin, and responds to the name Francisco. It's called 'Trago
Amargo' meaning Bitter Swig. There are 26 chapters, and in the beginning
of each one there's an interesting Cocktail recipe. Don't start the
book trying out all the drinks first, or you will never get to the end
of the story! The novel is a mixture of fiction and reality, both so
well written and presented, that at the end you wouldn't know what is
true and what is not.
Once upon not all that many years ago, John Huston decided to shoot the film 'Night of the iguana' at the beach of Mismaloya, in Vallarta Port in Mexico, and there came his troupe: Richard Burton who passed most part of the day at the bar, Elizabeth Taylor recently separated from Eddie Fisher, Ava Gartner, named by the tabloid as 'the most beautiful woman in the world', the very elegant British star Deborah Kerr, the Indian Fernandez ... Corrupt police like sergeant Quintero, the lawyer straddled on both sides of the law Bernabe Jurado, and a nice guy Billie Joe who appears and disappears. "Nearly all the characters are real" said the director. The cast of actors hated one another. Huston gave them gold guns with silver bullets in case they wanted to kill each other. Hollywood never liked to have anything to do with the police, much less Mexican police. So the producer contracted Sunny Pascual, Who auto-defined as 'half everything': half Mexican, half gringo, half alcoholic, half surfer, half alive, half dead". Sonny is amoral and sarcastic. Haghenbeck explained that these characters came from comic books, to which he had dedicated a good part of his life. The agile dialect with the mixing of the language is one of the strong points of the novel. It contains a lot of action, alcohol and drugs, under all that is corruption, and Mafia. But this latter is not like those featured in the past in novels or films. They are now high profile executives of Hollywood. There's property speculation converting the Mismaloya beach into the enclave of luxury. The structure of the novel is possibly the most attractive. Each chapter is inviting first with the intoxicating cocktail, followed by the music that best accompanies it. For instance, what goes best with Frank Sinatra's 'Witchcraft' is a dry Martini; the Gimlet with 'Call me irresponsible' of Wayne Newton, and Cuba Libre with 'Compay second' |
Current Mood: 
Accomplished
Accomplished
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