Sitting in Mexico on an unseasonably cloudy day, I picked up my newly-purchased copy of Some Clouds, feeling a certain amount of order in the cosmos, along with happy anticipation. Then I discovered that today (as I'm writing this) is Paco Ignacio Taibo II's birthday. Then I discovered that Some Clouds, the third in his Hector Belascoarán Shayne detective series, seemed to have an undeservedly low number of Amazon-stars. (The Spanish version has -- at the moment -- one more star than the English, which is plain strange. Not only are both versions excellent reading, but William I. Neuman, who translated this volume into English, is really brilliant. I think that Spanish-to-English translators of contemporary Mexican literature could probably use Algunas Nubes/Some Clouds as a sort of how-to text.)
So on this serendipitous day for me and natal day for the author, and having just finished this excellent, many-layered mystery, I wanted to highly recommend it -- and all the wild and edifying series that features Basque-Irish-absurdist detective Hector Belascoarán Shayne, presenting the city of Mexico in such an authentic and ironic light. While the series hardly needs to be read in any sort of order, I believe the chronology for titles is: (Días de Combate), An Easy Thing, Some Clouds, No Happy Ending, Return to the Same City, (Amorosas Fantasmas), Frontera Dreams, (Desvanecidos Difuntos), (Adiós, Madrid)-- with those yet-to-appear-in-English in parentheses.
and, Feliz Cumpleaños to Paco Ignacio Taibo II !
