Gringos

Charles Portis's Gringos is a truly brilliant, wonderfully bizarre novel by one of our great American novelists.

Jimmy Burns is an expatriate American living in Mexico who has an uncommonly astute eye for the absurd little details that comprise your average American. For a time, Jimmy spent his days unearthing pre-Colombian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing person situation--whatever it takes to remain "the very picture of an American idler in Mexico, right down to the grass-green golfing trousers."

But when Jimmy's laid-back lifestyle is seriously imposed upon by a 90-pound stalker called Louise, a sudden wave of "hippies" (led by a murderous ex-con guru) in search of psychic happenings, and a group of archaeologists who are unearthing (illegally) Mayan tombs, his simple South-of-the-Border existence faces a clear and present danger.

"Gringos is Portis's subtlest, funniest, and most valuable novel for its depth of inarguable wisdom." --Wells Tower, GQ

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Published: 05/01/2000
ISBN: 9781585670932
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.30w x 1.00d

Review Citations: New York Times 11/12/2000 pg. 40
Library Journal 05/15/2001 pg. 168