Port Tropique

By Barry Gifford

Revolution is simmering in the heat of battered Central American town Port Tropique, where protagonist Franz Hall is an "intellectual Meursault in a paranoid Hemingway landscape, a self-conscious Conradian adventurer, a Lord Jim in the earliest stages of selfwilled failure" (New York Times). The ineffectual hero spends his days drinking and observing people in the zócalo, and occasional nights involved in an ivory-smuggling operation threatened by impending government siege. Always persistent are memories of Marie and what was lost. In this sinuous narrative of dislocation and remorse, Barry Gifford details Franz’s mundanity and the bizarre cast of characters swirling around him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781583229842

Barry Gifford

Barry Gifford has been the recipient of the Maxwell Perkins Award and a Syndicated Fiction Award from PEN and the Ingmar Bergman Chair on Cinema and Theater from the National University of Mexico, among other awards. The film based on his novel Wild at Heart won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His work has appeared in many publications, including the New Yorker, New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. His most recent books include The Cuban Club: Stories and Southern Nights: A Trilogy. For more information, visit www.barrygifford.net.

Reviews for Port Tropique

[datrappert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This very short novel is also very nearly perfect. The protagonist, Franz, is simply existing from day to day, working for smugglers in a Central American country to make the money he needs for booze and a place to sleep. What makes the book fascinating is that Franz is not a typical noir loser; he is smart, he has charm, and women are attracted to him. He spends most of the time thinking about his past, however, his failed marriage in particular. He has no plan for the future. Gifford tells the story in short episodes of no more than a few paragraphs--in a few words doing more than many authors can in a dozen pages. Once you start this book, you won't be able to put it down.