A hurricane is on its way to the Yucatán peninsula--the Mexican Riviera. Joanes, his wife and daughter have been vacationing there after attending the wedding of his wife's father. Now, guests at their resort are preparing to evacuate further inland. After a strange encounter with a chimpanzee while driving around, Joanes sends his family ahead with the other resort guests and says he will follow the next day.

The book begins with seemingly normal people and events, though with a great sense of foreboding, partly due to the impending hurricane, but also because of other strange events. On the road the next day, for example, Joanes comes across his former mathmatics professor from university stranded by the roadside with his wheelchair-bound wife. Many other strange encounters ensue.

Back in the late 60's/early 70's, movies directed by Sam Peckinpaugh (?spelling) were very popular. They were extremely violent, for the time anyway--perhaps they'd be quite tame nowadays. This book reminded me of one of those movies. There's a lot of violence, and all of a reader's forebodings and fears are played out. The book almost strays into the realm of horror. One reviewer on Amazon described it as an "anxious" read.

Nevertheless I quite liked the book. I was never quite sure where the author was going, but it is well-written, and I quite enjoyed the ride.

3 stars ( )

The cover image on Jon Bilbao’s STILL THE SAME MAN tells it all. It shows a man reflected in the eye of some kind of “monster.” Only after reading the book does one understand that this is a chimp’s eye view of man and the monster might not be the chimp. This image frames the key questions of Bilbao’s tense and engaging novel: Is man predator or prey? What are the limits of man’s control over nature?

Joanes had a bright future as an engineering student. He believes his career derailed because of disparaging comments made by one of his professors. In middle age, he sees himself as a failure. He is running a dying air conditioning company. Air conditioning is an interesting choice in light of his Bilbao’s theme about controlling nature.

The setting is Yucatan, Mexico. The novel commences in the civilized tourist enclave. But moves to the more rural and dangerous regions of the peninsula because of an impending hurricane. Bilbao foreshadows what is to come as well as his theme when Joanes kills a chimp on the road. Meanwhile, the tension and loss of control ratchets up as the hurricane bears down. A menacing Mexican, who wields a machete and has another chimp chained to his body appears. This creates an overwhelming foreboding mood.

Bilbao’s male characters are controlling while the women are docile and accommodating. Joanes’ father-in-law is an overweight and overbearing bully. His former professor is domineering, manipulative and contemptuous of Joanes. Although there are female characters in the book, their impact is minor. This story is about control and macho is paramount.

In spite of its successful use of foreshadowing, nuanced male characters and sense of danger, the plot has flaws that often break the mood. Its most notable shortcoming is a reliance on coincidences that seem contrived. Finding his former professor on an isolated Mexican road fleeing the hurricane is outlandish. This coincidence seems too farfetched to be reasonable. His abrasive personality and position as an international scholar argue in its favor though. The loss of the professor’s phone and Joanes’ low battery also seem like convenient devices. They create conflict between the two men, isolate the characters and place them at the mercy of events. Yet it seems like a weak plotting device. The rural hotel owner banishes the main characters to an isolated cabin with a soundproof room. The group decides to shelter there despite its state of decay. This seems to be an unusual decision most people would not make.

The novel’s horrific outcome of the it clear that man may be the predator after all. ( )