Book Review

By Derryll White

Riordan, Rick (1997). Big Red Tequila.

I like Jackson “Tres” Navarre. The character is witty, fast on his feet, and he thinks about a lot of different things. Best of all, his cat is named Robert Johnson, after one of the best blues musicians that ever lived. Most of the action takes place in Texas, and anyone who has spent any time there knows that this state is a tough scene at the best of times. The reader gets an intuitive hint on how this story is going to go when it becomes clear that Tres and his girlfriend used to spend time “chasing down god-awful tequila with even more god-awful Big Red cream soda.” This is not going to end well.

Riordan gives the reader a good sense of what San Antonio is like – very hot and populated with both very rich and very poor people. The poor tend to be Mexicans, labourers who have descended from first residents of the land and have itinerant jobs but a very strong sense of culture and community. It is clear there are two distinct San Antonios. Riordan works hard to create enduring value in both.

I like the sense that things are different there. I spent some time there and know things are very different from Canada. The politics are close to the surface and people are quick to take offense. They are also willing to take you in and make you part of the party. Riordan catches that. This is his first novel and I will definitely look for more down the road a ways. ‘Big Red Tequila’ was engaging and fun.

****

Excerpts from the novel:

SAN ANTONIO – It was sunset and still ninety-five degrees when the cab turned off Vandiver. There were none of the soft afternoon colors you get in San Francisco, no hills for shadows, no fog to airbrush the scenery for tourists on the Golden Gate. Here the light was honest – everything it touched was sharply focused, outlined in heat. The sun kept its eye on the city until its very last moment on the horizon, looking at you as if to say: “Tomorrow I’m going to kick your ass.”

ART – “Naïve,” she said absently. “Beau used to take me out into the country – we’d be shivering all night in sleeping bags on some godforsaken hilltop in Blanco for one shot of a meteor shower, or we’d trudge through twenty acres of pasture outside Uvalde so we’d be in just the right position at dawn to catch the light behind a windmill. He used to say that every picture had to be taken at the greatest possible expense.”

TEXAS – As I passed Loop 1604 the land opened up and you could see the storm coming in. Blue-black clouds rolled off the Balcones Escarpment in a perfect line. The pastures turned dark green. A dry white branch of lightning cracked off from the sky and hit the horizon then evaporated. I did what and sensible person would do. I put on my sunglasses.

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

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