Synopsis
Harp, an unemployed academic, joins an archaeological expedition working in southern Mexico, a few miles from the Guatemalan border, and finds a world in which scientific discovery combines with hardship, jungle perils, and site tensions
Reviews
Personal choice and historical discovery are at the center of this absorbing novel, which, unlike Peters's pre-Columbian trilogy (The Luck of Huemac, Tikal and The Incas), is set in the present: at an archeological dig in Mexico, near the Guatemalan border. Harp Tyler, a writer looking for a job, accepts an offer from an old friend and goes to help excavate the Mayan city of Baktun, which somehow survived the general collapse that destroyed its pre-Columbian neighbors. Harp wants to use Baktun as the subject for a novel, but he's facing a general collapse of his own. His marriage is teetering, and his wife, Caroline, has some momentous choices to make. Peters is working themes of revitalization: as the dig team constructs a human story out of objects from the past, Harp confronts the choices that bear on his own future. Throughout, Peters skillfully grounds Harp's journey of self-discovery in the mundane, grueling details of the archeological dig. And the plot, with its layers of history, has a fullness to it, as do the lively characters. Harp, the imaginative joker in this deck of fact-finding researchers, comes to Baktun to retreat from the real world. But by the end of the novel, the real world, in the form of indigenous tribesmen echoing the unhappy past of Baktun, invades the dig and can't be ignored. The deeper you dig into this rewarding novel, the better it becomes.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In Peters's (Incas, LJ 6/1/91) latest, Harper Yates and Caroline MacPherson need a break. Harp's last novel is on the remainder table and Caroline is facing an unfriendly tenure committee. Before their marriage cracks under the strain of his unemployment and life in a particularly dreary suburb, an old friend comes to the rescue and commissions Harp to observe archaeologists in the wild. As a novelist among academics, Harp plays court fool but gains wisdom about life and love. Mayan ruins and university politics provide an apt context for this tale of homecomings. Filled with humor-the Lawn Animals' Christmas episode alone makes the book worth reading-this should be a popular title. Most libraries should consider.
Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll., Davidson, N.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Harp is at sixes and sevens during the year his wife, Caroline, is writing her dissertation. He has no teaching job, and he can't get started on any writing project that might engage him. When an archaeologist friend calls and proposes that Harp accompany him to Mexico to dig up Mayan ruins, suggesting that not only can Harp pitch in and help with the excavation but also that he can gather material for a book, Harp agrees. What he agrees to turns out to be quite a series of confrontations, involving not only beasts of the rain forest and a beautiful woman but also a hostile unit of Guatemala's army, stepping across the Mexican border for a bit of illegal harassment. A serious, sophisticated adventure yarn. Brad Hooper
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