Friends in the north

Bloomsbury, #16.99

ONCE again, Carlos Fuentes confronts the contemporary tensions and historical divisions that exist between Mexico, and her richer, more powerful neighbour to the north. And once again, it is a relationship where the past colours the present, where the border signifies a cultural divide, and the common denominator is mutual suspicion.

The Crystal Frontier is a series of thematically-contingent stories. In places the links are rather tenuous, which exposes one of the novel's weaknesses, an obvious inability to contain both forms. The stories are not chapters. They have individual dedications and could stand on their own; but the thematic connection is often thin, which loses the crispness of the short story, and the accumulative narrative drive of a novel.

Other difficulties are sketchy characterisation and a crudely- depicted cognisance of national identities, where Mexicans always seem more aware of the natural properties. This is all the more difficult to absorb since Fuentes is also at pains to expose the inhuman ways some Mexicans treat each other. It seems their natural dignity is only relevant when compared with the uncouth Americans.

But the novel's main achievement is a continual exposure of the pervasive influence of American culture and the ways in which it has invaded everyone's life, often to the detriment of national identity. America is always present, influencing how ordinary Mexicans think of themselves and each other, as well as in the obvious attraction and illusion of economic might. At times, this is stated with a passionate directness, but it is mostly a presence, an attitude, something which can be taken for granted. Of course, everyone's fate is inextricably linked to America and the American dream, whether it is a group of girls watching the Chippendales, families discussing the attractions of Disneyland or the ubiquitous hamburgers, cans of Coke and Dr Pepper. And their fate appears to be in American hands, be they migrant workers shipped to New York because it's cheaper to fly them up than pay gringo

labour, or the mighty Don Leonardo Barroso, who courts American investment, controls the local economy and therefore commands the population.

Michelina marries Juan Zamora and has an affair with his father, Don Leonardo. The Don sends Juan to study in America, where he has a calamitous love affair with Jim, is discarded and makes a shameful return to Mexico to work with the poor. So the stage is set for a variety of cross-border exchanges, finishing with a beautiful story which intersperses passages of Mexican history with the build up to and violent outcome of an immigrant rights demo.

There are places where Fuentes is playfully inventive - peppering his text with recipes for which Like Water For Chocolate are credited, or concocting a genie from a chilli sauce bottle in a San Diego steakhouse - but the intention is clear and the effect often as lyrical and generous as the genie who gives Juan a different girl friend for each course of his meal.

Carl MacDougall