Born to an American father and Mexican mother, Harrison Shepherd grows up between Mexico and the United States, and finds work as a plaster-mixer and cook in the household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, where he also becomes secretary to the exiled Leon Trotsky. Told through his notebooks and the papers of his archivist, the novel follows his later life as a reclusive novelist in North Carolina, caught up in the anti-Communist hysteria of the postwar years.
Books mentioned in The Lacuna (18)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: “exactly as Count Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo had reached through the bars to touch his bride's face”
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: “So it only made sense to carry The Mysterious Affair at Styles instead.”
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Count of Monte Cristo, Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, books in English that didn't stink of mold”
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: “Around the World in Eighty Days, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, books in English that didn't stink of mold”
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: “The Three Musketeers still called out to him, waving their swords, but he always shoved them back in the valise”
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope: “But the storybook was The Prisoner of Zenda.”
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: “One week only with Don Quixote, before turning him in to be locked up again and exchanged for a new week's pile”
Zozobra by Ramón López Velarde: “A few were all right, Zozobra, and also Romancero Gitano, poems by a young man who loved gypsies”
Romancero gitano by Federico García Lorca: “It sounds like it would be in Romancero Gitano. But it isn't.”
The Odyssey by Homer: “Or sit on the bed with The Odyssey.”
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: “Like poor old Tristram Shandy trying to remember his whole story helter-skelter?”
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: “This format, I was told, worked well for Gone With the Wind.”
The Big Money by John Dos Passos: “Oh, and this one by Dos Passos, it's called The Big Money.”
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “He might have written Gatsby in the very room where I'm sleeping tonight.”
The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “More likely The Crack-Up. If he was here in town for the reason you say.”
The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman: “Now you want to be Llewelyn Evans in The Hucksters, selling Beautee Soap to unsuspecting housewives?”
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe: “carrying Look Homeward, Angel and Tropic of Cancer without raising an eyebrow”
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller: “carrying Look Homeward, Angel and Tropic of Cancer without raising an eyebrow. All of Henry Miller in fact”