Book Review: Marlboro Man by M. G. Sanchez
Reviewed by Humbert Hernandez
It’s only taken close to a quarter of a century, but finally somebody has written a novel about the so-called ‘Winston years’!
The novel in question is Marlboro Man, M. G. Sanchez’s fifteenth (yes, fifteenth!) literary creation.
I was pretty bowled over by Sanchez’s two last literary efforts – Gooseman and The Fetishist – but this new work is something pretty special.
First set in Gibraltar at the height of the 80s and 90s (and immersed in all the local llanito jargon of those chaotic years) and then transferred to the north of England with its own peculiar idiosyncrasies, only to come full circle and end back where it started, in the heart of Gibraltar’s Upper Town, Marlboro Man is shot through with a brilliance in its narrative which only Sanchez, among Gibraltarian writers, is capable of producing. This is a novel which is not just about crime and smuggling; it is also a novel about borders, colonialism, ageing, migration, friendship and above all the cocky, swaggering hypermasculinity which characterised ‘the Winston years.’
Marlboro Man is a remarkable novel in so many ways, not only for its racy development or for its nail-biting adventurous protagonists who are so sharply drawn, but also because it is set in various geographical locations and most convincingly portrayed, especially when it comes to its dialogues and speeches with their corresponding accents and localisms. It is a salient feature of Sanchez’s tales that his characters always undergo a change as they experience the hardships of life which have been their lot to live. I can assure the reader that the protagonist of this novel, the tobacco smuggler Alex Pereira, is no exception; in fact, the story is one full of twists and turns which often leave you panting with surprise. The sheer unexpectedness of developments again and again both shocked and delighted me.
A moving and groundbreaking symphony of a novel which will hook you from the start and, by the time you come to its last page, will leave you reeling. I urge local readers to give this thoroughly Gibraltarian novel a chance and see for themselves what this most unassuming and publicity-shy of Gibraltarian writers has produced this time around. My bet is they won’t be disappointed.
MARLBORO MAN can be purchased from Amazon in ebook or print form on this link: https://amzn.to/3KKq4ts
