Review by E.Borgers

In a crude and realistic language Crumley is telling the story of the quest of Sughrue, the countercultured PI veteran of the Vietnam War who is searching for the missing mom of one of his semi-outlawed friends. From Montana -where Sughrue becomes unwanted after having stopped a freight train by throwing a still-playing jukebox on the railroad track- to New Mexico and Texas, Sughrue is joining one after the other his old mates, all Vietnam veterans, to help him in his research and to support him against hordes of killers.
The result is a kind of Road novel, full of dope and fury.

The fact that the present husband of the missing mom is a local tycoon with influent relations, that the FBI already investigated all the possible tracks, that Mexican killers are following Sughrue everywhere, certainly do not make it a quiet journey.
Be prepared for blood baths and scenes of horror.
There are also some traces of humor in this story, but only of the black genre, and as black as Sughrue's world...
Only with a young mother and her baby can Sughrue find some peace of mind and even something resembling love. The issue of this relationship is certainly not rosy and will leave Sughrue a little bit more engulfed in his personal hell.

The major secondary character here is the Vietnam War. Or, better: the effect of the war on the surviving American front line troopers. The PI Sughrue evolves in a world where close friends and relations are commanded by the remembrance of this war, considering the present daily reality as a fantasy world where everything goes with no important consequences... at least for Sughrue and friends. The only reality they know is their own devastated personalities in damaged bodies that survived the Vietnam war. Nothing anymore can be worse; nothing can match the horror and the anxiety they lived in Vietnam.

Close to nihilism, Crumley's central character Sughrue is only submitted to his own ethic, ready to condemn the scum of the world if he sees them not only as nuisances but as real dangers for the quiet and innocent part of the humans around them, or as a tread for his own life. In order to get rid of them nothing is too hard: hell and fire, horror and death.

"The Mexican Tree Duck" is a disturbing novel obliging the reader to face the real finality of life and the twisted social values that are unable to solve the personal crisis of individuals.
And, one thing is sure: James Crumley is a great writer, even when confined in the hard-boiled mystery genre.

E.Borgers

E.Borgers
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8 February 1997}