"Mile zero" marks the location of Key West -- the island that defines the end of the American road, the cultural junction where Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Afro worlds collide. On this island, with its cruel legacy of slave trade and Latin revolution, and its turbulent present of marijuana millionaires, threadbare illegal immigrants, and hard-luck treasure hunters, lives St. Cloud, an American expatriated in his own country, a fugitive from the unresolved anguish of his generation. Chronicling St. Cloud's dangerous reawakening, Mile Zero illuminates the inward and outward tumult of our time in a huge, startling, and profoundly felt novel.
Sanchez's 1973 debut, Rabbit Boss , inspired critics to compare his writing to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and his newest work, his first novel in 11 years, may do the same, with its tumultuous, linguistically heady combination of history, myth, fable and fate. Set in Key West, the narrative introduces a group of loosely connected characters--a dissolute renegade named St. Cloud, a Cuban-American policeman named Justo, a displaced Southern belle, a terrified young fugitive from Haiti and numerous others, ranging from street criminals to Vietnam vets to artists. It's an extraordinary group portrait of a true expatriate community--"everyone this far south of the south seemed to have left behind a shadow life," he writes--but also more purposeful than it appears initially. Gradually, the author draws all his characters into the vortex of a metaphysical mystery: Who is "Zobop," the demonic, voodoo-inspired killer leaving his bloody mark on the island? Dense, complex, often impenetrable and murky in its finale, this novel is certain to frustrate some readers; however, those with patience will discover a uniquely rendered, almost unearthly, evocation of Key West by a master writer. 50,000 first printing. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Mile Zero--or Key West, if you prefer--is for some a place where dreams begin, for others, the end of the road. In this third novel, Sanchez captures marvelously both the contemporary color and rich heritage of this city on the edge of two cultures. Yet, ultimately, the novel is not about place; instead, it is about the lingering impact of the Vietnam War on a generation, and the attempt to escape memories, to come to terms with one's self. Central to the story are St. Cloud, a former antiwar activist who is now an alcoholic dropout; MK, an army-trained assassin and South American drug king with whose girlfriend St. Cloud seeks redemption; Justo, a black Cuban policeman who finds salvation through contrition; and the mysterious Zobop, a self-styled Voodoo lord who believes in purification through destruction. While the hunt for Zobop provides a suspenseful plot line, the author's main objective is to get to the heart of his characters. At times violent, yet often lyrical, this is an impressive work that belongs in all public and most academic libraries. - David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Thomas Sanchez is a descendant of Spanish immigrants and Portuguese cattlemen dating back five generations to the 1800s California Gold Rush. Sanchez was born in Oakland Naval Hospital in 1944, days after his father was killed in the World War II Battle of Tawara. He was raised on a rural farm in California's Santa Clara Valley.
Sanchez' first novel, RABBIT BOSS, the hundred year saga of a California Indian Tribe, was begun at the age of 20 when he worked on cattle ranches in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. RABBIT BOSS was published when Sanchez was 27 and was cited by the San Francisco Chronicle as, "one of the most important books of the 20th century," by the New York Times as "A novel of epic dimensions," by Vanity Fair as "a landmark of our literature."
Throughout the 1960s in California, Sanchez witnessed and participated in many of the eras major social and political events, the strikes of the farm workers in the Central Valley, the tumultuous U.C. Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the clashes in San Francisco between anti-Vietnam War protesters and police, the counter-culture explosion of the infamous Haight-Ashbury District.
In the 1970s Sanchez was involved in the siege of Wounded Knee in the Black Hills of South Dakota, site of the infamous massacre of Sioux Indians, where Sanchez ran strategic supplies and food to Indians trapped inside the town of Wounded Knee, which had been surrounded by armed Federal forces with shoot-to-kill orders. A partial account of this event was published by Sanchez as, THE REAL COWBOYS AND INDIANS, in a commemorative American Bi-Centennial book collection with Henry Miller, whom Sanchez knew.
Sanchez next published, ZOOTSUIT MURDERS. The novel, set in the Los Angeles barrio of World War II, explored a chaotic world of anti-Communist hysteria, bizarre religious cults, tough gangs and undercover government agents. ZOOT-SUIT MURDERS was cited by the Chicago Tribune as, "a vivid tale of political intrigue by a master of pictorial detail." Following ZOOTSUIT MURDERS Sanchez was honored with a Guggenheim Award for his writings.
In the 1980s Sanchez lived in Key West and traveled from there throughout the American tropics. He was in harm's way during the Civil Wars of Guatemala and El Salvador, where he traversed both political and physical jungle landscapes with a real life cast of characters, from guerilla fighters to defrocked renegade priests, to bible toting CIA spooks and hardbitten war journalists. Much of this made its way into Sanchez's novel, MILE ZERO, about which the Los Angeles Times stated, "Sanchez forges a new world vision rich in the cultural intertextuality of Steinbeck and Cervantes, Joyce and Shakespeare."
Throughout the 1990s Sanchez lived in Paris, Provence and Mallorca, the settings for his novel, DAY OF THE BEES, about the hidden lives of a famous Spanish painter and his French mistress, a woman transformed from an artist's muse into a heroic Resistance fighter. The esteemed newspaper Le Monde declared DAY OF THE BEES, "A literary landmark, a novel of unforgettable power about love and war, art and freedom." The French Government knighted Sanchez with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for his body of work.
At the beginning of the 21st century Sanchez returned to the tropics for his novel, KING BONGO, set against the glamor and intrigue of pre-revolutionary 1950s Havana, where Cuban and American cultures collided with geo-political consequence. The Washington Post proclaimed the novel to be, "An exotic portrait of sex, violence, corruption and conspiracy in Cuba."
Sanchez recently wrote and directed a short dramatic film in Paris, KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. In 2011 Sanchez is directing a film from his script, LOVE ME LIKE A ROCK. A documentary film based on the life of Thomas Sanchez, A FIRE OF WORDS, is being shot by Wordfire Productions in Havana, Key West, Miami, Mallorca, Paris and the Sierra Mountains of California. Sanchez' sixth novel will be published worldwide in 2011.
Book and Film Contact: Esther Newberg International Creative Management 825 Eighth Avenue, 26th Floor New York, NY 10019
Thomas Sanchez reminds me of a Key West James Joyce with his sometimes too thick, poetic prose and his very realistically drawn characters. He can make you feel the heat and humidity and the Florida atmosphere so directly you will start to sweat just reading about it. He has an amazing sense of time and place as well as character. This is a dense and rich book that puts overrated crap like "92 In The Shade" to shame. This is a tour de force of comedy, tragedy, passion and America.
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This might just be the greatest undiscovered novel in recent American literature. It has it all: transcendant prose, a believable and credible story, wonderful characters, and a grand epic American theme involving immigration, corruption of the soul, and the American Dream. Reads like it was written in a fever by a true artist. Amen, Brother Sanchez, amen!
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Brilliant! Rare is the author that can create such flawed characters so attractive to the reader. From tragically human St. Cloud to mythic-hero-figure Justo, the complex faceting of personalities will draw you in. Add to this the richly drawn background of Key West, and you have a captivating and intelligent story.
Simply one of the best fiction works set in Florida and possibly the top of any based in the American fairy tale that is Key West.
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