Condor and Hummingbird

Venturing into Joan Didion territory, Mendez sends Laura, her American protagonist, down to the homeland of Andres, her Colombian husband. Pointedly, it is the summer of 1963, ""before the first Kennedy assassination,'' and the novel is full of portents and omens of destruction and waste. While Laura is paralyzed by fear of the country's still thriving tradition of political violence, her marriage continues to unravel. Shut out by most of Andres's family, Laura is forced to rely on herself and awakens from her role of dutiful if alienated doll-wife. The bonds she forms in Bogota are with Francisca, Andres's mannish, unmarried sister who has a history of mental illness, and with Carmen, one of the country's many abandoned children. The schematic outline and characters are not helped by a clutter of precious animal metaphors, dreams and Indian myths. (May)