cover image They Are Ruining Ibiza

They Are Ruining Ibiza

A. C. Greene. University of North Texas Press, $21.95 (123pp) ISBN 978-1-57441-042-6

Expecting paradise but finding a tourist trap, stodgy 62-year-old academic Charles Martyn, author of a dull but ubiquitous book about the American novel, can't help but be disappointed by his return to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza after a 20-year absence. He has come back to Ibiza with his 36-year-old second wife, Susan, to search for his estranged son, Ledyard, who has been eking out a living selling paintings to tourists. Ledyard keeps evading them, however, while insecure Charles behaves so boorishly toward the lively, beautiful Susan that their marriage quickly becomes a cringingly painful mystery to the reader. And yet Charles's charmlessness cannot obscure the book's strength: its vivid portrayal of decadent, endearing Ibiza, where locals and tourists alike seize every opportunity to throw off their clothing. Greene, author of more than 20 nonfiction books about Texas, makes an admirable leap in subject and genre in evoking this corner of the fun-loving Mediterranean, even if his characters fail to develop as fully as the scenery. (Mar.) FYI: Greene is former book editor for the Dallas Times-Herald and currently writes a column for the Dallas Morning News.