cover image The Old Gringo

The Old Gringo

Carlos Fuentes. Harper Perennial, $12 (199pp) ISBN 978-0-06-097063-5

The premise of this fine, short novel is that Ambrose Biercethe American journalist and writer (The Devil's Dictionary who disappeared in Mexico in 1914, did indeed join revolutionary Pancho Villa's forces, as is generally believed. PW noted that creating the story of Bierce's end enables Fuentes to examine ""the borders between men and women, dreams and reality, Mexico and the U.S.'' (September)