Dog-Head: Tales from the Neotropics: Three Fictions
Michael Jarvis, 2015
Field of Vision Books
356 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780988538955
Summary
From a Caribbean island and the pursuit of a legendary boa constrictor, to the Belizean jungle and a fixation on the demise of the Maya civilization, to the Gulf of Honduras and a journey into ancestor worship, these tropical stories blend and explore history, religion, mythology, travel, mystery, illness, the nature of man, the nature of the beast, obsession, and the lure of discovery.
In "Dog-Head," a rejected man on an island holiday sets out to capture a large snake despite his lack of experience or the fear the legendary reptile inspires in the local people.
In "Remnants," a young couple on a Central American diving trip encounters a charismatic stranger whose intense obsession with the Maya civilization drives a wedge between them.
In "Moho Bight," an injured American fisherman in Belize, grappling with a new state of mind, becomes involved with a local woman whose mysterious illness leads him to a remote village and into the tribal rituals of the Garifuna culture.
In each of these three fictions, travel and obsession mix into new forms that propel and endanger those susceptible to the lure of the exotic and the unknown, taking the reader with them into uncharted territory. (From the publisher.)