View source for MAMista

{{short description|Novel by Len Deighton.}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Multiple issues|{{onesource|date=June 2017}}{{notability|1=Books|date=June 2017}}{{all plot|date=June 2017}}}}
[[File:MAMista.jpg|thumb|First edition (publ. [[HarperCollins]])]]
'''''MAMista''''' is a novel by [[Len Deighton]] set in a fictional South American country, Spanish Guyana, in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It is influenced by Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad.<ref name="kirkusreviews_mamista">{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/len-deighton/mamista/ |title=MAMISTA {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref>
== Plot ==
The central character is Angel Paz, the nephew of an American gangster Don Arturo, who goes to the fictional country at his father's suggestion; Arturo wanted to prove to Angel that Marxism was dead. While there, he meets Ralph Lucas, an Australian who had been sent by his employer, a major pharmaceutical company, to supply medicines to the "people in the southern provinces" which are controlled by the "Movimiento de Accion Marxista", the MAM of the title. Lucas begins a relationship with one of the leaders of the MAM, Inez Cassidy.
The guerrillas raid an American base and kidnap two Americans intending to ransom them for the cost of the medicine the group needs; one of them kills himself shortly after seeing his wife killed in an explosion caused by the guerrillas. The other, along with other members of the guerrilla party and Lucas, die after getting lost in the forest after the raid. Angel escapes back to Los Angeles, but is murdered by Arturo on arrival.
== Critical reception ==
''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' called ''MAMista'' a "stately, outstanding mix of tragedy and black farce."<ref name="kirkusreviews_mamista"/> By contrast, ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' called it "ultimately disappointing with its unraveling plot and elusive characters."<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 3, 1992 |title=Mamista by Len Deighton |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780061090943#:~:text=Len%20Deighton.%20HarperTorch,%20$5.99%20(464pp)%20ISBN%20978-0-06-109094-3.,Deighton's%20latest--a%20four-week%20PW%20bestseller%20in%20hardcover--trails |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Novels by Len Deighton]]
[[Category:1991 British novels]]
[[Category:HarperCollins books]]