Against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1970s Vietnam war era, Passage To Marfa plunges readers into a gripping journey of escape, radical politics, and revenge. Gary Dalton, a conflicted University of New Mexico dropout, finds himself caught between his draft board and a vendetta pursued by Eldon Rodriguez, a Marxist revolutionary and his one-time mentor. Fleeing to Marfa, Texas, and hoped-for anonymity, Dalton is introduced to a burgeoning art scene by the illusive Amy De Castro. Just as he begins to feel safe in this isolated desert community, a botched drug deal brings Rodriguez in relentless pursuit. Their climactic confrontation unfolds on Black Mountain, in the rugged Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. Passage To Marfa depicts characters whose lives are turned upside down by a power-seeking revolutionary posing as a liberator. The novel asks whether human suffering is a necessary condition of life, something immune to utopian schemes and political machinations of all kinds.
