Richard, > re-reading this wonderfully dense phantasmagorphic > stew. > > can't get saddam out of my head while reading it That's weird! The Washington Post just did a "blast from the past" review on it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39273-2003May25.html It is one of my favorite of Garcia Marquez's novels.... --Quail