The book is a good read for Science-Fiction fans. It's a good first-person narrative, with nice dialect and descriptions. The repetitive subjects of his numerous ex-wifes is eventually tiring. The ending is sub-par and disappointing. This novel will help fill in the time till you find a novel that is gripping and thought provoking.

Read this book right after watching the movie and I think it's sad that so much from it appears to have been lost in the conversion. Yeah, only so much can be told in 100 minutes, but still.... The book's ending, and most of the story, is quite different from the movie. I personally prefer the ending of the book, but the one given to the movie is more... fitting, I suppose. Somehow, both stories seems to complement each other in a way.

"MAMBO", btw, is a reference to the structural style of the narration. It moves back and forth all the time, as if dancing, throwing around bits and pieces of the narrator's life story, sometimes seemingly at random. Seriously, this is NOT a poorly written book, on the contrary, a lot of not so obvious yet important details and several currently relevant subjects that inspire hard thinking were weaved into a well thought out story, but I see how the unconventional narrative style (which I have seen similarly used before in some Hispanic American novels) could be a little odd to some. IMO however it just created a really interesting, refreshing and entertaining read. Also, the book's fragmented structure is a reflection of how an ex-military turned Union Man (nameless in the book) sees everything, including people. To him there are only fragments and he's unable (and maybe a bit reluctant) to put those together and look at the whole. After all, he only came for your liver, who cares about the rest of you? ;)