Houlihan's Wake and Other Fragments of Mexico by Bryan Murphy

Its message in Spanish, illustrated with line drawings, is summarised in English: “Big Lifeguards Party! One Year Without Deaths! Posada Curandero Dusk Till Dawn”. On the table is a flyer, kept in place by an ashtray. He thinks that must be it, walks in through a wrought iron doorway, arranges his pack and himself at a plastic table, and orders his second beer of the morning. At the end of the street, he finds a green and white eating place called “Le Poisson”. Houlihan looks out for their back-up meeting place, a restaurant known as “Poison”. Although the sea is not visible, Houlihan can hear the surf dumping itself on the beach and then slithering back with full force.

Ivaylo was not at the airport, and he is not here to meet Houlihan, either. The driver gets out, ducks into the nearest roadside shop, emerges with cigarettes and a cold Sol, then sits in his car and gulps the beer as he watches Houlihan stagger along the short street. He revels in his disorientation for a moment, then he pulls his light backpack out of the taxi, pays the driver and thanks him. Houlihan clambers out of the taxi into it. There is no sign of beach or sea, only a street of assorted shop-fronts swimming in the heat. “Playa Chisme,” the driver announces as he pulls up. When the taxi goes over the second speed bump, it jolts him into full consciousness. Houlihan’s Wake is accompanied by further stories and poems set in “Playa Chisme” and elsewhere in the country to provide a rich array of Fragments of Mexico.

But can Houlihan’s death-wish do its worst in such a life-affirming place, where the lifeguards are adamant that nobody shall turn their massive party to celebrate a whole year without anyone drowning in Playa Chisme's lethal rip-tides into someone else’s pitiful wake? In Houlihan’s Wake, a young Irishman goes to Playa Chisme, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, determined to die, and determined to do so in a beautiful setting. To discover more work by Bryan Murphy, visit: The characters are products of the author’s imagination. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, places or events is purely coincidental.

Houlihan's Wake and Other Fragments of Mexico by Bryan Murphy