THEY'RE COWS, WE'RE PIGS
by Carmen Boullosa
They're Cows, We're Pigs ($22.00; May 1997; 192 pp.; 0-8021-1610-8): This first English translation of a popular Mexican author reputedly akin to Garc°a M†rquez is in fact a tedious tale (set mainly in the 17th-century Caribbean) of the life dared and enjoyed by pirates (``pigs'') as compared to the dreary mundane existence endured by ordinary people (``cows''). Jean Smeeks, Boullosa's narrator, is an innocent captured and enslaved by pirates, who gradually adjusts to the fearful delights of plunder and rape, and becomes a respected healer. Villains and heroes are pretty much indistinguishable here, and the novel's noisy forced raffishness is further coarsened by ludicrously explicit details of murder, torture, and other even more visceral pleasures. Garc°a M†rquez's laurels remain undisturbed. (Author tour)