The Damned

When this novel was first published in May, 1952, several highways in northern Mexico apparently lacked bridges at the major river crossings, and relied upon ferries to take traffic back and forth. This short novel recounts an incident where traffic is stopped most of the day at the Rio Conchos. Most of the people stuck there are Americans, and several of them are at crisis points in their lives. MacDonald skilfully narrates the same few incidents through the eyes of several observers. Despite the fact that there is little plot, there is an awful lot going on in this novel. This novel seems to be from the "hard boiled" genre, the literary equivalent of film noir. MacDonald's psychological insights seem dated, and they certainly are not politically correct. But this novel is still a very interesting little collection of character sketches.