THE KILLER FLIES OF LUXOR

by Agustin Blazquez

Review By Armando de Armas

With the posthumous novel «The Killer Flies of Luxor,» Penny-a-Page Press, Clearwater, 2023, the actor, painter, filmmaker, sculptor, photographer, and essayist Agustín Blazquez shows us the experiential adventure of his alter ego through the mythical hero’s journey. This journey involves escaping from the Cuban dictatorship in the early 1960s and, upon arriving in the United States as a presumed promised land, confronting the same ghosts of censorship that he hoped to have left behind forever on his island. Thus, the metaphysical phrase of the atheist duo Carlos Marx and Federico Engels, «A specter is haunting Europe,» at the beginning of the Communist Manifesto, is confirmed by the protagonist in the flesh, experiencing it not only in Europe but throughout the world.

Agustín Blazquez was born in Cárdenas, Cuba. He left the island on July 18, 1965, and lived in Montreal, Paris, and Madrid before arriving in the U.S. in 1967. In the U.S., he played the role of a drug dealer in the television series «America’s Most Wanted» in 1989. Later, he provided the English voice-over for King Juan Carlos of Spain and Jordi Pujol, a guitarist from Barcelona, in the Maryland Public Television series «The Immigrants.»

Just as in every initiatory journey, the hero in «The Killer Flies of Luxor» undergoes the most varied and challenging tests in order to ascend to higher planes of existence. In doing so, he employs art in its various forms, dominating them in a kind of ritualistic manner to revive the myth of ancient eras, expressed as a present possibility.

Throughout the course of the plot, the author takes us with him on a journey to Egypt, invited by the government of that country. However, equally significant are the harrowing trips in which he escapes from the prison island and the constant travels to the land of dreams and fantasies. Thus, we are not only faced with an autobiographical novel but also a dreamlike one, and a constant oscillation between the past and the present. A confusing web of space-time transpositions leaves us with a very clear vision of who Agustin Blazquez was as a man and as an artist, providing a faithful portrait of the tumultuous and ideologically charged era in which he lived.

The work effectively employs resources from radio dramas, which were popular in pre-Castro Cuba, along with a display of ingenuity by interweaving scenes from the narrative with scenes from iconic American cinema. This knowledge is presented to the attentive reader without pretentiousness and with a subtle humor that, at times, may be macabre but remains apt.

«The Killer Flies of Luxor» is a work that is both realistic and surrealistic, incorporating elements of social and political critique, thriller, thesis, and adventure serial. On the other hand, its reading also immerses us in the intricacies of discrimination, belittlement, traps, and scams that Latin creators face when attempting to integrate into the major circuits of the American art market. This occurs particularly when they fail to present themselves appropriately, avoiding stereotypes such as wearing a poncho, playing a quena, smoking a pipe, and donning a pullover adorned with the stern face of Che Guevara.

However, after a tumultuous and successful exhibition in Washington featuring tombs and faces of pharaonic Egypt, the protagonist is invited by the government of the Sahara region to a journey into their territory. Despite the disorganization and sometimes amusing miscommunications, the artist and his art are treated with the respect and recognition that he might have expected to receive in the United States. In Egypt, the hero experiences the climactic moment of his initiatory-experiential journey amid the Sahara dust and the imposing sight of the pyramids. It is at this point that he has an extrasensory certainty of having lived in previous existences in the millennia-old Nile Empire. Consequently, the leitmotif of the hero’s triumphant return to his native lands—after wandering the world in countless adventures—occurs in the land of the pharaohs and not in Cuba.

«The Killer Flies of Luxor» is a testimonial novel that captivates the reader with a firm grip from its early pages, leading them inexorably on an engaging journey through much of the artistic and political history of the second half of the 20th century.

THE KILLER FLIES OF LUXOR

BY AGUSTIN BLAZQUEZ ‧ RELEASE DATE: NOV. 1, 2023

A passionately unconventional, revealing yet fragmented account of an artist’s journey.

A Cuban artist, filmmaker, and actor recalls his life and travels in this memoir.

Blazquez was born in Cardenas, Cuba, in 1944. He began painting at an early age, using any materials he could lay his hands on—from house paint to bubblegum. When his mother decided to mail his abstract works to a Cuban celebrity painter, the reply came that the author was born with a gift and should be given “total freedom of creation.” As a child, Blazquez experienced recurring dreams of ancient Egypt, despite never having encountered imagery associated with the civilization. These dreams remained with him throughout his life and later influenced his art. Feeling as though he were at the mercy of a Communist state, the author sought freedom by leaving Cuba in 1965 to live in Montreal, Paris, Madrid, and then America. In 1974, the artist began producing “Egyptian sculptured paintings,” which later became known as “mummies.” Blazquez recalls feuds with difficult and exploitative gallery owners as he struggled to get his art exhibited. Four years later, in recognition of his work, he was invited to take a three-week tour of Egypt as an official guest of that nation’s government. Arranged in nonchronological order, the memoir frequently returns to this trip, providing commentary on everything from pyramid visits to the cleanliness of the hotels. The author also inserts dream sequences into the account that further inform how they influenced his art. Published posthumously, the book notes that Blazquez’s intention is to offer readers “a clear picture of why I am the way I am.”

Blazquez is a forthright author who is unafraid to deliver an intriguing perspective on issues that affected him personally, such as Communism: “The best defense the people of the world have against cancerous communism is to be well informed.” His dream sequences provide an eerily surreal window into his artistic invention: “The sarcophagus and its constraints are non-existing now. I am floating in space like in a mummy position with my arms crossed over my chest.” But the author’s use of language is wordy to the extent that meaning can become obscured: “He was kind of apprehensive and his only concern was if I mentioned the name of the gallery which I didn’t to two of them but the person who referred me in the first place knew, but it was between us only.” The memoir’s nonchronological form is intended to impart a sense of freedom, but the manner in which Blazquez meanders back and forth between subjects soon becomes repetitive and disorienting. Disputes with a gallery owner are drawn out unnecessarily and mundanely described: “He began calling me ‘Joselito’ and ‘Antonio.’ After a while he became nasty and he was shouting at me”; “While I was painting, the phone rang. It was the owner of the gallery calling me ‘Joselito’ and ‘Antonio’ so I knew he was already drunk, interrupting my work with more drunken nonsense.” Still, admirers of Blazquez’s work will find insights into how the artist’s life shaped his creative process and may well forgive the memoir’s chaotic nature.

A passionately unconventional, revealing yet fragmented account of an artist’s journey.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2023

ISBN: 9781733117852

Page Count: 466

Publisher: Penny-a-Page Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2023

Review Program: KIRKUS INDIE

Categories:

ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR