On the lush, overpopulated Caribbean island of St. Catherine, an American agricultural economist becomes entrapped in some nasty (though occasionally slapstick) political intrigue following the unexpected appearance of his former girlfriend, a cocaine addict with a penchant for double-dealing. At 518 pages, this is a novel of enormous ambition, but Bob Shacochis overcalibrates everyone's consciousness and goes positively garish on the local color until finally he loses control of Swimming in the Volcano — and, like the island taxi whose driver substitutes coconut oil for brake fluid, it crashes after a long, spectacular downhill plummet. C
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