Here is Mac McKnight, the narrator of EL DORADO SHUFFLE:
I would get off the bus in disreputable barrios, places adorned with the names of saints and the odour of urine, and wander into tiny dark bars, saying “All right, you pack of degenerates – I am buying!”
– Poor Mac! Wracked by guilt, driven by reckless courage, counseled by alcohol.
“I can forgive you, Mac.”
“Forgive!” She stepped back as I spun to face her. “Damn you! Don’t you ever try to forgive me! Don’t you ever try it! I won’t be accused, and I won’t be forgiven! Not by the likes of you and not by the likes of anyone!”
She was crying finally. And I was glad to see that her bullshit composure was gone, and her bullshit accusing and her bullshit forgiving and her bullshit about love.
– Making all the wrong choices. Leaving a trail of emotional carnage.
“Señor McKnight” he said “of course I know that your son is a drug addict. It was not hard to find out. But this is so bad – that you are wanting murder the president.” He dropped his glass and reached around and grasped the knife sheath and slid the knife out. It had a six inch blade.
– Assailing the evil-doers even if it means tearing down his own world.
“You stay there, Ken, okay? You stay with your mom.”
“Daddy! Where you going! I wanna come!”
“Mac, how can you do this!” She screamed “Go away! I hate you! I hate you!” She shrieked in Spanish as Ken twisted around in her grip and his little fists struck out and he cried “Don’t shout my dad!”
– Mac came to the city of Esperanza in the high Andes hoping to find an El Dorado of the spirit. He leaves it on the run. In the process does he abandon his only hope for peace?
“From the American School of Esperanza into this drug-infested little republic in Latin America, you’ll follow the unprofessional, un-Canadian activities of Maquito as he walks his own tightrope between decency and disgust. McKnight in shining armour he is not; Morgan Nyberg knows how to drag a Canadian through the muck and make him grow from a bruised and bollixy “no” to the big-hearted “yes”.
George McWhirter, winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, former Poet Laureate of Vancouver
Let Mac McKnight haul you along on his own warped tour of the colour, spice, danger and black laughter of Latin America. EL DORADO SHUFFLE is a read you will remember.
