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MAMista
Spanish Guiana - riddled with war, drugs and rival guerilla factions - is the setting for this adventure about a group of people who find themselves locked into a life or death mission. But for the Pentagon it is just a cynical game being played out around the discovery of oil in the Republic.
410 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1991
8 people are currently reading
334 people want to read
About the author
Len Deighton
221 books931 followersDeighton was born in Marylebone, London, in 1929. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic, and his mother was a part-time cook. After leaving school, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force's Special Investigation Branch. After discharge from the RAF, he studied at St Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955.
Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.
Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.
He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.
Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He has not returned to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divide their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.
Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.
Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.
He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.
Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He has not returned to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divide their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
December 18, 2017
I don't like this..I give it 2star
March 13, 2023
Viva la Revolución. Good overall. I enjoyed the jungles scenes and discussion of communist revolutions and the type of men and women who lead them.
The Washington political stuff, which I was unsure whether it was a critique or endorsement of Reaganism, slowed the book down.
The Washington political stuff, which I was unsure whether it was a critique or endorsement of Reaganism, slowed the book down.
May 29, 2022
Suffers from a distinct lack of excitement but does have some interesting things to say about revolution. The characters were good but hampered by a lack of action.
June 18, 2018
Originally published on my blog here in February 2005.
Written in between Bernard Samson novels, MAMista is Len Deighton's first attempt to find a new subject for his fiction, following the end of the Cold War in Europe. MAMista ends up being one of Deighton's most radically non-typical novels, most like Close Up from the rest of his output in lots of ways - and that too was a novel written at a time when he was searching for a way forward as a writer. Another novel which is even more similar, though not by Deighton, is John le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl.
The subject of MAMista seems exceptionally up to date now, rather more so than it did at the time. It is about a terrorist group (or freedom fighters, as they would term themselves) in a poor country in South America where the main economic activity is the cultivation of coca leaves. Three outsiders become either MAMista members or effectively hostages, and the backbone of the story is the description of a terrible trek through the jungle after a raid. At the time, it felt as though Che Guevara was three decades behind the times, but now terrorism is back at the centre of our consciousness, even if not in South America.
The most important thing to say about MAMista is that it is not really a thriller, but a tragedy. There is no hope of a happy ending for anyone but the members of the oppressive regime in this novel, which makes it definitely Deighton's most downbeat. The connection with Close-Up lies mainly in not being in the thriller genre, but the parallels with The Little Drummer Girl are in the storyline, as both plots are about terrorists and hostages. So Deighton's first response to the end of the Cold War was to move out of the thriller genre almost completely, to write a mainstream novel with some of the trappings of a thriller.
It has to be said that MAMista is not one of Deighton's best novels, though it grows on one on repeated reading. None of the characters are particularly engaging, and the tone of the narrative is relentlessly cheerless, lacking the cynical humour usually characteristic of the author. This means that it doesn't hold the attention as this sort of project really should, particularly as the storyline lacks the urgency and forward motion of a thriller (and this slowness is presumably intended, as it mirrors the confusion and pointlessness of the guerilla campaign).
Written in between Bernard Samson novels, MAMista is Len Deighton's first attempt to find a new subject for his fiction, following the end of the Cold War in Europe. MAMista ends up being one of Deighton's most radically non-typical novels, most like Close Up from the rest of his output in lots of ways - and that too was a novel written at a time when he was searching for a way forward as a writer. Another novel which is even more similar, though not by Deighton, is John le Carré's The Little Drummer Girl.
The subject of MAMista seems exceptionally up to date now, rather more so than it did at the time. It is about a terrorist group (or freedom fighters, as they would term themselves) in a poor country in South America where the main economic activity is the cultivation of coca leaves. Three outsiders become either MAMista members or effectively hostages, and the backbone of the story is the description of a terrible trek through the jungle after a raid. At the time, it felt as though Che Guevara was three decades behind the times, but now terrorism is back at the centre of our consciousness, even if not in South America.
The most important thing to say about MAMista is that it is not really a thriller, but a tragedy. There is no hope of a happy ending for anyone but the members of the oppressive regime in this novel, which makes it definitely Deighton's most downbeat. The connection with Close-Up lies mainly in not being in the thriller genre, but the parallels with The Little Drummer Girl are in the storyline, as both plots are about terrorists and hostages. So Deighton's first response to the end of the Cold War was to move out of the thriller genre almost completely, to write a mainstream novel with some of the trappings of a thriller.
It has to be said that MAMista is not one of Deighton's best novels, though it grows on one on repeated reading. None of the characters are particularly engaging, and the tone of the narrative is relentlessly cheerless, lacking the cynical humour usually characteristic of the author. This means that it doesn't hold the attention as this sort of project really should, particularly as the storyline lacks the urgency and forward motion of a thriller (and this slowness is presumably intended, as it mirrors the confusion and pointlessness of the guerilla campaign).
August 9, 2016
I hated this book. Prior to reading it I had devoured Len Deighton. I was intrigued to read something in a different style. I read it with hope, I persevered until the last page. And then I didn't read another Len Deighton for more than 20 years. That's how traumatised this book left me! I've given it two stars because there are some good moments and interesting bits of plot. But overall it was depressing, demoralising, disappointing and generally awful. Fortunately I stumbled across XPD just last week and have rekindled my love. But this one...... *shudder*
June 14, 2018
A bleak and blackly humorous offering that introduced me to a place and situation of which I knew little. Hard not to sympathise with the characters, even though they're not a very sympathetic bunch, as they trek through a hostile jungle on a hopeless mission.
August 18, 2016
Set in Spanish Guiana 'MAMista' is about a group of Marxist revolutionaries who have grand dreams of overthrowing the capitalist government. The story centres around Ralph Lucas who is sent to Guiana from his foundation in Australia to determine what type of medical aid to provide to the marxist guerrillas fighting the government.
Amongst this there is Angel Paz the American academic marxist and a CIA operative undercover in an oil company who is kidnapped by the MAMistas and the need to collect a ransom culminating in a march through the jungle.
Not in the same league as XPD but still a decent book.
Amongst this there is Angel Paz the American academic marxist and a CIA operative undercover in an oil company who is kidnapped by the MAMistas and the need to collect a ransom culminating in a march through the jungle.
Not in the same league as XPD but still a decent book.
January 13, 2022
Painfully slow at times. Must have been the heat.
July 17, 2022
Another great, but later Deighton, this one mixes Deighton's knowledge of spying, war, US politics and Latin America. Written in 1988, it combines a sophisticated view of competing Marxist factions in "Spanish Guiana"--a fictional country reminiscent of Conrad's Nostromo but entirely consistent with any of the "Guyanas" in the heat, presence of a deep jungle, and the hint of rich natural resources. Deighton manages to pillory all factions involved:
1) The Moscow vs Peking vs Che factions of Marxists--all led by different generations, and all with corrupt leadership focusing on how they can keep the money flowing that allow them to continue to "lead" the Revolution--whether from drugs, oil or EU officials seeking to prove Europe is relevant in the USA's back yard and who have made "liberating Spanish Guiana" one of their causes;
2) The US/CIA/Big Oil factions, where domestic politics and the manipulative and more intelligent chief of staff of a relatively mediocre and unpopular president seemingly only interested in his own re-election trades off oil interests benefitting one of the three Marxist groups as well as a big oil company, with big benefits to a Californian defense contractor otherwise in trouble and thereby preserving domestic employment at a time when the president really needs California to vote for him; and
3) freshly graduated Latino/American students from rich families, bored and angry, and winding up with one of the Marxist factions in order to "do something" and trying to "prove themselves".
As these factions compete among each other to secure their narrow and generally uninformed interests, it is of course the local people who are damaged--sometimes heroically, but by no means always thus. Consequently, the local natives like neither the guerrerillos nor the arrogant and abusive government soldiers/policemen.
The writing is actually better than his earlier works, with greater clarity and a more assured pace of action. In its breathtaking cynicism and plots within plots, MAMista is a great read. The only somewhat puzzling loose end I caught was the very ending, after the Marxist ex-UCA student comes back home--however, this does not affect the overall solidly grounded expose of how events that happen far away from the media and attention can be replete of domestic politics and private greed, and the supreme ironies which people face as they approach their deaths.
Some nice parts:
(Describing the Archbishop's palace:) "On the far side of the Plaza rose the dark shape of the Archbishop's Palace. It was an amazing confusion of scrolls, angels, demons, flowers and gargoyles: the collected excesses of the Baroque."
Referring to the hysterical press rabbiting the DEA's announcement that they interdicted "cocaine with street value of $5 million", the president says "I wish these half-witted TV people would stop glamorizing that poison: '$5 million street value.' Holy Cow! It's like a recruiting campaign for pushers!"
One of the Marxist top heroes is killed in what is a disastrous attempted raid--but is photographed to keep him "alive" and "with the Revolution": "How long can you keep him 'alive'?..."Until his death can aid our struggle."
Referring to a quaint town in the jungle, Lucas (the English doctor) notes that a poster of the village could seem like a powerful attraction to visit this village. But "that's because posters do not record the way the wood smoke irritated the eyes, nor the sour stench of rotting vegetables, nor that of human and animal excrement, that pervaded the village."
A particularly funny part is the annual conference between the three Marxist factions, at which verbiage is spouted without meaning, and each chief eyes up his own advantage in the agenda items discussed--all in one of the country estate mansions of the current government's agriculture ministers.
Deighton also understand the impact of macroeconomics on these seemingly idealistic battles. Speaking of the leader of the Pekingese faction, who was a former foreman of a large coffee plantation, and who was offered to inherit it by his childless master, but refused it: "The man who renounced a legacy to become a guerilla was hailed as a hero, but it was the sudden drop in coffee prices that made Big Jorge a political leader."
Deighton in MAMista has a field day exposing hidden agenda and showing the inherent selfishness and/or incompetence of virtually all leaders. Maybe a bit gloomy, but intelligent and all too believable. You will "not get stupider" reading Deighton!
1) The Moscow vs Peking vs Che factions of Marxists--all led by different generations, and all with corrupt leadership focusing on how they can keep the money flowing that allow them to continue to "lead" the Revolution--whether from drugs, oil or EU officials seeking to prove Europe is relevant in the USA's back yard and who have made "liberating Spanish Guiana" one of their causes;
2) The US/CIA/Big Oil factions, where domestic politics and the manipulative and more intelligent chief of staff of a relatively mediocre and unpopular president seemingly only interested in his own re-election trades off oil interests benefitting one of the three Marxist groups as well as a big oil company, with big benefits to a Californian defense contractor otherwise in trouble and thereby preserving domestic employment at a time when the president really needs California to vote for him; and
3) freshly graduated Latino/American students from rich families, bored and angry, and winding up with one of the Marxist factions in order to "do something" and trying to "prove themselves".
As these factions compete among each other to secure their narrow and generally uninformed interests, it is of course the local people who are damaged--sometimes heroically, but by no means always thus. Consequently, the local natives like neither the guerrerillos nor the arrogant and abusive government soldiers/policemen.
The writing is actually better than his earlier works, with greater clarity and a more assured pace of action. In its breathtaking cynicism and plots within plots, MAMista is a great read. The only somewhat puzzling loose end I caught was the very ending, after the Marxist ex-UCA student comes back home--however, this does not affect the overall solidly grounded expose of how events that happen far away from the media and attention can be replete of domestic politics and private greed, and the supreme ironies which people face as they approach their deaths.
Some nice parts:
(Describing the Archbishop's palace:) "On the far side of the Plaza rose the dark shape of the Archbishop's Palace. It was an amazing confusion of scrolls, angels, demons, flowers and gargoyles: the collected excesses of the Baroque."
Referring to the hysterical press rabbiting the DEA's announcement that they interdicted "cocaine with street value of $5 million", the president says "I wish these half-witted TV people would stop glamorizing that poison: '$5 million street value.' Holy Cow! It's like a recruiting campaign for pushers!"
One of the Marxist top heroes is killed in what is a disastrous attempted raid--but is photographed to keep him "alive" and "with the Revolution": "How long can you keep him 'alive'?..."Until his death can aid our struggle."
Referring to a quaint town in the jungle, Lucas (the English doctor) notes that a poster of the village could seem like a powerful attraction to visit this village. But "that's because posters do not record the way the wood smoke irritated the eyes, nor the sour stench of rotting vegetables, nor that of human and animal excrement, that pervaded the village."
A particularly funny part is the annual conference between the three Marxist factions, at which verbiage is spouted without meaning, and each chief eyes up his own advantage in the agenda items discussed--all in one of the country estate mansions of the current government's agriculture ministers.
Deighton also understand the impact of macroeconomics on these seemingly idealistic battles. Speaking of the leader of the Pekingese faction, who was a former foreman of a large coffee plantation, and who was offered to inherit it by his childless master, but refused it: "The man who renounced a legacy to become a guerilla was hailed as a hero, but it was the sudden drop in coffee prices that made Big Jorge a political leader."
Deighton in MAMista has a field day exposing hidden agenda and showing the inherent selfishness and/or incompetence of virtually all leaders. Maybe a bit gloomy, but intelligent and all too believable. You will "not get stupider" reading Deighton!
February 16, 2023
The author has a careful bluntness in his writing that is great for the plot and content of the book, but I thought was lackluster in developing the environment of the book.
I was really saddened by the deaths of all the main characters at the end and not sure if it fit with my view of the theme of the book, but makes sense with the message - revolutions are over and hopeless.
I guess not the message I wanted to hear, not that I care about revolutions, but more that the rest of the book was slowly selling that things could look up if you really gave it the ol college try (said somewhat sarcastically).
To me it felt more like the author was sick of his own story and just decided to kill everyone, call it a day, and have big bad capitalist America win the day.
I was really saddened by the deaths of all the main characters at the end and not sure if it fit with my view of the theme of the book, but makes sense with the message - revolutions are over and hopeless.
I guess not the message I wanted to hear, not that I care about revolutions, but more that the rest of the book was slowly selling that things could look up if you really gave it the ol college try (said somewhat sarcastically).
To me it felt more like the author was sick of his own story and just decided to kill everyone, call it a day, and have big bad capitalist America win the day.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2019
The real jungle, deep between the tributaries of the Amazon, unbroken for thousands of miles, is only fit for men with bulldozers and tankers of diesel or indigenous hunter-gatherers. Everything else despairs, dies, and rots: fauna, flora, homo sapiens, dreams, buildings, machinery, everything.
Director Warner Herzog made a very ambitious movie about a would-be Amazon rubber baron called ‘Fitzcarraldo’. The real story was the making of the movie, chronicled in the must-see documentary ‘Burden of Dreams’: difficult jungle locations, losing the lead Mick Jagger to nut-case Klaus Kinski, a border war complicated by a tribal war, and Herzog slowly going mad from rain, humidity, delay, stench, and rot. Herzog wrote a fascinating book about it called ‘Conquest of the Useless’ (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).
In a way, this is the same book, but with different adventurers and dreamers. It ended in betrayal, confusion, and final despair about one day too early. But on another level, like Deighton’s book ‘Bomber’, the forces and decision makers not in the jungle continued on as if nothing happened.
Director Warner Herzog made a very ambitious movie about a would-be Amazon rubber baron called ‘Fitzcarraldo’. The real story was the making of the movie, chronicled in the must-see documentary ‘Burden of Dreams’: difficult jungle locations, losing the lead Mick Jagger to nut-case Klaus Kinski, a border war complicated by a tribal war, and Herzog slowly going mad from rain, humidity, delay, stench, and rot. Herzog wrote a fascinating book about it called ‘Conquest of the Useless’ (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).
In a way, this is the same book, but with different adventurers and dreamers. It ended in betrayal, confusion, and final despair about one day too early. But on another level, like Deighton’s book ‘Bomber’, the forces and decision makers not in the jungle continued on as if nothing happened.
September 7, 2022
A decent enough post glasnost Deighton novel which takes in the Marxist South American revolutionaries rather than east Germany or Russia.
I enjoyed this though in some ways it may have been due to my reading of Che Guevara's Bolivian diaries which in some ways offer a factual blue print..although this book looks into the political machinations of the CIA..the US government and the double cross inherent in those deals.
Anyhow I enjoyed this despite in some ways this being a slow read for me...I'm not sure why in truth..it's not overtly complex nor boring but this one took me a whilem
I enjoyed this though in some ways it may have been due to my reading of Che Guevara's Bolivian diaries which in some ways offer a factual blue print..although this book looks into the political machinations of the CIA..the US government and the double cross inherent in those deals.
Anyhow I enjoyed this despite in some ways this being a slow read for me...I'm not sure why in truth..it's not overtly complex nor boring but this one took me a whilem
September 20, 2020
A story set in Spanish Guyana and of Mamista - the revolutionary force - of their grueling days in the jungle and of political conveniences getting the better of human lives. I enjoyed Deighton's cynical style of writing. The jungle scenes were oddly reminiscent of Rushdie's mangrove journey in Midnight's Children.
January 12, 2021
Decent read somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. Characters were slightly obvious types and the first half of the book was definitely 3 star. The second half is much better, the final 50 pages or so surprised me, though not so much the last half dozen. This part will stay in my mind and causes me to give ths rating as 4 stars.
June 15, 2022
This was a good yarn but not like the Spy series by Deighton. Some interesting characters get involved in a revolutionary rag tag movement in Spanish Guiana. What they don't know is the scheming going on behind everyone's backs. Also, things are not what they seem in this South American country where cocoa, other "cash" crops, and mining are bringing out the worst political elements.
September 7, 2024
I do like len deightons books but this was very hard to get into and alot of the time i didnt really have a clue what was happening , quite a confusing read and to be honest if this was the first book but the author you had read you probably wouldnt pick up a second, overall disappointed
April 18, 2023
Bit of a sloggy, boring, pointless book :(
September 16, 2024
Pulpy, fun!
June 15, 2025
this is the first Deighton Book that I've read. it starts slow but picks up. the story is well researched with believable character.
August 31, 2025
Much more realistic and satisfying than a James Bond story with all of its gadgetry
February 25, 2011
It was not really what I expected, or was looking for. But even though it was slow to get into, I did finish it. The last few chapters were better than the beginning. It takes place mostly in South America and follows a revolutionary group, some hostages they took and a philanthropic medical doctor considering recommending assistance to the revolutionaries from the foundation he is involved with. None of the characters really got my interest and I found the book pretty boring. But I was traveling and needed some reading material so I finished it.
March 25, 2008
Not sure what I expected from this book, but I wasn't very impressed. I have a few other Deighton books on the shelf, I hope they fare better. The plot itself was ok, and a few twists towards the end make it an alright read, enough to finish anyway, but nnot enough to make me want to grab his other books off the shelf before the other ones on my list of to read.
August 14, 2012
A complete departure for Deighton in his story of South American guerrillas, English medical aid, and American political/commercial desires.
I understand this was one of his ' dropped ' novels, started, left and completed at a later date.
If you're expecting anything similar to his other fiction then you may be disappointed.
I understand this was one of his ' dropped ' novels, started, left and completed at a later date.
If you're expecting anything similar to his other fiction then you may be disappointed.
February 17, 2008
After the end of the Cold War, Deighton evidently found it difficult to break into a new form of the genre, but this was a pretty good attempt.
The only thing I find lacking in his books is that he is poor at writing action scenes, there is a distinct lack of action here. A pity.
The only thing I find lacking in his books is that he is poor at writing action scenes, there is a distinct lack of action here. A pity.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 6, 2015
Easy to read and kept me interested to the end. I wasn't really emotionally vested in an outcome because all the characters were fairly unlikable. There wasn't the same sense of realism that I remember from Game/Set/Match.
October 8, 2012
I didn't finish this book because it's about politics so far so i gave up on it now I'm reading The Dragon Heir.
March 4, 2010
Central American guerrilla struggle
March 10, 2014
Not his best book with a disappointing conclusion.
August 21, 2018
Dit boek keert terug naar de kringwinkel. Om te vergeten. Deighton had dit beter niet geschreven
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews