[Macho Camacho's Beat], which functions brilliantly on linguistic, structural, and socio-political levels, is defined by an extravagant and mordant sense of the comic. Like all excellent comic writing, the laughter is generated by language, not situation. At the heart of Luis Rafael Sanchez's book is rage and despair, without which comedy never rises above the level of bobhopeism or the animated cartoon….

Permeating the island of Puerto Rico in the middle of the Nixon administration is the runaway hit recording, "Life Is a Phenomenal Thing," a guaracha by Macho Camacho and his band…. It is woven through Sanchez's novel as leitmotif and chorus; it is, clearly, a manifestation of the apparent "spirit" of modern-day Puerto Rico.

Macho Camacho's Beat is an evocation of the island's true spirit, given us through an accumulation of information concerning four major characters. As the lie of the guaracha meshes with the truth...