Martín and Marvin: A Chicago Jewish Mexican, His Friend and Their Latin Worlds

by Marc Zimmerman

Martín and Marvin centers on Martín Klein, a Chicago-based Jewish Mexican, his friendships and love affairs, his family and artistic obsessions, his travels and misadventures. But the book is especially about Martín’s relationship with Marvin, a Jewish-American Latin Americanist—their points in common, their differences and their ties with the Latin worlds they encounter. The book opens with a novella-sized text tracing incidents relating to Marvin’s life and death. Two comic stories follow Martín, Marvin and Marvin’s wife on travels in Guatemala and Italy. Then come three dream stories haunted by Martín’s personality and preoccupations, as well as Marvin’s obsession with his lost friend.