Dead man's float

Dead Man's Float details that sad emblem of Western alienation, the tourist couple in their rented tropical Eden. Here life is temporary and not at all cheap. The wildlife is spectacular, the culture incomprehensible, and the locals politely try to hide their hilarity at Canadian pidgin Spanish. Heat, beaches, ruins -- why did we think they could distract us from domestic squabbling or the 3 a.m. dreads? Derk Wynand wrings wry existential meditations from firsthand experience of the Exotic -- the First World and the Third in their ritual winter dance.