Stephen Durrant's Reviews > Like a Fading Shadow

In just two days, the fiftieth anniversary of the tragic murder of Martin Luther King will pass. I did not have that in mind when I began a week or so ago to read Muñoz's 2014 book "Like a Fading Shadow." Although James Earl Ray, in a slightly fictionalized garb, is the central character in this piece of historical fiction, it was not his name so much as the setting in Lisbon, one of my favorite cities, that attracted me. Muñoz's first novel, "Winter in Lisbon" was set in the Portuguese capital and here he returns to that city to complete his account of the ten or so days Ray spent hiding there after the assassination. Ray is a loser whose identify is indeed like a "fading shadow" as he shifts from one pseudonym to another, walks about Lisbon keeping his eyes from contact with others, and shuffles from bar to bar with his small amount of cash slowly slipping away. The novelist's story of his own life and time in Lisbon alternates with his account of Ray, and Muñoz too is leading a life of instability . . . a life in which his personality fades while in the process of seeking out the various shadows that inspire his own work. We must not forget, however, that Muñoz is leading us through the city of the great Fernando Pessoa, whom he mentions on several occasions, and so much of Pessoa's work reflects the shifting personalities and names the writer can take on, perhaps somehow inspired (or is it cursed?) by the wonderful and multifaceted city of Lisbon.