Fuentes has a background in international politics and a political commitment that, traditionally, few North American writers bring to their work. Moreover, he is the author of the broad-canvas account of the Mexican experience, Where the Air Is Clear (1959), and the brilliant Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), one of the finest Mexican novels of our time. Possibly, there is no other writer who so accurately perceives the Mexican character, as well as the international role that the nation is likely to play in coming decades.

So when he undertakes to write a fictional account of the "first adventure of the Mexican secret service," one cannot fail to take note of his uncommon credentials. In fact, the great merit of The Hydra Head is that Fuentes has raised a popular literary form—the espionage novel—to the level of high art. He has done this through his inspired, always incisive...