Comments

1
I've heard similar reviews elsewhere. It's too bad, because I desperately want to read more about Mexico City, along the lines of David Lida's "First Stop In The New World", but I gather this isn't that book. Oh, well. I'll probably have a stab at it anyways.

Mexico City's socialist politics are of course deeply colored by the massacre of some unknown number of students (probably well over a hundred) in the Plaza of the Three Cultures in 1968. Think "Kent State" times fifty, but completely covered up by the government. Socialism always comes up stronger when faced with true fascism, which is a fair way to characterize some of Mexico's generalissimos. It's too bad, because it's taken the left a long, long time to get over that day, and find a way to a new realism. It sounds like Ross still hasn't.
2
Thank you for saving me from reading this book, Enigma. I totally would have fallen for it and then felt betrayed when it got dull 200 pages in.
3
Nice review.
4
Thanks everyone.
I am really annoyed I didn't like it more. And it was so big taking up space in my bag I kind of started resenting it. But I'm a book collector, so I'm sure a conversation about leftist politics in Mexico will come up in my future (rarer things have happened) and I'll have a good jumping off point thanks to the book.
5
Would this be worth getting from the library and reading the first 200 or so pages?
6
Sben, I'd say so. Ross does write well about the earlier eras of the land that would become Mexico City. I'd say that once you can't keep track of all the nicknames everyone has, it's time to cut your losses.
7
Mr. Fnarf - Some writers who really know about Mexico City, beyond David L. (who just relocated to New Orleans, the rat) are fiction writers. But you probably already know that. And you probably already know about Paco Ignacio Taibo II (Calling All Heroes, about the massacre in 1968, and '68 his memoir of Oct. 2 1968). But in case you don't, he has some really good police procedurals that take place in the DF.

Earl Shorris is a journalist whose tome The Life and Times of Mexico is pretty good too, esp in smallish bites. He's got other volumes abt Mexico too, co-authored w/Miguel Leon-Portilla. I think Life and Times is the best. . .

But I am on a campaign to get people reading Mr. Taibo. He's one of my heroes. I bet you'd like him.
8
Enigma - thanks for an excellent review and for telling us that the book gets uninformative. . . I'll have a look at pages 1 - 200 (at the library).
9
@7, I've never read Taibo, but I put one of his books on hold at the library just minutes before your post. So we'll see.

I'm a big fan of Earl Shorris. His "Latinos" gets bogged down in a number of places (but is still worthwhile; I liked Hector Tobar's "Translation Nation" better), but "The Life and Times of Mexico" is magnificent. That's exactly what I'm looking for -- a thousand more pages of that!
10
Fnarf, you want the Mexico City Reader from U. of Wisconsin Press (2004) and its humungous companion the Mexico Reader. Brilliant translations of the best Mexican writers. The one on the city doesn't exactly accentuate the positive, but it does slip in a good sense of why the Distrito Federal is an often very pleasant and always exciting place to live. I can't recommend any English writing on Mexico more highly than those two books. (Except Malcolm Lowry's 'Under the Volcano', which IMHO is the best novel in the language - but it's more about drinking and movies.)
11
@9 Looking forward to hearing what you think of Taibo.
12
Thanks, Grant.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.