| | |  Entertainment | Books | January 2009 
Mexico Book Club's January Book Recommendations
 Ed Hutmacher - MexicoBookClub.com
| | For more information on these or other books with Mexico-related themes, please visit MexicoBookClub.com. | |
A new year always brings a rededication to read more books. From the biography of a literary legend to a true-crime thriller to books for Mexico travelers, here are a handful of recommendations you might want to dig into this January.
Elena Poniatowska: An Intimate Biography by Michael K. Schuessler (University of Arizona Press; 2007; Non-fiction) Author, journalist and poet Elena Poniatowska is a living literary legend in Mexico. With scores of books, essays and articles to her credit, she is perhaps best known for her novels Hasta no verte, Jesϊs mνo (1969; "Until I see You, My Jesus") and La noche de Tlatelolco (1971; "Massacre in Mexico"). Born in Paris in 1933 (her father was French-Polish and her mother Mexican), Poniatowska's family moved to Mexico City when she was nine. By the time she was twenty, Poniatowska was making a name for herself in the male-dominated world of Mexico City journalism. Her skill as a journalist and novelist was her ability to combine fact with fiction, allowing the voice of the Mexican people to be heard through her writing. Many of her characters are women whose lives are ruled by men in a world made up of double standards. This superb biography is a great read for anyone interested Mexico's journalistic-literary scene of the past 50 years.
Trail of Feathers: Searching for Phillip True by Robert Rivard (Public Affairs Publishers; 2006; Non-fiction) There's nothing as suspenseful as a true-crime thriller, and this fascinating tale of a Mexican misadventure is a page-turner from the get-go. "If I'm not back in 10 days, come looking for me," he said, then waved goodbye through the open window as the taxi disappeared from view up the steep, winding street. No one who knew True ever saw him alive again. When Phillip True, a journalist chasing down a story, disappears in Huichol Indian territory in Mexico's forbidding Sierra Madre, newspaper editor Robert Rivard goes on his own long journey to discover what happened to him and why. True's life and death in Mexico is not exactly a warning, but it is a reminder that there are cultural elements that can trip up the most seasoned travelers. It doesn't matter the size of a person's heart or the pureness of intentions.
Mexican Days: Journeys Into the Heart of Mexico by Tony Cohan (Broadway Books, 2006; Non-fiction) Tony Cohan fired the imagination of every armchair traveler north of the Rio Bravo in his 2000 bestseller On Mexico Time, a seductive chronicle of discovering a new life in 1980s San Miguel de Allende. But Mexico has changed considerably since then, thanks in large part to a horde of touristy, well-to-do North Americans like Cohan who have turned once-remote colonial pueblos into chic expatriate havens. In Mexican Days, Cohan embarks anew into Mexico's heartland, hoping to rediscover the lost authenticity and charm of his adopted homeland, "...to see how the puzzle of old and new fit together." Well written, evocative and perceptive, he gives readers a sympathetic portrait of Mexico, without ignoring its political problems, its poverty or the changes that have marred its landscape and its culture.
Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896 2004 by Carl J. Mora (McFarland & Company Publishers; 2005; Non-fiction) Much can be learned about the culture of a country by examining (and viewing) the films made there, particularly so in Mexico where uniquely Mexican values and symbolism are depicted quite differently than in Europe or the United States. Mexican Cinema is primarily a reference book, but Mora's intelligent narrative and comprehensive review of Mexican films is a captivating chronicle of Mexico's history, politics and social mores viewed through the medium of cinema. Especially enjoyable is reading about the groundbreaking films from Mexico's Golden Age, the 1940s, out of which some of the world's greatest cinematic art was born.
The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics edited by Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson (Duke University Press; 2002; Non-fiction) The Mexico Reader should be on the shelf of every Mexico aficionado or in the suitcase of every Mexico traveler. It's that good. There's nothing in this hefty paperback (792 pages) that isn't informative, enlightening or entertaining. The considerable collection of articles, essays and excerpts explores what it means to be Mexican, tracing the history of Mexico from pre-Columbian times through the country's epic 1910-17 revolution to the present day, leaving no political, cultural or social stone unturned. Already considered a classic, readers will find themselves referring to The Mexico Reader for a lifetime.
Ed Hutmacher is Editor in Chief of Mexico Book Club. For more information on books with Mexico-related themes, please visit the website at MexicoBookClub.com. |
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