Mexico Book Reviews: Books that take place in Mexico or written by native authors
In anticipation of my trip in March, I’ve been reading as many books as I can get my hands on that were written by Mexican authors or take place in Mexico itself. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been reading!:
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Mexican-Canadian author Silvia Moreno Garcia was such a fun read. A mix of magical realism and historical fiction, it’s a novel that incorporates Mexican folklore and Mayan mythology and it was exactly what I was looking for. The first few chapters went slowly for me, I saw too many parallels between the main character Casiopea and Cinderella and I did not want to read another take on “twisted fairytales” but it quickly shifted gears and picked up speed and intrigue. After that, I was hooked and devoured the story of a girl who accidentally restores a Mayan God to life and then accompanies him on a mission to restore him to his throne in the underworld. The book is set in the 1920s and travels across different cities in Mexico with lovely descriptions of each. It’s not a perfect book but it had funny and heartfelt moments, interesting (if often unlikable) characters, a well-written romance, and an exciting plot. I highly recommend it!
Walking the Americas by Levison Wood is an awesome adventure novel book. Levison and his companion walk 1800 miles from Mexico to Colombia. Only a small part in the beginning takes place in Mexico, but I’m including it because that’s why I read it. The author describes getting to scuba dive in one of the cenotes, which is what I’m looking forward to most on my trip. My dream in life is to walk the Via Francigena so I read a lot of books about pilgrimages, and Levison does an awesome job of glossing over the monotonous bits, and he remains mostly positive toward his travel companion unlike Bill Bryson and other more cynical authors I’ve read. I only found out after finishing that they filmed a documentary about the walk as well. I’ve only seen the first episode but it looked good, although the fact that the two men were followed around by a film crew for most of these adventures makes it harder to believe a lot of this book happened as it was written. I liked it more before I knew! There are other notable locations Levison and his companion walk through but it especially made me desperate to visit Costa Rica one day. Less so for background on Mexico but if you’d like to hear about South American countries through the eyes of one British guy (whose opinions and takes I didn’t always agree with), this is an awesome read!
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, I have to mention it because it’s a lot of people’s first recommendations for books about Mexico right now. There is a lot of controversy around this book that I suggest you look into before making a purchase. The author is a white woman writing what some people have been calling “trauma porn” or a “social issues thriller” and has shown some seriously tone deaf behavior like posting a “pretty” manicure of her book’s cover featuring barbed wire, and having barbed wire centerpieces at her book release party. I chose to read it anyway, but I did not purchase my copy. For what it’s worth, I actually liked reading the book. It tells the story of a woman and her 8 year old son who must flee their home in Acapulco, Mexico to escape the drug cartel after 16 of their family members are brutally murdered at a quinceañera. I liked the writing and the story was interesting, if violent and cruel at times, though I felt kind of let down in the end. Events seem to take so long and then end pretty abruptly with loose ends wrapped up in a quick epilogue. If you want to read and support a story about a real border crossing by an actual Hispanic author, try Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazaro. I just got off my library’s wait list for that one so I will update in part two!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Do you have any recommendations on books about Mexico or by Mexican authors that I should check out from my library?
