1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A south of the border escape: in more ways than one, August 29, 2005
This review is from: The Road to Esmeralda: A Novel (Hardcover)
Ms. Nicholson does a great job of conveying the tone of a south of the border escape as such it almost is suffocating at times and doesn't let the characters breathe in the opening moments of the book. But as the story progresses, it becomes obvious that the intent of the author is to show the characters and how they are being suffocated by where they are headed, metaphorically, spiritually, and morally.
Well written and one of the most absorbing books I have read in a while.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Road TO Esmeralda, August 16, 2005
This review is from: The Road to Esmeralda: A Novel (Hardcover)
Book Review:
The Road To Esmeralda:
The book begins with what appears to be a simple vacation for a
seemingly happy and contented couple: Nick, frustrated writer, but hopeful idealist, and Sarah, a graphic artist, and the supportive, caring, and emotionally stable girlfriend. Together, they embark on a journey to bring them closer to each other and themselves.
Their road trip takes them to Mexico, which offers them a gateway to creative and emotional freedom. What they find instead is anger and resentment against them, not as people, but as Americans. This bitterness and hostility comes from all angles; fellow tourists and locals alike, are ready to confront the America imperialists who are the cause of all the world's woes.
In an attempt to escape the onslaught, Nick and Sarah travel further and farther away, until they land at a quiet beach-front guesthouse in Esmeralda, a beautiful Yucatan enclave. Their hosts, the Von Tollmans, are German ex-patriots, and committed to living lives which excludes involvement
with polluted people and societies, while living off and tending to their land, which caters to this eutopic lifestyle.
Quickly immersed in the owner's fight to save their land, highly coveted by greedy local and foreign businessmen alike, Nick and Sarah become deeply entrenched in the political forces that will soon destroy their personal undertakings and ambitions. The only problem though, is that Nick and Sarah find themselves on opposing sides.
Al, the guesthouse handyman, has his own questionable and sordid agenda. Al, almost sociopathic, begins finding conflict in his own seemingly non-existent moral makeup, while Nick's morals slowly dissolve in an aborted attempt to save his relationship. Sarah and the Von Tollmans, in doomed attempts to maintain their ideals, become prey to the social and political conspirators.
And there the book takes us: down a windy road filled with intrigue, personal digression, moral conflict and disillusion, that soon involves local thugs and drug smugglers, the Mexican and American governments, and the personal and cultural agendas that ripen the conspiracy plot.
This is a story of disintegration, personal dilemmas and fears,
emotional disillusion, and human ambition, both altruistic and sordid. It is a macrocosm with archetypal characters living in their own personal microcosmic world. Each suffering from their own human frailties, and subject to personal fears, they are lost and disconnected. The characters exemplify qualities that supersede nationalism or xenophobia; they are basic and base, each confronted with their own truths and lies, and the bitterness of their own futility.
A great read. Profound. Layered. A good adventure both inward and outward.
Ellen Vinitsky - August 15, 2005
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wisdom of No Escape, June 15, 2005
This review is from: The Road to Esmeralda: A Novel (Hardcover)
What really struck me about this book was the deceptive charm of almost every character, which is what makes the story such an intense and intimate experience. In reading it, you feel like you're finding out secrets about your friends, colleagues, neighbors and fellow humans-secrets you really hoped weren't true. There's Karl, a seemingly kind old German hippie who's created his guesthouse utopia in the Yucatan, a retreat among the lush tropical flowers and gentle surf; there's his handyman Al, the ostensibly harmless beach bum dropout and scrappy ex-pat who picks up work in whatever country he finds himself; there's the brothers, a couple of colorful corrupt local officials. Enter tortured Nick from L.A., tormented by his unfinished novel, and his young idealistic wife, Sarah, who wants to save the planet, do the right thing, be good. Sound enticing? Sound too good to be true? Oh it is, and Nicholson masterfully, with impeccable timing, plots a story of one eerie revelation after another, until you literally shudder at the monstrosity of the human heart. Mexico is the perfect setting for such a tale, too, with its pretty surface that hides all the demons of globalism: corporate violence and profiteering, drugs, shifty ex-pats, hapless `good' Americans and Europeans who drive the engine of evil with their denial and mass consumption of drugs and resources. We are all part of the problem and have to face it, because in this book-and maybe this is the larger message-the heroes and the villains are the same people. Tough medicine. But empowering too. This is an important and profound book, and Nicholson's mind and writing are like a sharp knife-beautifully clean, relentlessly sublime and ruthlessly frank. She'll cut you, but the scar will be something you're glad you have and a reminder that good writing is an awesomely powerful way to communicate hard truths.
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