This critically acclaimed, stunning debut collection dramatically illustrates what happens when Mexican's and American's expectations of each other are fulfilled -- or turned inside out. Sometimes viciously funny, sometimes achingly sad, Lida's stories entertain the reader with engrossing, richly observed detail, inspired by his own experience living in Mexico. among his diverse situations and characters are a journalist who finds more realism than magic while interviewing a witch in a backwater swamp, a CIA spook about to return home after a Mexican City posting, and a Mexican of Eastern European descent who considers herself a "JAP" -- a Jewish Aztec Princess.
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Book Description
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
True to its title, Lida's collection of 10 disturbing short stories is likely to give pause to tourists heading south of the border. The author, a former resident of Mexico City, portrays Mexicans and travelers alike as treacherous and unhappy, preying mercilessly on each other. In short, mostly slice-of-life vignettes, plump, pink-skinned North American and British tourists patronize their hosts, and servile or hostile Mexicans endure their presence. If the tourists are not being robbed, they are being raped--by the police. If the housemaids are not being treated like slaves, then they are being raped--by their employers. A travel journalist gets more than she had bargained for when she interviews a male witch in a provincial town; a wealthy American pedophile picks up a young street urchin; a woman takes a spur-of-the-moment trip to a Mexican beach resort with a virtual stranger. One of the few foreigners who stays in the country for any length of time is a British photojournalist, a defeated man who is drinking himself to death. The strongest story tracks a taxi driver and his buddies who routinely fleece customers by terrifying them into giving up the PINs of their credit cards. In this case, the gang is robbed by one of its own and the "customer" dies of a heart attack. Even the thieves have a hard time of it in Lida's Mexico. Gritty and unforgiving, these stories revel in the more cruelly exploitative of cross-cultural relationships. Lida's tone is sometimes shrill, but when he eschews easy satire he paints a convincing, unvarnished picture of a struggling country. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The dark side of life in contemporary Mexico is vividly portrayed in these short stories. In one of them, Aldrich Ames, a drunken, inept American intelligence officer, decides to give up alcohol after being asked to join the KGB. In another story, a scantily clothed American beachcomber is attacked and raped by locals, and in yet another story, a young native boy is rescued from a life on the street by two American men who molest him in exchange for food, shelter, and clothing. The Mexico of these stories is not one that the reader will want to visit anytime soon. Alcoholism, hunger, oppressive servitude, and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness are common elements in these bewildering tales. Lida's stories have been published in the New York Times, The Literary Review, Harper's Bazaar, and other periodicals. He is a former resident of Mexico who now lives in New York City. This collection offers well-crafted, riveting glimpses of life that will fascinate the reader. Recommended for all libraries.
-Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Darkly Compelling Trip Through Mexico,
By Celia Schaefer (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico (Hardcover)
I read Travel Advisory this past weekend and loved it. It is a compelling collection of short stories about people from all walks of life in Mexico... and the Americans who visit. The characters are dark and vivid in a way that kept me invested in their humanity, even when the brutality of their actions or circumstances made me want to shut them out. The tone of the storytelling reminded me of Paul Bowles... and yet the stories have a further compassion for what becomes of people in the dehumanizing world of polarized wealth & poverty... without being at all preachy or judgemental. Bravo.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down,
By
This review is from: Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico (Hardcover)
David Lida's stories glow with an undertone of reality that may shock some people, offend others, but paints a true picture of a small slice of Mexico. The characters he features are universal: as some commenters noted, they could be found anywhere in the world. Although fiction, these characters and the scenes in which they act are undoubtedly drawn from real life, from the years that Lida has spent in Mexico. He portrays the dark side of Mexico that the travel agencies and tourist businesses don't want you to know about, but is all too real for those who live there day in and day out. The characters are well defined, and the settings are described in the kind of vivid detail that comes only from personal experience. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. If you're one of those who is fascinated by Mexico and you don't require that every story you read have a happily-ever-after ending, you'll probably appreciate this glipmse of another Mexico that many of us never see.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty and visceral.,
This review is from: Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico (Hardcover)
Lida plays the gringo-mexicano dynamic like a cello. Sexual victimization comes across as a major theme, perhaps serving as a two-way metaphor for US-Mexico relations and for class relations within Mexican society. Although we sometimes sense this dynamic in inter-American news stories, Lida's fiction brings it into high relief. Americans who have traveled in Mexico will squirm as they see themselves in some of these stories, and as they recognize the brutalities of Mexican life that ardent Mexicophiles like to sweep under the bed. Hard to pick a favorite among the 10 stories, but I loved "The Recruiting Officer" and "Taxi".I have to disagree with the previous reviewer who dimisses Latin American magic realism as "cutesy." And the first story in TRAVEL ADVISORY, "Bewitched," contains a strong dose of magic realism in its finale.
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