On Mexican Time: a new life in San Miguel by Tony Cohan: book review

Tony and Masako, an American couple, holiday in Mexico in January 1985 for three weeks. By June, they had sold their house in California and moved permanently to the sixteenth century hill-town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. On Mexican Time (2001) is a true story by a travel writer as he leaves a hectic and jaded life (where people “are busy climbing up, clinging to, falling off career ladders”) for the leisurely pace and warmth of a neigbouring land.

It is a place of bougainvillea, cobblestone streets, siestas and fiestas. It’s a place of margaritas, licuados, tortilla chips and steamed tamales. It’s a place where tourists repeatedly return to capture the seductive and charming ambience of a simpler life. It is here that Tony and Masako find and refurbish a dilapidated 250-year-old house (for the equivalent of a year’s salary) and become subsumed into the everyday activities of the town. The frustrations of any house renovation are magnified by the pace of “Mexican time:” “Ahorita doesn’t mean right away, pronto doesn’t mean fast, manana may not mean tomorrow. And if somebody says quince dias, two weeks, you’re out of luck.” These irritations are interspersed with life’s unexpected occurrences, such as earthquakes, murders, water shortages, and the filming of a Julio Iglesias video.

The historical richness of two civilizations: Mesoamerican (Aztec, Mayan, Toltec, Olmec, and Zapotec) and Spanish colonial are barely mentioned, giving way to solely an account of the contemporary life of European and American foreigners interacting with local gringos. Many events that could have been interesting, and expanded upon, were given limited space. Due to this, the novel tended to be rather a fragmented portrayal of their life. It’s more of a diary of transition, from living in a dilapidated house to a comfortable home and their day-to-day existence in a country that both fascinates and frustrates them.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog