A Book With A Local Flavour

A Dignified Exit


A book with a local setting, you may find interesting..A Dignified Exit

Okay thanks, I love books with local settings! I've downloaded it to Kindle - will let you know how it goes.

Merry

VILLAGE IN THE SUN (1945) has a free kindle version plus other formats

http://archive.org/details/villageinthesun007022mbp

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2641-dane-chandos-books

merry wrote:Okay thanks, I love books with local settings! I've downloaded it to Kindle - will let you know how it goes. Merry

Wah, I'm so sad. Since this was recommended as a local book, I am going to review it purely about the location. There are already many reviews on Amazon lauding the great literary style of this author. I must not have a literary eye, so I'll stick strictly to the local facts.

This book is about a character who moves to San Miguel de Allende for a year. The characters spend only one pitiful Christmas Eve in the Lake Chapala area, in a restaurant with other expats. I think that's like saying to a Texan, "hey, I lived in Kansas City for a year, and went to Dallas for Christmas Eve, so read this local book." All I learned about the Lake Chapala area is that the lake is over-fished and polluted, but imported fish is the local specialty, because they eat fish at their one meal in the area.

I have not been to San Miguel, but the main thing I learned about San Miguel from the book is that there are many churches there, and the church bells ring for no rhyme or reason, and at all hours of the day and night. Everyone in San Miguel miraculously speaks English, even four year-old children, so he never makes any effort to learn a word of Spanish. I don't know if it's hot or cold there, or if the seasons change, because it is never mentioned. In his year in San Miguel, the only interaction between the lead character and anyone local there is 1) a landlady from whom he rents a house, 2) a waiter and kids at the one restaurant that he always goes to, and 3) a brief mention of a gardener who drives a truck to his house every other week. He doesn't want to hire a local maid ("you end up having to take care of their entire family") so he illegally hires an American woman to cook and clean for him. He has an illness that requires pain medicine, and the doctor in San Miguel freely hands out prescriptions for Perocet and Vicodine, wow! No hassles or going to the few docs in Mexico City or Guadalajara who are authorized to issue those scripts. He gets a membership to Sam's Club and always goes there to buy anything except fruits and vegetables; then when he moves back to Austin he inexplicably buys a membership to Costco. On the way back, he also travels with a cat and a dog and they are welcomed at the no-dogs-allowed Las Palmas Hotel in Matahuala. There is no mention of the existence of a border - and crossing with pets - except when he first gets to Mexico and has to get his car permit. No culture shock at returning to the land of plenty, oh yeah I guess because he never really left that bubble.

Where is the adventure, the delight of learning a foreign culture? As far as I'm concerned, each item I mentioned is a cultural blooper. The author admits in an afterword that he based this book on one 10-day road trip to San Miguel. Apparently with a side detour to Chapala on the way home. It would have been a far more authentic book if it were about a person who goes to San Miguel for 10 days, because the book shows no growth of the character as a result of interacting with the culture, and no influence of the culture or place on him... it could have honestly been situated in ANY location. Even Kansas City.

Sadly, I can't recommend this book for the "local flavour." For both literary flair AND local flavor, may I recommend instead Sylvia Bedford's "A Visit to Don Otavio" written in the 1950's and never equaled? http://www.amazon.com/A-Visit-Don-Otavio-ebook/dp/B002MZYQEC/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

Merry