Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: On Mexican Time : A New Life in San Miguel by Tony Cohan ISBN: 0-7679-0319-6 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (46 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Written from the heart.
Comment: I REALLY liked this book very much. I read a lot of travel books, but I liked this more than any other I have read for a long time. It left the "Provences' and 'Tuscanys' for dead. The reason is this.......Tony Cohan manages to show the sense of excitement in finding a new place that you really love so much that you can't get enough of it. I too have a place like this, though mine is not in Mexico, it's in Indonesia. And unfortunately I don't have a way to live there all the time. But this book made to want to go San Miguel de Allende (and, yes, I have been to Mexico) and it reminded me of how I felt when I found my special place in Indonesia. It also reminded me of the things I've done there and the characters I've met, and of learning Indonesian & the satisfaction when yet another cultural mystery is unravelled.
Rating: 4
Summary: Entertaining, insightful, rich
Comment: Tony Cohan brings most of your senses into play with his descriptions of life in and around San Miguel de Allende - smells, tastes, colors, the changes of the seasons, and so on. There's also a cast of local characters that seemingly changes as often as the seasons, and a fairly significant chunk of the book is devoted to their experiences in buying, renovating and adding on to an aged, practically falling-down hacienda, with the inevitable experiences with various workers, handymen, etc.
If you're already interested in Mexico, and particularly San Miguel de Allende, this is probably a good choice. If you're squeamish about reading about getting 'turista' or killing scorpions, this is too 'bohemian' for you. :^)
Rating: 3
Summary: Ex-(clusive) Patriotism
Comment: I picked up a copy of "On Mexican Time" recently in Sayulita, Mexico. Being in Mexico for the first time and utterly charmed by the difference in the way of life there as opposed to the rest of North America, I wanted to read something that would give me insight into the cultural sights, sounds and colours that I was newly being exposed to.
Overall, I found the book an enjoyable read and an entirely sympathetic view of Mexican life as a contrast to the urban chaos and fear that has marked major U.S. and Canadian cities in recent years.
Poets and writers worldwide have a historical tendency to seek romance in agrarian and pre-industrial societies and Tony Cohan succumbs to this not new longing in his charming account of life in Mexico.
However, the author himself notes that in American literary circles, the tendency is to place a pre-eminant position to Americans and their interpretation of the world through the lens of an American worldview. Sadly, I noted several alarming indications that this is also true of the author's biases regardless of his efforts to put U.S. prejudices behind him. The most jarring examples of this are a number of references to "North Americans" in a way that is obviously refering to Americans only . To quote from page 281: "Mexicans, unlike North Americans, consider technology a convenience, not a faith or a metaphysic." I can only presume that he also excludes Canadians too, as the majority of Americans have an appalling lack of knowledge about their northern neighbours. Furthermore, the statement itself is a sweeping generalization that the book could have done without.
This is not the only time the author slips into this type of language. Perhaps unintentional, it still clearly displays an attitude that Americans of all persuasions take on when dealing with the "lesser" nations of North America. Need I explain that Canada and Mexico are also part of North America?
I can't help but get the sense that as a literary type married to an artist, Tony believes he is somehow a superior class of expat. Sorry, that doesn't wash here and I imagine it doesn't in Mexico either or frankly with other Americans doing business with Mexicans that is actually leading to a growing middle class in Mexico with expanded educational and work opportunities for the previously disenfranchised.
That being said, I think he is right to be concerned about Americans and other foreigners importing their attitudes into the charm of Mexico. He'd best look at his own first as they may be subtle but are definitely present in his account.
Let the Mexicans decide what the future of their country holds - good, bad and/or indifferent. Change is inevitable and it is not for the rest of us North Americans to dictate what that change looks like, however well-intentioned our ideas and attitudes may be.
 |
Title: Live Well in Mexico: How to Relocate, Retire, and Increase Your Standard of Living (The Live Well Series) by Ken Luboff ISBN: 1562614320 Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Behind the Doors of San Miguel De Allende by Robert De Gast ISBN: 0764913417 Publisher: Pomegranate Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Live Better South of the Border in Mexico: Practical Advice for Living and Working by Mike Nelson, Mexico Mike Live Better South of the Border Nelson ISBN: 1555913946 Publisher: Fulcrum Pub Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: The Doors of San Miguel De Allende by Robert De Gast ISBN: 156640990X Publisher: Pomegranate Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Choose Mexico, 8th: Travel, Investment, and Living Opportunities for Every Budget by John Howells, Don Merwin ISBN: 0762726032 Publisher: Globe Pequot Pr Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
