Itenerary to ease nervous spouse into Mexico travel

Yes long out of print but you can still search around and get a copy. It is a wonderful book . Tells you of what it was all like in Yucatan before Cancun. A really good read for those of us who now love the area.

Now I will have to read up on the talking cross AND the Christero war!

I typed "Cristero" when I should have typed "Caste" war (well, they both start with "C" so I'm blaming my spellcheck). Save your reading ("Pedro Paramo," "The Power and the Glory," and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"; all great books) about the Cristero war for when you plan a trip to west central Mexico.

As for the talking cross, it didn't say anything when I visited. A great myth though.

By chance I pulled out my very old copy of The Power and the Glory last week. I looked at it, but thought I really wasn't in the mood for (what I remembered to be) a gloomy book. It is still sitting here in front of me, maybe I should read it again, now that I've been some of those parts of Mexico.

I really wasn't in the mood for...a gloomy book.

By way of explanation, Jorge Garcia-Robles says in his preface to "Kack Kerouac in Mexico; at the end of the road": "Graham Greene hated Mexico before and after he encountered it."

Yeah, I read that too. Was looking to see what part of Mexico The Power and the Glory is set in....guess its hard to relate to the late 1930s versus Mexico today. I love Graham Greene books.

I ordered Pedro Paramo today. Thanks for all your book suggestions over the years.

No need to guess, for a nonfiction reading assignment about the Yucatan in the 1930s, look to your local university library for a copy of "A VIllage That Chose Progress: Chan Kom Revisited," by Robert Redfield, published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1950); very good. By the way, Chan Kom is southwest of Valladolid.

" Was looking to see what part of Mexico The Power and the Glory is set in..."

The novel was apparently inspired by events that occurred in Tabasco about a decade before Greene briefly visited Mexico.. "The Power and the Glory" may be a better character study and moralistic rumination than description of what Mexico was actually like in the 1920s and 1930s. As mclarjh points out above, Greene hated Mexico.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_and_the_Glory

...for historical nonfiction try "The Lost World of Quintana Roo" about a man, Michael Peissel I think is the name....

Thanks for sharing this tip. I couldn't find this book locally, but I checked online and see it's on the shelf of the Oaxaca Lending Library, so will dedicate some time next trip to reading it there. (They also have a good selection of B. Traven books too.)

Some very good book recommendations here which I shall endeavour to read before I visit Mexico. Graham Greene is one of my favourite authors and I am currently reading "Travels With My Aunt". I was sure I had a copy of "The Power and the Glory but have just scoured my book shelves and can't seem to find it? Thanks for all the good book tips everyone.

Thanks for the book recommendations and the help with my plans. I have an Amazon cart full of books and an itinerary mapped out!