Unflinching prose reveals Mexico City’s inner life

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‘How many times have you picked up a memoir by some American or European nomad living the good life abroad, and wanted to toss the entire volume out the window after about, oh, two paragraphs?’ asks the L.A. Times’ Reed Johnson in his review of David Lida’s new book about Mexico City, ‘First Stop in the New World.’

‘You know the type of book: a self-congratulatory saga of how the middle-aged author, suffering from chronic First World malaise, cashed in his tech stocks, fled the L.A. or New York rat race and escaped to some exquisite little corner of Provence or Marrakech to raise organic squash, commune with natives and find Enlightenment.

‘Thankfully, ‘First Stop in the New World,’ David Lida’s engaging and sanguine tour of the economic, social, cultural, political, culinary and sexual boulevards and back alleys of Mexico City, isn’t that kind of book.’

Read the review here...

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City