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Comments on Reviews of Travel Advisory.

By David Lida ©2000 Todos Derechos Reservados
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Although no writer likes to feel that he or she has been read carelessly, or misread entirely, it's a dubious proposition for any of us to respond to any negative criticism that our books have received. In the lines that follow, I'm going to try to avoid this as much as I can. Instead, I'd like clear up several misconceptions that were posted in Mexico Connect's coverage of my book, TRAVEL ADVISORY. And perhaps in the process offer an alternative point of view.

  1. On the cover of the July issue of Mexico Connect, the teaser that leads to reviews from two contributors points out that TRAVEL ADVISORY has received "both praise and flames." Since both of the site's reviews were flames (one polite but patronizing, the other deliciously shrill), in the interest of balance, I believe readers of Mexico Connect should know that TRAVEL ADVISORY received 17 reviews in the U.S. press, of which 16 ranged from positive to orgasmic. Excerpts from those reviews are posted below.

  2. Hugh Robertson suggests that I have "dipped into Mexico" and the pseudonymous "Sarita Liebkind" (who flatters me immensely by choosing the name of one of my characters for her nom de guerre) that I am a carpetbagger who spent two years in Mexico a decade ago and has never set foot in the republic since. They are both mistaken. I have seventeen years´ experience in Mexico. Although I only lived full time in the country from 1990 to 1992, in each of the intervening years I spent about four months south of the border. My principal area of operations is Mexico City (six of the ten stories in TRAVEL ADVISORY are set there) but as a journalist I have been to twenty states in Mexico. I am also married to a Mexican.

  3. As a reporter, I´ve covered an enormous range of topics in Mexico, from travel to business to politics to culture and the arts, and even bullfighting. I would respectfully suggest that this might give me some points of view that would be difficult to garner for someone whose principal range of experience, for no matter how many years, is life in one of the gringo colonies, such as Lake Chapala or San Miguel de Allende.

  4. U.S. colonials are just about my only, and certainly my most vituperative, critics. They doubt my veracity as a writer on Mexican themes. On the other hand, the Mexicans who´ve read my book have embraced TRAVEL ADVISORY, and believe the stories I tell are true. Reforma, one of the country´s most respected newspapers, published a translation of one of the stories, "Taxi," in their cultural supplement on July

    In August, the cultural supplement of Uno mas uno is publishing the translation of another story, "Regrets." The literary magazine Parentesis is in the process of choosing one of the stories, and two Mexican publishing houses are considering the book for publication. Three Mexican writers and two Mexican editors, who don´t know each other, told me that they couldn´t believe the book was written by a non-Mexican. I would suggest, again most respectfully, that they just possibly might know Mexico even better than Mr. Robertson and "Sarita."

  5. Mr. Robertson contends that, as per Thumper, Bambi's mother, "if you don't have somethin' nice to say, don't say nuthin' at all." On the basis of this comment, I would - yet again, with all the respect he deserves - question what literature he has read. In the entire history of fiction, when has it ever been a writer's job to say something nice? With the possible exception of the author of "Bambi?"

  6. TRAVEL ADVISORY is made up of what the Mexicans call "cuentos duros" or "cuentos crudos." There are instances of violence, abuse, exploitation and victimization, including sexual victimization. These things happen all over the world, including, whether or not Mr. Robertson and "Sarita Liebkind" want to take off their blinders, Mexico.

    As such, it is not a book for the faint of heart, the politically correct, people who look at the world (including Mexico) through rose-colored glasses, and certainly not for readers whose literary hallmark is "Bambi."

    I think the gringos´ objection to the book can be boiled down to two phrases directly from Mr. Robertson's review - his assertion that "Lida´s Mexico is not my Mexico," and his contention that "I don't have to believe (the stories)... and I really don't want to."

    I hate to disappoint - and perhaps indeed I inhabit a world "more priapic" than "Sarita" - but nine of the ten stories are based on experiences I have had in Mexico, people I have known in Mexico, or stories people have told me about their experiences in Mexico. The tenth story, about CIA agent Aldrich Ames´ tour of duty in Mexico City, is documented in various biographies of Ames.

    I hardly had to make anything up.



Traveler AdvisoryFollowing are those excerpts from TRAVEL ADVISORY's reviews in the U.S. press. Those with unquenchable curiosity can find out more about the book from its page on the amazon.com website. The URL is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D068817406X/mexicoconnectA/

Anyone who wishes to reply directly to me can write

to: dosdebuche@hotmail.com


Be well,

David Lida

Oh yes. Those citations I promised earlier . . .

"There is no denying the cumulative power of this book. With unembellished prose, Lida drains Mexico of its romance and exoticism ... these stories offer a dystopian vision of contemporary Mexico: always bleak, sometimes darkly comic, yet fully imbued with a deep regret for what its people have to go through to survive ... This is the kind of writing, dark and daring and fully felt, that makes one look forward to what Lida writes next."

"Gets under your skin ... the power of Lida's stories lies in their tawdry, unraveling characters and the uncompromising, even disastrous situations in which they find themselves in this land of sorcery, squalor and seduction."

"Vivid, deliberate prose and heart pounding narratives ... Wonderfully horrible, a guide to human nature so compelling that you must turn the page despite a reluctance to read of people at their most desperate."

"These short stories ... capture Mexico at its essence, in intimate glimpses rather than generalities ... an easy, narrative style that flows freely from devastating satire to equally insightful compassion."

"David Lida is a highly accomplished writer ... the present collection should bring him some well-deserved attention. His literary technique is impressive, though properly understated. What fascinates is his vision of our world, a vision both grim and sardonic, though his sympathies are plainly with victims of every stamp."

"...if, one after another, his stories construct a Mexico that is greedy and lurid and unjust and filthy and, honestly, a kind of hell, its hellishness is transparently not just that of life south of the border, but life on earth, life inside a human body ... There's no subtle way to put it: This is a wonderful, painful revelation of a book."

"What leaves the reader riveted is not Lida's obsession with nastiness - disturbing though the murder, rape and homelessness are - but his emotional proximity... The stories' details are so unmistakably Mexican, yet their themes are so universal."

"Icy brilliance ... the 10 stories here revolve around unlovely people, unpleasantness and evil deeds, but they are written with such arresting imagery and dark humor that they're the farthest thing from bleak. Deeply and poignantly humane, Lida's forte is the stark portrayal, as bemused as it is unsparing. He offers neither cartoon villains nor plaster saints, but human souls, individual wanderers in a vale of tears."

"Forget your romantic notions about south-of-the-border idylls. Writer David Lida gets at the contradictory, elusive reality of Mexico in this disturbing and powerful debut collection ... elegantly conceived and executed ... a powerful and original writer, one to follow, wherever he takes us next."

"Disturbing, provocative and often darkly funny, the stories in 'Travel Advisory' go a long way toward explaining the duality many of us feel toward Mexico."

"An insider's look at the strange, profoundly messed-up relationship between Mexico and its wealthier neighbor to the north ... Lida slaps the reader with moments of moral ambiguity, leaving us wincing with recognition."

"To be inspired by the colorful chaos of Mexico is one thing, to recapture it is quite another ... the book exposes the underbelly of daily life in Mexico with probing and adept observations ... Lida unveils a world shocking in its contrasts between the surface and the stark reality we choose to ignore."

"Cruel and precise imagination ... that sex is used again and again as the weapon of war between Mexicans and Americans, men and women, poor and rich, is interesting and horrifying in itself. But placed in the political and social context that Lida recreates in his work, it makes for a complex set of relationships that reflect the real-life ties and knots that bind the two countries."

"Gritty and unforgiving ... a convincing, unvarnished picture of a struggling country."

"... a depth of vision rarely found even in most novels today."

"Well-crafted, riveting glimpses of life that will fascinate the reader. Recommended for all libraries."

30-Jul-00

Other Articles by David Lida.



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