Cogan’s Reviews I reviewed the forerunner of this novel, “Rain of Gold”, a short time ago and reported that I really enjoyed it, even though I don’t normally read many family sagas. The first book was based on the history of the author’s mother’s family. This book is a kind of sequel in which Villaseñor tells […]
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Cogan’s Reviews I finally have gotten around to reading this much beloved novel even though it’s been available for years and was made into a very popular movie few years ago. I’m glad I did. It turned out to be one of the more pleasant reading experiences I’ve had in a while. If you haven’t […]
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Cogan’s Reviews The simplest way to describe this novel is to say that it’s a kind of Mexican “Roots” – a big family survival saga covering three generations of two families, complete with a large cast of characters. Author Villaseñor has based his complex, sprawling tale on the experiences of his own family members and […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews This is one of the most enjoyable fiction “reads” I’ve had in a long time. It’s simply good straightforward storytelling complete with interesting and likeable characters and a good basic plot situation. It is founded on an actual incident in relations between the U.S. and Mexico when, in 1916, Pancho Villa’s bandidos, led […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews It’s hard for a reader to know exactly what to make of this one. Is it fiction? Or is it biography? Or is it something in between? In an author’s note Ms. Mujica states: “Although events in Mexican history and in Frida’s life provide the general framework, many incidents and characters portrayed here […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews I started to read this book expecting to hate it. However, I’m not going to end up saying I read it, and then loved it. Despite some pretty obvious problems, it was a bit better than I expected. The good thing about “Mexico” is that Michener has done enormous research in order to […]
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Cogan’s Reviews This isn’t a book about Mexico. Rather, it’s about Mexicans in California right now. It explores the issue of illegal immigration by examining the lives of four characters – two very well-off Californians, Delaney Mossbacher, a nature writer, and his real estate agent wife, Kyra, and a Mexican couple, Cándido Rincón, and his […]
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Cogan’s Reviews Here’s a collection of stories with a rather unusual theme. Mexico isn’t just the place where the action takes place in these tales. Rather, it’s as if Mexico – sunny, exotic, mysterious and occasionally slightly dangerous – is yet another character in each of the tales. There are 18 stories here, by authors […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews This is a novel about a couple of Americans who choose to leave San Francisco and live in a small, remote Mexican village. They are Richard and Sara Everton. Their purpose is to reopen a copper mine that was abandoned by Richard’s grandfather fifty years ago in the Revolution of 1910. The novel, […]
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Cogan’s Reviews I started to read this book several years ago, before coming to Mexico, and didn’t get very far into it. It’s a formidable 1,038 pages in length and, at the time, I just didn’t feel I could go the distance. Also, the world that Jennings was describing was a bit too alien and […]
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