Cogan’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, […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Here’s a book of travel essays from a man who obviously admires this country. He’s covered Mexico from coast to coast and from north to south in a criss cross journey that’s well described here. Thus we get informed accounts of places like Cuernavaca, Puerto Vallarta, Oaxaca, Mazatlan and so on, along with […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Where on earth do you start with William Reed? It’s as if he’s done everything in his first 75 years. His career beginning makes him seen quite unlikely for what was to follow. For example, he closed that first chapter on November 30, 1967, when he quietly retired from the U.S. Navy after […]
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Cogan’s Reviews Here’s an interesting and entertaining collection of essays, mainly about Mexico, but also covering a surprisingly wide range of other topics that reflect Michael Hogan’s many and varied interests. The Mexican entries include items like “The Crawling Things of Paradise”, a small tribute to all the crawling, flying, buzzing, poisonous, and non-poisonous insects […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Here’s a guidebook with a very definite difference. It doesn’t just set out in the usual way to give you a rundown on the community and make suggestions on what to do and where to go. Rather, Joseph Harmes, has put together a rather incredible list of ‘bests’ – some 126 pages of […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews I’ll confess to having some trouble getting into this collection of stories. I found the first two tales so downbeat that I wondered if I could read the rest. I persisted, however, and I’m glad I did. They aren’t the most pleasant stories you’ll ever find and the characters – both Mexican and […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Here’s an unusual volume with ten individual authors, each of whom is independent of the other nine except for the fact they all reside – either full or part-time – in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. Their book consists of some 45 or more pieces of fiction and non-fiction plus a poem […]
Continue ReadingThe following article is essentially a letter which a friend of mine, Ralph Rodriguez, a resident of Guadalajara, wrote to his children some years ago. It concerns an annual festival which is held in the town of Mazamitla, Jalisco, every December. It’s a pretty interesting time to visit and make the 90 or so minutes […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Frankly, I find this a rather lightweight collection of stories. And, as I’ve never read anything else by Garcia Marquez I’m left wondering where he got his great reputation. I guess I should get around to reading those better known works of his, like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera and […]
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I should explain at the outset that I have lived in Ajijic on the shores of Lake Chapala for the past five years and there are days when I’ll admit I feel surrounded by Americans and Canadians. I can see all the reasons for living here as happily as I do — the climate, the […]
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