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Book recommendation
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Phil_K



Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 2041
Location: A World of my Own
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:11 pm    Post subject: Book recommendation Reply with quote
For those who are interested in the history of your adopted country, I recommend two excellent books, both massive!

First, a scholarly account of the conquest - La Conquista de M�xico by Hugh Thomas (nearly 1100 pages) and an excellent and widely applauded novel - Azteca by Gary Jennings (866 pages). (Not either of the sequels, Oto�o Azteca or Sangre Azteca - I've heard they are not as good).

If your Spanish is not up to it, they can be found on Amazon by their respective titles, The Conquest of Mexico and Aztec. Or maybe in the American Bookstore in DF.
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Gary Denness
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I found both Azteca and Aztec Autumn to be ok, but nothing more than that...my personal favourite of the series was Aztec Rage.
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Guy Courchesne



Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Posts: 9650
Location: Mexico City
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I loved Azteca...especially reading it while in Mexico City. I sent my father a copy of the book this month. I wasn't very big on the sequels though.
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Milenka



Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Posts: 113
Location: Mexico City
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:39 pm    Post subject: Re: Book recommendation Reply with quote
Phil_K wrote:

If your Spanish is not up to it, they can be found on Amazon by their respective titles, The Conquest of Mexico and Aztec. Or maybe in the American Bookstore in DF.


If your Spanish is up to it and you like to visit librer�as de viejo, try to find a copy of Historia m�nima de M�xico, edited by Colmex. For the conquista period, you can't miss La visi�n de los vencidos, by Miguel Le�n Portilla, available for around 80 pesos at most bookshops.
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MO39



Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I read Azteca years ago and was not impressed. Though it was obvious that the author had done some reading on Aztec history and culture, he seemed to have taken all the most sensational aspects he could find, to which he added elements concocted by his lurid imagination, and composed a pot-boiler of a novel.
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Phil_K



Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 2041
Location: A World of my Own
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
MO39 wrote:
I read Azteca years ago and was not impressed. Though it was obvious that the author had done some reading on Aztec history and culture, he seemed to have taken all the most sensational aspects he could find, to which he added elements concocted by his lurid imagination, and composed a pot-boiler of a novel.


Kind of like an Aztec soap opera I agree, but I think it was brave to write this way, giving a human dimension to an old civilization. I'm just over halfway through it, and find it unputdownable. For a more scholarly read, as I said, the first book I mentioned would be better.
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sweeney66



Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Posts: 147
Location: "home"
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Another not-very-good but enjoyable book of highly fictionalized Mexican history is Regina by Antonio Velasco Pina. It recasts the events leading up to October 2nd, 1968 as a kind of hippy fantasy of Mexico's "New Age."
Crazy as hell but a good story. Wondering if any of it was even slightly true led me to Poniatowska's non-fiction Noche de Tlateloco, which is very good and terribly sad.
I'm not sure if either are available in English
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MO39



Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Phil_K wrote:
MO39 wrote:
I read Azteca years ago and was not impressed. Though it was obvious that the author had done some reading on Aztec history and culture, he seemed to have taken all the most sensational aspects he could find, to which he added elements concocted by his lurid imagination, and composed a pot-boiler of a novel.


Kind of like an Aztec soap opera I agree, but I think it was brave to write this way, giving a human dimension to an old civilization. I'm just over halfway through it, and find it unputdownable. For a more scholarly read, as I said, the first book I mentioned would be better.


I don't think it was "brave" of the author to write this way, but rather a clever way to sell more books, by emphasizing things like kinky sex. I'm not a fan of soap operas or telenovelas, so perhaps that's one reason why I didn't like this book, and, conversely, why it's been so popular in Mexico!
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