On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey

by Paul Theroux

Hardcover, 2019

Call number

917.204 THE

Publication

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2019), 448 pages

Description

"Legendary travel writer Paul Theroux fearlessly drives the entire length of the US-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland, on the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines."--Provided by publisher.

Media reviews

"On the Plain of Snakes is, in my opinion, the richest portrayal of contemporary Mexico available to Americans, and an urgent one: it’s a picture of the complex country and people upon which many of the privileges of the United States are built. "

User reviews

LibraryThing member SamSattler
Paul Theroux is that rare author whose books I can say directly affected me and my way of life. Theroux is the kind of traveler I try to be (to a much less adventurous degree), a traveler who enjoys straying off the beaten path to explore the places that tourists never get to see, someone who takes
Show More
the time to meet a few of the locals, eat where they eat, and get a feel for what makes a community tick. Paul Theroux has done that all over the world, often placing himself into dangerous situations in the process. But even those of us who do our traveling in less exotic locales, or even from our own armchairs, consider the man to be a role model.

Theroux’s latest, On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey, proves that the man has not lost a step despite his admittance to himself that his future traveling days are limited by his advancing age. The now 78-year-old Theroux (who was 76 during his travels through Mexico) realizes that younger people see him as an old man well past his prime – the way they see everyone who manages to make it to seventy. To them he is invisible and easily ignored. Well, Theroux is not playing that game. He does concede, however, that his days of driving the backroads alone could end the very next time he has to pass the eye exam needed to renew his driver’s license. As Theroux puts it, his driver’s license now has a “use-by date” on it. So, if not now, when?

Theroux has been in some tight spots before during his travels, but his almost foolhardy decision to travel alone into the heart of Mexico has to rank somewhere among the most dangerous situations he has ever inserted himself into. The author began his Mexican journey by traveling from west to east the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, hopping back and forth between U.S. and Mexican border towns. He crossed into and out of those border towns more than a dozen times, the places most prone to the kind of random violence orchestrated by the several drug cartels that control the Mexican side of the border (and some would say also the American side). From the border, Theroux proceeded to Mexico City, where he spent some time teaching a course on writing, before heading further south where he would end up near the Guatemalan border.

And the best part about all of this? Theroux went where the roads took him, figuring all the while that it was best to keep moving no matter how bad or how deserted the next road he turned onto might prove to be. Along the way, he spent time with peasants, artists, writers, students, the leader of a twenty-year-long rebellion, and indigenous inhabitants of the country whose Spanish was worse even than his own. That he was willing to take the time necessary to earn the trust and the friendship of so many Mexicans explains how Theroux survived an adventure that everyone warned him against – including the Mexicans with whom he discussed his general plan beforehand. His friends took good care of him.

Theroux may have been plagued by dejection and self-pity when he began his trip through Mexico, but he ended it on a high note and with a smile on his lips. He proved one more time that there is a huge difference between traveling as a tourist and traveling as a lone observer of the world and its people. Paul Theroux is a role model for real travelers everywhere.
Show Less
LibraryThing member maryreinert
Absolutely fascinating account of the country of Mexico, from the border to the far south; from the urban Mexico City to the most remote village in the mountains. Paul Theroux has traveled the world. He took off in his car alone to follow the border between the US and Mexico; he saw both sides.
Show More
From there he traveled south. He met with ordinary people, stayed in ordinary places, and wrote about his experiences--several that could be considered frightening. This is a view of Mexico from the eyes of an ordinary traveler told with vivid writing, I couldn't help but want to read more. In many cases, I kept my phone nearby to look up images, names, and maps. I never understood the affect NAFTA had on Mexico, now I have some idea. I never really understood why so many wanted to come to the US; now I have some idea--and not always what I have been led to believe.

I loved this book. The only reason I took a half-star away was a few of the times Theroux would get off on a tangent about literature, writing, or some other idea. However, this made me definitely want to read more of his work. I've been a few places in Mexico, but never like this. The only thing that would have enhanced the book would have been maps and more pictures. (There are a few, but I wanted more).
Show Less
LibraryThing member untraveller
it was good to see that Theroux went beyond the border to discover Mexico. An excellent travel writer no matter where he goes and a writer whose opinions are generally trustworthy, he travels essentially the length and breadth of the country and does a good job of avoiding most Americans while
Show More
doing so. Finished 19.08.20.
Show Less
LibraryThing member aront
Read the 2-3 star reviews before reading this book. Theroux’ undeniable talent as a writer is too often marred by his narcissism and arrogance. Also, please don’t think you have a clear understanding of the complexities of Mexican politics, it’s relations to the US or true insights into its
Show More
culture, after reading this book.

What really ticked me off was his critique of Mexican writers whom he claimed looked outward, instead of going into the countryside, like he did. He also praised his own clear and truthful writing about harsh reality as opposed to their romantic escapism through “magical realism”.

The irony is that Theroux does not live up to his own ideals. He totally romanticizes the Zapatistas and their leader subcommandante Marcos. His admiration is understandable. Unlike most revolutionaries the Zapatistas have neither cashed out, Animal Farm style, nor created a 1984 dystopia. But after 25 years the brutal and harsh truth is that the Zapatistas have had only marginal impact on the plight of indigenous people, on the poverty of Chiapas, and the corruption of Mexico’s government.

Marcos reminds me of an ultra Orthodox rabbi who urges his youthful followers to lead a life of almost impossible austerity, to turn their back on the modern world, only to be disappointed when he discovers their favorite music is Reggaeton!

By contrast to them, their namesake Zapata engaged with the reality of Mexican life and politics. Personally, I admire the emotional truths of magical realism, which are deeply informed by ancient lived reality, far more than the flowery rhetoric of Zapatista idealism, disconnected from the world we live in.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla
In which the renowned curmudgeon traveller takes on Mexico. I've enjoyed many of Theroux's books through the years, but to me he's off his game a trifle here. The book begins with a round trip along the country's border with the United States, from whence he proceeds to travel southward to its deep
Show More
south. When Theroux is out there on the street meeting the common man, the book is as good, at least almost, as anything he's ever written. There's too much soapboxing, however, as he laments the plight of the migrant, Mexico's disappeared students, and the country's indigenes. Although it is difficult to argue too much with Theroux's viewpoint on these matters, political analysis is not, I think, what readers want or expect from Theroux, and in any case all these hard luck stories are pretty repetitive. Another waste of space here is his detailed account of a month in Mexico City "teaching a class" which would be interesting if that were what he was actually doing, but for mine it resembled more closely a think tank with the great and good from Mexican journalism lucubrating on the nation's difficulties. I could have done without the longish spell of literary criticism wherein he blasts away at the literary reputation of a parcel of Mexican novelists you probably have never heard of, and even appends a short story of his own. Good in parts, but at bottom a curate's egg, and an extremely long one at that.
Show Less

Awards

Pages

448

ISBN

0544866479 / 9780544866478
Page: 0.5278 seconds