Book Review: “Down & Delirious In Mexico City”
And today, an interesting discussion about Daniel Hernández’s “Down & Delirious in Mexico City: The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty First Century,” which in Adolfo Guzmán-Lopez’s estimation is a “pull-you-by-the-hand-otherwise-you’ll-get-swallowed-by-the-mosh-pit account of the city’s youth cultures and Daniel’s moth-to-the-lightbulb first hand account.” Guzmán-Lopez included an interesting back-and-forth email conversation between himself and Hernández in the story, which you can read here, but for now, an excerpt:
From: Daniel H.
To: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
Sent: Tue, June 7, 2011 2:16:21 PM
Subject: Re: Down and DeliriousI don’t know. Wanderlust? I wanted to try out that “citizen of the world” thing and see how it works, see if I cold inhabit it. It was mid 2007; I could see the writing on the wall. The media companies were contracting. I wanted to try out a different platform, a book, try out a different city, DF, and try living in a different country, one of two that I can claim as my own…
On Jun 15, 2011, at 10:52 AM, “Daniel H.” wrote:
Yes, I think I do remember thinking twice about swallowing the red pill. But not. Let’s defer here to my thought process represented in this post at Intersections. Drugs and drug-use are a highly complex issue, of course. I had some misgivings about how the drug-related sections of “Down & Delirious” would be read and absorbed. Thankfully, in the reaction among readers, these sections have not overshadowed the rest of the book. I think that says something about changing norms and attitudes regarding drugs among regular people, regular book-buyers, regular voters, regular taxpayers. Also, I showed the sections early on in the process to my parents: They were cool with it.
Both guys are pretty interesting, if you want to follow Hernández, his Twitter feed is worth a look, @longdrivesouth, and Guzmán-Lopez here, @aguzmanlopez. I’ve been meaning to read this book, ah, and now I definitely have to get to it. Yay for my to read list!
Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD
