Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico

David Lida's stories glow with an undertone of reality that may shock some people, offend others, but paints a true picture of a small slice of Mexico. The characters he features are universal: as some commenters noted, they could be found anywhere in the world. Although fiction, these characters and the scenes in which they act are undoubtedly drawn from real life, from the years that Lida has spent in Mexico. He portrays the dark side of Mexico that the travel agencies and tourist businesses don't want you to know about, but is all too real for those who live there day in and day out. The characters are well defined, and the settings are described in the kind of vivid detail that comes only from personal experience. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. If you're one of those who is fascinated by Mexico and you don't require that every story you read have a happily-ever-after ending, you'll probably appreciate this glipmse of another Mexico that many of us never see.

This is Mexico today, not yesteryear. David Lida has an uncanny ability to get into the heads of a variety of flawed, very human characters. If you want Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, you'll find Travel Advisory disturbing and disorienting. OTOH if you watch the Independent Film Channel, like Jim Jarmusch or old film noir, you'll find it gripping, very real and hard to put down. I liked it and found it very centered on the troubled Mexico of the turn of the millenium. But "heartwarming" or "feel-good" it's not. It ain't hokey or sappy either. The characters are victims, predators, losers and some are just not very nice, but all are very real. Unlike the characters, the style is flawless.

In David Lida's stories things happen. These are not tame stories to read in a waiting room. They are bold and compelling, a fearless journey into the lives of complex characters. The writing is wonderful both in it's prose and in it's story telling. These stories are a pleasure not because they are pleasant, but because they lead you along dangerous paths to important places of the heart. Anyone who thinks these stories are Mexico bashing doesn't understand their intent. They're not about Mexico; they're about you and me.

I read Travel Advisory this past weekend and loved it. It is a compelling collection of short stories about people from all walks of life in Mexico... and the Americans who visit. The characters are dark and vivid in a way that kept me invested in their humanity, even when the brutality of their actions or circumstances made me want to shut them out. The tone of the storytelling reminded me of Paul Bowles... and yet the stories have a further compassion for what becomes of people in the dehumanizing world of polarized wealth & poverty... without being at all preachy or judgemental. Bravo.

Lida plays the gringo-mexicano dynamic like a cello. Sexual victimization comes across as a major theme, perhaps serving as a two-way metaphor for US-Mexico relations and for class relations within Mexican society. Although we sometimes sense this dynamic in inter-American news stories, Lida's fiction brings it into high relief. Americans who have traveled in Mexico will squirm as they see themselves in some of these stories, and as they recognize the brutalities of Mexican life that ardent Mexicophiles like to sweep under the bed. Hard to pick a favorite among the 10 stories, but I loved "The Recruiting Officer" and "Taxi".I have to disagree with the previous reviewer who dimisses Latin American magic realism as "cutesy." And the first story in TRAVEL ADVISORY, "Bewitched," contains a strong dose of magic realism in its finale.