Paul Theroux has been a successful travel writer for a very long time, but he is new to me. Lucky me, I read this free, thanks to Net Galley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It’s for sale now.

The first thing that took my notice was that this is a gutsy writer. Though he’s in his late seventies, he hops in his personal vehicle and motors south to Mexico, and then all over that nation independently, venturing into out-of-the-way spaces, mostly eschewing the usual tourist haunts that draw the spring break crowd from the US and other parts. Over and over again, locals explain to him that this road, or that, or the other is very dangerous right now; sometimes he revises his route; sometimes he takes the route but at a different time; and sometimes he goes anyway, but takes somebody with him. What he doesn’t do is go home early, or store his car somewhere and follow a tour guide around. I stand in awe.

Theroux approaches his journey as a researcher, rather than as a tourist advisor. He interviews countless individuals, even learning a little of one of the indigenous languages—in addition to Spanish-- in order to communicate. I gave up trying to trace his route, instead just going with the narrative as it unspools.

I have to tell you, this is a tome. I might never have finished it had I relied exclusively on my review copy. I recognized it would be a hefty commitment to get through all of it, so once again, I turned to Seattle Bibliocommons for the audio version. I found it went much faster once I was able to do something else with my hands as I listened. Joseph Balderrama is a wonderful reader, and I quickly found myself absorbed into the journey, as if I were an unseen passenger.

Theroux takes us through the ordeal at the US/Mexico border, which was a nightmare during the time this was written, during the Trump administration. (If you have a MAGA cap in your closet, you may not enjoy this book.) He listens to Mexican citizens that live near enough to the border that they can actually see it from their homes, or from their workplaces. Some of them have lived in Mexico but worked in Texas for a long time, and the hardship they experience once the rules are changed is dreadful. And the insight I gain from listening to his interviews with people there about immigration to the US is most enlightening.

The most amazing thing to me is the way the cartels and the Mexican police force overlap, and in a number of places are exactly the same people! He describes multiple shakedowns by traffic cops while he is driving. It seems that the state pays its cops next to nothing, and so in order for them to support themselves, (particularly, we assume, those not being paid by cartels also,) they are permitted to stop anyone they believe has some money, and essentially intimidate them into a bribe. But it’s not complete chaos: once a driver has been shaken down, they are entitled to a receipt for the money they have had to forfeit so that another cop up the road cannot do the same thing.

The one tourist area Theroux passes through is Puerto Vallarta, which also happens to be the only place in Mexico that I have visited. About ten years lapsed between my visit—a very pleasant one—and Theroux’s, and I was saddened to learn how unsafe it has become, and how badly the locals, who were mostly middle class when I was there, have it now.

There are a number of fascinating passages, and I learned a lot. One village is awash with what sounds like a new sort of trans woman, (new to an American from Seattle, at least,) and another where the handmade sandals are finished with a jaw dropping method. There’s one very poor village where earthquakes occur so frequently that most of the homes are no longer standing, but many people won’t sleep indoors anyway for fear of being crushed to death. No aid from the Mexican government or any international body has ever reached them. Those people are on their own, and they are suffering.

Perhaps the sweetest parts have to do with the friendships that the writer forms with the people he meets there. In particular, I enjoyed reading his interviews with his new author and artist friends.

For those like myself that approach this with general interest, I’d call this a four star book. My stamina is greater than most, yet as much as I enjoyed it, it did feel a little bit lengthy. For those with a particular interest in the socioeconomic, cultural, and political realities of Mexico, it’s five stars, hands down.

Recommended to those with an interest in this field.

I know Mexico well and was concerned about the confluence of memory, a sharp narrator and the hubbub over who can tell which story to lead to a Bowdlerized trip. I should not have worried. "The Plain of Snakes" is Paul at his best.

Few have seen the world like Paul Theroux has. Since the 1960s, Theroux has been writing novels and travel books that specialize in getting to know the cultures and people he experiences and meets. His most recent book, On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey, relates his experiences traveling through Mexico and the U.S. borderlands.



Part of the stated reason for his journey is in response to the election of President Trump, who has been vocal about strengthening the border with Mexico and who has been criticized for some of his public statements about Mexican immigrants. Theroux makes his contempt for Trump and his views pretty clear, and is happy to report when he finds Mexicans who share his contempt.



Theroux's writing vividly captures the landscape and features of the land, but his strength is meeting everyday people and telling their stories. (He does tend to spend too much time on Mexican literary traditions; I just found those portions of the book to be a bit dull.) Personalizing the people of Mexico accomplished Theroux task of helping his readers see them as neighbors and peers. He's less friendly to the Mexican government. He's constantly in fear of getting pulled over, acknowledging that in some areas the police are actually members of drug cartels. He also reports on mass kidnappings and murders, at the hands of cartels and of the state. So his task of trying to make me more sympathetic to Mexico really made me want to avoid it even more.



Is Mexico a friendly neighbor? In many ways, yes. Theroux's time on the border towns emphasize the economic symbiosis that is so clear between our two nations. But overall, the corruption and crime that mark so much of the country, by his reporting, give me pause and make me tend to agree with Trump--get that wall built! This is a beautiful country with rich cultural traditions with a rotten ruling class that badly needs to be democratized and reformed.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Things have rather got away from me and I’m way behind on my book reviews, but there’s no time like the new year to start playing catch up, so here we go. I’ve read Paul Theroux before, and love his writing, so I was looking forward to reading On The Plain of Snakes. A book like this — a writer I enjoy in terrain with which I am unfamiliar — offered much and, on the whole, delivered.

I know where Mexico is on the map. I know it has earthquakes and volcanoes. I know it has a drug culture and a fraught relationship with the US. That’s about it. And from this book I learned a whole lot more.

Theroux begins by following that troublesome border between Mexico and its northern neighbour from the Pacific to the Gulf coast, crisscrossing from one side to the other before taking off and heading much deeper into the country. In terms of what I learned much of it was revelatory and his slightly world-weary eye for detail, especially in a country which comes across as violent and threatening, is second to none.

If I had a gripe with the book it was that I felt it was a little too introspective and the focus too much on Theroux himself. We didn’t, in my view, need the short story that appeared in the middle, nor was i that interested in his own stint as a writing tutor in Mexico City. 

But that’s a personal thing. As I say, the writing was haunting, the sense of danger real. Mexico is a fascinating place by this account, but with its death cults, its gangs and its corrupt authorities, not one I’d ever visit.

I was a little wary of this book, having gotten thoroughly fed up with Theroux's misogyny and snobbishness in his earlier travel books and novels. And while those elements are certainly still present--he mentions a few women writers, but cites primarily men, and the male gaze is ever-present and often unpleasant--On the Plain of Snakes was nonetheless an interesting read. Theroux travels the Mexican-American border seeking out stories of border crossings, NAFTA's effects, the gangs that control the trafficking of drugs and people, the desire for different lives, and more. The Mexico he presents is a brutal and vicious one with little recourse due to corruption and fear. He learns Mexican Spanish and runs a writing workshop, is beset by cops seeking bribes, and compares his experiences with other writers who have traveled the area. There's some value here despite the drawbacks, I think, although I'd love to know what Mexican readers think.

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 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.

4.5 stars. Feeling old and unappreciated, Paul Theroux decides to under take two journeys through Mexico: one along the contentious U.S./Mexico border, and then one into Mexico, traveling through Monterrey to the central highlands on to Mexico City then to Oaxaca, and down south to Chiapas. Along the way, he talks to a wide variety of Mexicans: the destitute to the wealthy, those integrated into the Spanish language speaking mainstream, and those belonging to far more ancient indigenous cultures. He meets with corruption and with incredible kindness, generosity and welcome. He investigates the history of many of the issues troubling the country: the vast inequality and narco violence and he also delves into Mexico's incredibly rich artistic and cultural heritage. He heads back north to his home country feeling revitalized and fortunate to have had so many rich encounters.

This book is Theroux at his best, writing with passion and soul. Though I personally found the book about 75-100 pages too long, this is probably due more to my lack of interest in politics in general than to any flaw in the writing. Highly recommended to those wishing to understand the complex culture and history of Mexico.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read this ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Theroux is one of my favourite travel writer and I was more than happy when i got this ARC.
It's a realistic, engrossing and well written travelogue of his Mexican travel. Theroux leaves no space to exoticism or romantic view, his descriptions are realistic and talks about the harsh reality.
The style of writing is amazing as usual and this is an excellent book.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Rating: 4 well-traveled stars

I was so glad to get a chance to read an eArc copy of Paul Theroux’s latest work about his extensive travels in Mexico the last few years. I value Theroux’s perspective on a nation that I have traveled in quite a bit during the last few decades. I read with sadness about the economic, political, and cartel forces that continue to make life in Mexico a hardscrabble and dangerous life for the poor and indigenous populations.

Theroux takes us on a wide-ranging journey. He first focuses on the US-Mexican border. He jumps back and forth the border at multiple spots. He describes the change in the border, the border crossing process and the border towns over the last 50 years or so. Then he drives an inland route down to Mexico City where he stops to teach a class and explore Mexico City with his students. He eventually travels south to Oaxaca, and the far southern state of Chiapas. He visits many small villages along the way.

Theroux’s strength is his clear description of the history and events that led up to the current situation. He is at his strongest when recounting stories from the Mexicans that he meets along his travels. He meets the good, the bad, and the ugly while visiting Mexico. He does not sugar coat the bad and the ugly, and he does not discount the good. Mexico is a complex country with longstanding economic and political issues. As a US citizen, these issues are largely foreign to me. This book was a clear-eyed yet sobering read about a country that I have spent many happy months traveling in.

I’d recommend this for the armchair traveler, and anyone interested in how history and recent events have shaped the United States’ southern neighbor.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and the author, Paul Theroux for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It's very interesting to read of those who live across the border that is so well protected. Of people who are desperate to leave their home country and dream of another live in the US. Yet I sometimes struggled with the way Theroux writes. I know not everyone will agree. Especially those who have read many of his books before.

Paul Theroux is often lauded as potentially the greatest travel writer of his generation and with this, his latest book, he shows that his power remains undiminished.

Mexico is a big country, something like eight times the size of the United Kingdom, and yet its population is only about twice that of the UK. It’s ethnically diverse with just over half of its people identifying themselves as mixed race. It’s rich in natural resources, but its wealth is unevenly distributed, with the top ten percent of the population hogging nearly half of the income and (according to Wikipedia) a third the countries inhabitants are forced to get by on less that $5 per day. And the principle message I get from television and radio is that Mexicans are permanently queued up at it’s border attempting to bust, sneak or climb their way into the promised land that lies to the north. It’s the message that Trump has been blasting out, the ‘build the wall’ mantra he’s been been espousing for years, that appears to have been Theroux’s prompt to explore this land. What’s life really like on the other side of the fence?

Our intrepid traveller sets out a plan to drive along the American side of the border, from San Ysidro in the West to Brownsville in the East, slipping over into Mexico at every crossing opportunity to visit border towns and talk to people on both sides of the divide. Once this exercise has been completed he will head south and drive the length of the country. As always happens when I join him on his journeys, it becomes obvious from the start that he will meet interesting people, unearth thought provoking facts and stimulate a desire in me to step out of my own comfort zone and explore some of the more interesting regions of this big wide world we live in.

Theroux’s border exploration certainly threw up a few early eye opening surprises for me:

- His experience suggests that gringos (particularly those of advanced years – he’s now in his mid to late seventies) are treated with a good deal of respect in Mexico. This contrasts starkly with how Trump and his crew paint the average Mexican and therefore the way in which many who have made the journey in the opposite direction are treated or perceived.

- People living in the border towns in both countries tend to laugh at the idea of building a bigger, better wall: the standard retort being along the lines of if you big a bigger wall they’ll just find a longer ladder.

- The border is certainly very porous, though significantly less so since 911. It’s also clear that there is a ready market for crossings driven partly from people coming into Mexico and travelling north from violent Central American countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Also, increasingly many from Africa, India and Pakistan fly into Mexico and attempt to cross the border into America. There is a steady market for professional criminals (coyotes) who charge hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of dollars to transport these people across the border. But more than this, it’s clear that thousands of Mexicans make the journey across the border daily, quite legally, to work and then return to their homes at the end of their labours. In this sense the border felt to Theroux more like a blur than a clean straight line.

- In Theroux’s earlier book Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads he talked about the loss of manufacturing jobs to factories being set up in Mexico, but what I hadn’t realised is that many of these these are sited literally a stone's throw from the border itself, clearly visible from the American side. Mexicans working in these factories can typically work a ten-hour shift for an average pay of $6.

After completing the border section of his journey he heads south from Reynosa, heeding the many warnings he’s received from both his fellow countrymen and most of the Mexicans he’s met along the way; primarily the advice he received consisted of an instruction not to travel at night and to make sure that his car his was safely protected while he slept. As I read this account of his journey, the people he met and the conversations he had with them, I felt a mixture of envy at the adventurousness of it all mixed in with a pang of anxiety for Theroux’s wellbeing – it’s clear he was taking some risks, certainly more risks than I’d have entertained. On one occasion early on he explored the red light area of a town with the help of a local driver who was clearly reluctant to enter this dingy, threatening neighbourhood, even during daylight hours.

From the start, the author had heard talk of how the cartel gangs fought with each other over territory, how these gangs were often in cahoots with the police and that random kidnappings and murders were common place. In the town of San Luis Potosí he came across a demonstration concerning the kidnap and likely murder of forty-three students a few years earlier, most of the bodies never found. This is the dark side of Mexico. In fact, as he approached Mexico City, Theroux had two run-ins with the police, both as a result of minor (or perceived) traffic violations. In both instances the police officer aggressively demanded money (between $250-$300) or he’d have his car impounded. He was later to experience this again and learn that these shakedowns are routine in a country where corruption amongst the police, local authorities and the government is rife. In fact, it’s a commonly held belief that there is no separation between the police, the military and the narcos. On the flip side, he was to find, particularly amongst uncomplaining people who had the very least, a generosity and kindness of spirit that was restorative.

Through his journey, Theroux describes the what he sees and the places he visits, drops in a little history here and there, ruminates on Mexico’s art and culture and provides a regular dose of interesting and amusing anecdotes. He’s a chatty fellow and he clearly speaks passable Spanish, so he mixes readily with the locals and is able to provide a sense of their perspective on life in this country with its many challenges and significant perils. But he also sees that there is an appreciable upside of living in a place where, for the most part, family is sacrosanct and the old ways are still valued and preserved, particularly in the poorer towns and villages.

In fact, as he travels south, beyond Mexico City, he points out that though the north lies in the shadow of America, teased by its rich neighbour, the south is a place apart, the poorest part of the country. And his experiences confirm a phrase he’d come across before - the past of a place survives in its poor. He’d taught a class to a group of eager writers for ten days in Mexico City and now he’d booked himself in as a student to buff up his own Spanish during a three-week spell at a school in Oaxaca. In the final sections he heads further south still, increasingly delving into the history and culture of this land.

I most enjoyed Theroux’s accounts of the travel itself, talking to people he met along the way, the accounts of his small adventures and his honesty regarding the worries and insecurities he experienced as he travelled. His awe at the dramatic landscapes is obvious as is his displeasure at the ugly urban sprawl that is an ingredient of just about every city he passed through. But above all it’s the overpowering feeling of discovery that shines through. How brave of him to take on such a massive and hazardous trip at an age many are lighting the fire, pulling up the comfy chair and donning the slippers. He’s an intelligent and insightful companion and I’d urge anyone who has an interest in travel to grab a copy of this book – I found it truly inspirational.

Another fantastic book by Paul Theroux each one of his books takes us to a new place a new country he delves deep into the culture the people.Mexico has become a difficult and at times very dangerous country.The people the places come alive as he travels through he is also open honest about his own personal problems. Highly recommend this book&all his eye opening books.#netgalley#hmh

On The Plain Of Snakes is such a relevant read. Paul Theroux is one of my favorite travel writers, and his latest offering continues his profound observations and harsh truths. Obviously, there are serious and deadly problems along the United States and Mexico border. This book is sharp, insightful and disturbing. Theroux tells the truth, even when so many would rather not hear it. I highly recommend this book for anyone with even a slight intrest in the welfare of those who cross and protect the border. It's a look at a different place and people who are almost hard to imagine. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

It’s fantastic to lose yourself in the world of Theroux, and the latest is no exception. He’s such a marvel in that he is such a graceful writer who brings the countries he is writing about alive, and he’s also never judge mental of the negatives. This Mexico book is tough, the violence is so visceral, but at the same time, he paints a country rich in color and culture

Paul Thereoux is back with an engrossing read: On the Plain of Snakes. No one writes travel and brings scenes alive like he can!

Paul Theroux writes beautifully and with vivid, provocative detail about a complicated place and people in this book.

It’s literary, reflective, geographic, and cultural. Just the kind of book to serve as the centerpiece for conversations about ethnography and society.

Theroux’s work comes not a minute too soon as we circle around questions of place and identity. It’s more than entertainment and more than literary — this book is a descriptive photograph that explores many nuances.

Paul Theroux is simply the best travel narrative writer out there. His books are so successful because he not only digs deep into the lives of the people who live where he travels, but also because he is so incredibly forthcoming about his own life with all its struggles, trials, tribulations and joys and successes. This time he looks at the border we share with Mexico, the U.S. Border Patrol, the people who live on both side of the border and the people willing to risk everything for a chance at the “American Dream”, if that even exists anymore. With ignorance and rhetoric dividing our country, Theroux’s book is a clear eyed, sometimes heart breaking look at who we really are