Review of "Mexicoland" by Annie Smith

Mexicoland

This review by Annie Smith originally appeared in the Gringo Gazette:

Mexicoland is a collection of short stories that takes the reader on a phantasmagorical ride between humor, bittersweet pathos, and outrageous cynicism. Cynicism that whispers into ears too interested to close down. In Mercer's own words he is setting a mood of "disorientation, curiosity, and the exhilaration of living beyond a border." I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting.

The title story is a long, looping allegory about an old gringo who arrives in a small Mexican town and immediately befriends a young Mexican man who becomes his translator and friend. The gringo whose name just happens to be Howard Johnson goes about creating his own version of old Mexico with vision, a great deal of money, and Tomás at his side. Tomás says, "I don't think he needed a translator so much as someone to talk to during the drive or while he did his business in La Paz… He needed someone to listen to his dreams, and his dreams were in English." Señor Johnson becomes larger than life, succeeding in transforming the town into a theme park. The reader is witness to this through the eyes of Tomás, the Mexican. We witness a year in the life of the small town and of these two men with patient good humor and a sense of having been through this before.

There is, I think, in every expatriate a sense of relief in putting down roots in a strange country. It is as though we acknowledge the misfit in us and choose it willingly. We don't have to pretend anymore. In a new country we are, without doubt, misfits. Mercer's stories rise from this acknowledgment. They have an air of strangeness and tension, a lusty bawdiness that manages to poke fun at everyone, gringo and Mexican alike. Most gringos who stay here come to realize that their staying has an effect. Some of it is good, some not so good. Mercer's stories address this conundrum.

The book really divides itself into two parts. The majority of stories are directly about Mexico and a town loosely based on Todos Santos. There is also a smaller group of stories "inspired" by the author's experience of living in Todos Santos. The content of these stories is very different but the tone is similar to the Mexican stories. Mercer's writing rises above people and places and points to the underlying contrasts of two cultures, to our own existential separateness and to the inner corridors of the minds of those who live on the fringe of their own society and sometimes of their own sanity. Mercer writes about artists, writers, resistance fighters, towns overrun by bugs, and childhood trauma. He writes it all with irreverent reverence. If you like Mexico you will probably love this book. If you live here part or full time you will most surely relate. Mercer captures the experience of living in a small Mexican town and exaggerates it, pulls it out, tweaks it at the corners and offers it back to us as a delightful assortment of unforgettable characters. Mexicoland is a good read for anyone, and if you are going back to wherever you came from and want to explain to your friends why you like Mexico this book may be the perfect way to do it. A word of caution however, if your friends don't like these stories you might not want to invite them down. My theory is they would not be good house guests in Mexico.