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The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle

Francisco Goldman

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Oct 19, 2014 Logan rated it really liked it

Shelves: latin-america

Goldman provides an engaging yet disjointed look at Mexico City, a place he has truly fallen in love with. Goldman's perspective on the city is somewhat circumscribed as he tends to focus on (besides a long segment at the end on Tepito) the hip, bourgeois neighborhood of Condesa where he and his other leftist, bohemian, artist-type friends live and frequent.

Having lived in Mexico City myself I found it fun reading about all the quirks of the city that one truly appreciates after having spent som Goldman provides an engaging yet disjointed look at Mexico City, a place he has truly fallen in love with. Goldman's perspective on the city is somewhat circumscribed as he tends to focus on (besides a long segment at the end on Tepito) the hip, bourgeois neighborhood of Condesa where he and his other leftist, bohemian, artist-type friends live and frequent.

Having lived in Mexico City myself I found it fun reading about all the quirks of the city that one truly appreciates after having spent some time there. Nevertheless, I believe the book is still accessible to those who have never set foot in Mexico City since Goldman's vivid descriptions and powerful and deeply passionate emotions about the city and his experiences there keep one wanting to read more. There's also a strong undercurrent throughout the book about coping with grief and loss that many will be able to relate to.

Although there were a number of passages I enjoyed in the book, as a whole the work felt disjointed. Goldman bounces back and forth from describing his own personal experiences in the city to then providing a more journalistic perspective that tries to report on various political events that have occurred or are occurring in Mexico City. Although the book proceeds in chronological order, the chapters do not always link well with one another and thus it almost feels like you're reading a series of essays as opposed to one continuous narrative. The exceedingly long final chapter of the book felt particularly disconnected from the rest of the book and would have been better served as a long piece in the New Yorker or even a book on its own. It feels like Goldman set out to write a book about Mexico City, chronicled his experiences in a series of notes as they were occurring, and then tried to cram it all together with some sort of overarching theme. Overall, I don't think he was entirely successful, but in general it was an enjoyable read and a good introduction for anyone interested in getting a taste of Mexico City. ...more

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May 17, 2014 Sam marked it as to-read

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