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God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre
written by Richard Grant
Studio : Free Press
by Free Press
Publisher : Free Press
Released : 2008-03-04
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781416534402
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 19 reviews)
List Price : $15.00
Our Price : $8.89
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Product Description |
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Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the rugged, beautiful Sierra Madre mountains begin their dramatic ascent. Almost 900 miles long, the range climbs to nearly 11,000 feet and boasts several canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon. The rules of law and society have never taken hold in the Sierra Madre, which is home to bandits, drug smugglers, Mormons, cave-dwelling Tarahumara Indians, opium farmers, cowboys, and other assorted outcasts. Outsiders are not welcome; drugs are the primary source of income; murder is all but a regional pastime. The Mexican army occasionally goes in to burn marijuana and opium crops -- the modern treasure of the Sierra Madre -- but otherwise the government stays away. In its stead are the drug lords, who have made it one of the biggest drug-producing areas in the world. Fifteen years ago, journalist Richard Grant developed what he calls "an unfortunate fascination" with this lawless place. Locals warned that he would meet his death there, but he didn't believe them -- until his last trip. During his travels Grant visited a folk healer for his insomnia and was prescribed rattlesnake pills, attended bizarre religious rituals, consorted with cocaine-snorting policemen, taught English to Guarijio Indians, and dug for buried treasure. On his last visit, his reckless adventure spiraled into his own personal heart of darkness when cocaine-fueled Mexican hillbillies hunted him through the woods all night, bent on killing him for sport. With gorgeous detail, fascinating insight, and an undercurrent of dark humor, God's Middle Finger brings to vivid life a truly unique and uncharted world. |
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Hmmm.... |
Although I enjoyed reading this book I am left feeling a little bit annoyed. I have travelled many times into the areas Richard Grant writes about and have had very different experiences.
We have had picnics at the side of streams high in the Sierras, have sat in the square in San Bernardo drinking beer scores of times, drank whisky on the river bank in Chinipas, drove hundreds of miles on dirt roads and camped in a tent. We even went down into Batopilas on our 1969 Lambretta with our dog in a basket on the back and spent the night down there.
Although I don't dispute what he is saying, I think that there is also another aspect to this beautiful area. If you go to seek out the danger in any part of the world you will find it, whether it's a city or wilderness. This area is definitely worth a visit and I would hate anyone to miss out because they have read this book. |
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intelligent, exciting book |
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Grant's confident, well researched narration of his travels through the Sierra Madre gave me insight into a culture I had known nothing about before. He imparts a lot of information on Mexican history, indigenous ways of life, folklore, customs of the Sierra Madre and narco-trafficking. Rather than slowing the book down with a lot of dry facts, Grant's research adds to his firsthand accounts and observations and makes them pop with the authority of history and truth. It was clear to me that although Grant was drawn to the Sierra Madre because of the its strange incongruities, lack of culture and lawlessness (among other things), he usually takes a measured, moderate tone to critique the violence and machismo in the region. This was an extremely interesting book. |
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"Nothing happens in Mexico until it happens." |
A few years ago, I picked up Grant's American Nomads after judging it by the cover (and subtitle), and I really enjoyed it. I figured I couldn't go wrong with another book by him.
Of course, I did go "wrong." So did Grant, more so than I could ever dream of doing myself. I'd call it a "true novel"-- it reads a lot like fiction, both in style and substance, but it's a true story. Grant gives a glimpse into a world south of the border that has little in common with standard American life: American Mormons growing marijuana under the coercion of drug smuggling gangs, mafiosos protecting tourist passages in order to avoid unwanted attention, police seeking bribes, the army burning down opium fields and drug lords taking hostages as a substitute source of income, aggression and cocaine and cheap beer everywhere, hostile Native tribes that still live by the old ways. There is a lot going on here, and while there are the occasional bright patches, most of it sounds pretty bad.
The title I gave this review is a line pulled from the book. Before going, Grant got one piece of advice over and over: Don't go anywhere alone. Of course, once advice is ignored, it gets easier to ignore it again. And again. Until something happens, like being hunted for sport by a truckful of hillbillies hopped up on cocaine and booze, for example.
One thing I can say about the book is that the last chapter gave me the most intense state of fear and edge-of-my-seat panic that I've ever gotten from reading anything, in spite of the fact that he must have survived to write a book about his experience. If that's not a recommendation, what is? |
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An okay read....... |
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It's difficult trying to decide how to review this book. It's a good enough read but completely disjointed. I've read a bit about the area in the past so nothing here was completely new. The writer's attitude and premise gives me a problem. There is too much of the "I can only live if I'm living completely on the edge" here. Pretentious? Is that the word? He spends most of the book impressing on the reader how dangerous the Sierra is to the extreme! This is stressed on almost every page. And when he is faced with it first hand he puts his tail between his legs and scrams for the border. So much for living on the edge! It's an okay read, I guess, but there is something of the childish amateur about the writer that will put me off reading anything else he writes or has written. |
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A failed state explained: |
If you have ever been to or thought about going to Mexico: first read this book. You might change your mind. Mexico is a failed lawless state and the book is quite clear about the danger there. Whatever illusions you have about oppressed campesinos will quickly be dispelled. Any thought you may have had about glamour in the drug trade will also be dashed. Instead you will have a birds eye view about a dangerous (in the extreme) lawless land that unfortunately borders the U.S. This is a stomach churning page turner that happens to be true. Read it. Enjoy Mexico in your local Tex-Mex restaurant instead.
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