Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating reading
Review: Not only does Mary Morris transport you to Central America, but also in the depth of a woman's soul. Fascinating writer. I recommend this book to everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: I want to read more...
Review: So, i got this book from a friend and maybe it was the perfect timing cause i was thinking about mexico and wanting badly to be in it's climate and "place". and i read the book and it really brought me into where i wanted to be. it was like being there, alone, ....and what might happen with your thoughts. i like the idea of getting a grant and seeing what will happen....and this novel really goes through an adventure of what it ..may.. be like. maybe it should have been more "raw", i'd love to know even more, although that may be very challenging, at least for the writer. but, i feel that if you are able to publish, then why hold back?. it is very "diary-ish", but that sometimes is the best. i enjoyed this book very much so and i keep referring to it in my head. it has given me some sense of hope?... and it made me want to go down to mexico even more....
Rating:
Summary: I want to read more...
Review: So, i got this book from a friend and maybe it was the perfect timing cause i was thinking about mexico and wanting badly to be in it's climate and "place". and i read the book and it really brought me into where i wanted to be. it was like being there, alone, ....and what might happen with your thoughts. i like the idea of getting a grant and seeing what will happen....and this novel really goes through an adventure of what it ..may.. be like. maybe it should have been more "raw", i'd love to know even more, although that may be very challenging, at least for the writer. but, i feel that if you are able to publish, then why hold back?. it is very "diary-ish", but that sometimes is the best. i enjoyed this book very much so and i keep referring to it in my head. it has given me some sense of hope?... and it made me want to go down to mexico even more....
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: This book effected me more profoundly than anything else I have ever read in my life.
Rating:
Summary: American pragmatism meets Mexican soulfulness
Review: This book has a haunting quality that comes, in part, from the author's ability to capture the ephemeral quality of Mexican culture and, in part, from the author's own inner-searchings. I have read this book twice, with several years inbetween reads, and each time it made quite an impact on me. I think this book captures some soulful things that we lack as Americans and which the author finds in some of her Mexican friends. It also captures the sense of total foreigness an American can have in a Latin culture.
Rating:
Summary: Search for affirmation
Review: This is a beautiful memoir of Mary Morris' travels into Central America and personal growth around the 1970's. A woman in her early 30's, she has a successful writing career and traveled extensively. Her journey into Central America is a trip embarked with a heavy heart and personal doubts. Her past needs reckoning and her search for personal equanimity is at last confronted when she moves to San Miguel, Mexico. Unknowingly, she rents an apartment in the poorest part of town instead of the more affluent area where many of the "wealthier foreigners" live. This error in judgement serves to be her silver lining. Skillfully brought to life are the neighbors that become her loving friends and substitute family. As she opens herself to their lives and stories, she feels compelled to face her inner demons. For many, the prosect of reading another traveling diary may be stultifying. This is not one of those, but an original attempt to make the relationship of a woman's personal journey inside herself and her global journeys she bravely explores on her own. In her past, Mary has been physically and emotional abused by some of the men in her life. I thing it is extremely important to note that in those years, many of the social/counseling/activist support groups were non-existant, or at the least, in their infancy. For Mary, her travels, and those that she met in the wake of her trips, served as her counselors and support groups. There were a wide assortment of characters that she met in her travels, and her gift is to be able to write about what each of them meant to her. Many of them are truly unforgettable and the times she writes about capture the humor, strength and sorrow of their lives. San Miguel serves as her "base camp" and she plans many visits to the heart of Central America. Knowlingly, she ventures into some of the most unstable countries in the area (San Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia) and trusts her inner instincts to be her compass. Constantly challenging herself in these tension filled areas, subjecting herself to extreme discomfort, poor traveling conditions and appalling lodging, she nevertheless is able to note the beauty of the world, but not so idealistic that she can't complain and feel total despair. Life is NOT perfect on the road, and I respect that she does not front herself off to be in a constant state of traveler's ecstasy.
Rating: 
Summary: tainted excellence
Review: This is a book which richly deserves some judicious editing. Morris can write well, in every sense, yet gets bogged down with her own emotional dramas. Having travelled, much of it by backpacking and hitchhiking, I could easily appreciate her stories and descriptions. Yet I was frequently annoyed by her 'woe is me' whining. It makes only a good book out of what could have been a travel classic. The other reviews here cover the content quite nicely, and accurately. The book is worth reading if travel interests you, but for a far better author in the same vein, check out Tim Cahill. His writing is equally impressive, his travels more interesting, and his self-deprecating humor is a pleasant contrast to Morris, who is unfortunately quite full of herself. I know which author I'D choose to travel with, hands down.
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