Rating: 
Summary: a beautiful book
Review: This book really gets into what goes on in Mexico. I grew up in Guanajuato and sometimes it takes a really gifted writer to expose a place. I think the gringo hipper-than-thou comments about what is authentic or not really miss what Cohan has done. He has perfectly describe a town and region I have known all my life. Maybe Mexicans are in a better position to appreciate this than others, I don't know. But this book really took me through a rich journey. Felicitaciones!
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Summary: On Mexican Time: A New Life in San Miguel
Review: This is the best book of this genre that I've read, and I've read a lot of 'em. I spend as much time in Mexico as I can and go as often as I can, and reading this book is the next best thing.
Rating: 
Summary: pretentious and elitist
Review: This should be under the fiction section. Senor Tony's take on life in the glitzy resort town of san miguel de allende is self-serving, delusional and inaccurate. I won't even go into the lofty professorial tone he oozes like the stink off of ripe cheese. If you know nothing about Mexico, you'll love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, insightful, rich
Review: Tony Cohan brings most of your senses into play with his descriptions of life in and around San Miguel de Allende - smells, tastes, colors, the changes of the seasons, and so on. There's also a cast of local characters that seemingly changes as often as the seasons, and a fairly significant chunk of the book is devoted to their experiences in buying, renovating and adding on to an aged, practically falling-down hacienda, with the inevitable experiences with various workers, handymen, etc. If you're already interested in Mexico, and particularly San Miguel de Allende, this is probably a good choice. If you're squeamish about reading about getting 'turista' or killing scorpions, this is too 'bohemian' for you. :^)
Rating:
Summary: As warm and colorful as the author's garden
Review: Very affectionate as memoirs go, as the author's appreciation of San Miguel grows with the passage of 15 years. We see nervous visitors develop increasing resourcefulness as they become contented residents, while they introduce us to a parade of beguiling acquaintances. Familiar ground to those who love Mexico already, a worthy introduction for others curious why we do.
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Summary: A New Kind of Travel Writing
Review: What I really liked about this book was that it seemed to move beyond the typical post-colonial gringo-goes-somewhere-and rhapsodizes-about-the natives. Cohan lived there for many years before he took up his subject, and it shows. He starts out as a romantic voyeur but as the book goes on his experiences deepen and he manages to convey those realistically and yet lyrically. Mexican-U.S. relations are among the most charged on the planet. On Mexican Time is an enchanting book, yes, but it's doing some serious cross-cultural business at the same time.
Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes Annoying, Sometimes Touching...
Review: You know how these expatriate memoirs go, but to summarize: Travel writer Tony Cohan and his artist wife have this feeling of uneasiness in the 3:00 AM of their souls that (as far as I can tell) comes from living a life--why is it always in New York City of LA?--that doesn't involve worrying about how to pay the mortage, whether one's 10-year-old car will start, or having to get to work on time Monday morning no matter what. And author Tony Cohan soon realizes that--outside of their sealed enviroments of residence, car, and clients' offices--the surrounding society seems to taken a chaotic cast, like something out of Bladerunner. So, the two of them did what any other couple with a six-figure bank balance would do. They rambled down to the small town of San Miguel de Allende, tucked away away in the mountains of Mexico, where they gradually felt the feelings of malaise lifting. Naturally, the two of them found themselves spending more and more time there. (They shuttle back and forth from LA like most of us catch a crosstown bus.) They learned a little Spanish--make that damned little. They learned a little about the culture--make that damned little as well. One day, in a rare and curious moment of passion, they pulled $85,000 out of the bank and bought a dilapidated house that they had rehabbed until it looked kinda like their place in LA, except with chalk walls and quaint neighbors outside. Friends visit. Friends depart. Once in a while, other duties beckon--like when Cohan has to fly back to the US to meet with a publisher. Life can be tough, you know? But you just push on through, you and your lifemate... That's the ticket.... And the love between you deepens, just like the love you have for San Migule. Fade out. Roll the credits. I think the problem with the book, what really annoys the hell out of readers and reviewers, is that they can't identify with the narcisstic twit lifestyle of Tony Cohan and his wife. What are the stakes in the narrative, except to scratch a vague itch? At times, when the stakes DO seem to rise beyond the pursuit of self, the reading gets interesting. Most often, it's when acquaintances get sick, or when they die. (That's bound to happen when you hang around for fifteen years in a small Meixcan town in which your friends are Americans at the outset are well into middle age or beyond.) The scenes that resonated to me most were the ones where Cohan and his wife rehabbed an old house. A couple of years ago, I re-did a bodega that rented for $100 a month in the red-light district of a border town, where I was doing some documentary work. I had some of the same cross-cultural mishaps happen, except mine reached a more dramatic crescendo when I went to holler at some spectacularly inept locals who were patching the roof. In a snit, I ran through a sliding plate glass door that my then-wife had cleaned spotlessly and replaced back in its track only moments ago. A bit more on the positive side: Cohan's prose is competent. So, this is an OK read on an airplane. And I think that "On Mexican Time" can serve as a starting point for the neophyte who will eventually want to learn (much) more about Mexico.
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