Yesterday's Train: A Rail Odyssey Through Mexican History

Rating:
Summary: Excellent observations of modern Mexico, for a gringo.
Review: Any gringo who has traveled extensively in Mexico will enjoy this read. It captures the essence of this wonderful place, and recognizes the differences of how things work from north of the border, without degrading the Mexican culture. I rate as one of the best books of travel in Mexico.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of the best Mexico books
Review: I found this book on a remainder table and coudn't resist the train travel theme. For the first few dozen pages it seemed promising but was, overall, something of a disappointment.

What's missing in this book is an interesting and cohesive travel narrative. It's not clear to me how the author could spend an entire year riding the rails in Mexico and not have more interesting personal experiences to relate. Instead the book is padded with extended sections that could be gathered together and titled "Mexican History for Dummies". Being a something of a history dummy myself, those sections were what kept me reading. But I wouldn't recommend this book to others unless they have an immediate interest in mexican trains in addition to a need for the quick history lesson.

Having said that, it was interesting for me to read about the periodic advance and decline of the national rail system and its impact on Mexico's revolutionary history. In particular, the route from Mexico City to Oaxaca brought back memories of a trip my wife and I took with two friends in 1989. At that time the service was at its peak, with nicely restored sleeper cars featuring ensuite lavatories and comfortable (if small) folding beds. That's a trip we would like to do again but it's no longer possible with the same level of comfort; according to Pindell the sleeper cars are long gone and the train schedules are erratic.

Rating:
Summary: Mexico connected.
Review: I've now completed Pindell's North American train trilogy, and have found him to be the perfect traveling companion. If this book is slightly less successful than the earlier ones, it is only because the central metaphor -- trains as history -- sits less comfortably on Mexico than it does on the US and Canada. For those who love trains, geography, or cultural history, this book provides some clean connections.

Rating:
Summary: There are better Mexico books out there.
Review: This book makes an attempt to be a travel memoir, history book and a political statement all in one. It does not cover any one area very well. Your time would be better spent on concentrating on books that cover these areas in proper detail. The author gets too far off on politics in the second half and it was a struggle to not just put the book away and forget it. There are a few good tales of travel on the Mexican trains, but you have to put up with the rest in between. Not worth the time.