On Mexican Time: A Home in San Miguel
Selected Book Details
- Audio Cassette
- Author: Tony Cohan
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Release Date: January 2000
- ISBN-10: 0553526618
- ISBN-13: 9780553526615
- List Price: $25.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryIn the mid-1980s, Tony Cohan and his artist wife, Masako, decided they had had enough of the hectic pace and inherent insecurities of life in Los Angeles and made tracks for the historic town of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. At first they rented rooms in a hotel. Then, when the hotel became less appealing, they graduated to renting an apartment. Almost inevitably, they eventually found themselves buying a 250-year-old hacienda on the verge of collapse, with wonderfully elegant Spanish colonial architecture and a garden brimming with papayas, avocados, and custard apples. What followed was a love affair with a country and its people that has endured. On Mexican Time is a lyrical attempt to capture the Mexican magic that bewitched the two of them. Cohan introduces us to a quirky cast of Mexicans and expats, including murderers, idealists, philanderers, and writers. Spanning 15 years, the book conveys something of the curiously intangible passage of time, as we watch girls become mothers, marriages drift apart, and friends come and go. The text is rich with sensuous details, and Cohan is excellent at conveying the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of a country that he clearly adores. On Mexican Time is much less of a glib chronicle than other books of the "charming new life in paradise" genre. Although he is not averse to the odd moment of portentousness, Cohan makes a gentle and elegant guide through the experiences of expat life in San Miguel. --Toby Green |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Mr. Cohan's Time
Rating:
What a joke! My wife is Mexican, I lived in Mexico, and we laughed out loud reading this book. Mr. Cohan's story reads more like arrogant, narcissistic fiction. In the beginning of the book he laments his L.A. life and is rightfully awe-struck by his first visit to San Miguel. He moves there to get away, but doesn't ever admit that he likes it there because it has little pieces of L.A. - a plethora of English speakers, arty pals, cafes, fine food, blah blah blah. None of which are actually Mexicans or Mexican owned entities. He and his wife don't need real jobs. They just drive around buying art 99.9% of Mexicans don't actually have in their homes themselves. He starts wearing garb he sees locals using in a sorry attempt to act like he's local and waxes on and on about what he thinks Mexico is. His interactions rarely take him in with Mexican families other than when he needs work done. He eventually laments the changes happening in San Miguel (WHAT! you mean when I move here and call it paradise and bring little pieces of my uptight culture with me so I can still feel kinda at home, that is going to mushroom and eventually create a place where YOU might want to come and do the same? INCONCEIVABLE!). Anyway, if you never have been to Mexico or away from heavy tourist areas, you will walk away from this reading with a highly distorted view of what Mexico is and has to offer. Mr. Cohan has a deft way with words, but they only create a world that is at once cartoonish and unrealistic, and shallow due to his personal interests and high-brow needs.
Americans in Mexico
Rating:
This book is not so much about Mexico as it is about the experience of being an American living in Mexico. Thus, it has the perspective of an outsider trying to deal with a foreign culture, and the frustrations that are inevitable in such situations. This is obviously a limitation of the book, but it is a perspective that many Americans can identify with. Apparently many people read this book and felt inspired to go to San Miguel and do exactly what Cohan did, which explains the large number of Americans currently living in this town. The book is well written and at times funny, but if you want to get a true insight into Mexican society you would be better off with one of the books by Isabelle Tree, Sam Quinones, or David Lida.
Relax and get a new perspective.
Rating:
I read a little each night in bed just to remind myself that the things I stressed over all day really mean very little when you step back and look at them. Sometimes life goes a differant direction than you thought you wanted it to.That's not always bad. This is one of those books that remind you to just Breathe and it's all good.
Half as long would be twice as good.
Rating:
Author has a nice touch, however, half way through he seems to run out of much to say except reportage. Reports about fixing a centuries old house can be about as dull as being there. No duller. There are interesting reflections, along with descriptions of people and places in the first half of the book, making it worth the cost of the book and your time reading at least half of it.
Wonderful...wonderful!
Rating:
When I was 16 years old, I traveled to San Miguel de Allende under the kindly watch of a young teacher-couple that I knew through my church. After two weeks in their rented home on Calle del Chorro, they set me up in a casa de huéspedes on Pila Seca Street. It was the most formative adventure of my young life! The introverted and frightened-of-his-own-shadow kid that I was disappeared rapidly as I was enveloped into the fold of the guests at Domingo and Pita's place. I really grew up that summer and made San Miguel my home. I returned home an older and more confident person. My stay in San Miguel de Allende changed my life and is responsible for my love of Mexico and my chosen profession: high school Spanish teacher.
Tony Cohan caught the essence of San Miguel de Allende and I was transported back through his wonderful prose to those days. It was such a thrill to recognize the places he wrote about and the experiences (both frustrating and exhilarating)that time and travel in Mexico provides.
If you want wonderful writing, a deeper understanding of Mexican culture and a view of one of the most beautiful towns in Mexico, I highly recommend On Mexican Time!
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