Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico (Unabridged)
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
At once intimate and wide-ranging, and as enthralling, surprising, and vivid as the place itself, this is a uniquely eye-opening tour of one of the great metropolises of the world, and its largest Spanish-speaking city.
Horizontal Vertigo: The title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes that led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flaneur, Juan Villoro wanders through Mexico City seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things while brilliantly drawing connections among them. In so doing he reveals, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of the city ’s cultural, political, and social history: from indigenous antiquity to the Aztec period, from the Spanish conquest to Mexico City today—one of the world’s leading cultural and financial centers.
In this deeply iconoclastic book, Villoro organizes his text around a recurring series of topics: “Living in the City,” “City Characters,” “Shocks,” “Crossings,” and “Ceremonies.” What he achieves, miraculously, is a stunning, intriguingly coherent meditation on Mexico City’s genius loci, its spirit of place.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This transportive listen is both a deeply personal memoir and a historical trip through the soul of Mexico City. In 46 short essays, novelist Juan Villoro takes us on a personal tour of the earthquake-prone landscape and its people, ceremonies, politics, and places. The result is an intimate and epic portrait that covers everything from his neighborhood coffee shop to the lavish cultural center the Palace of Fine Arts, using these places to explore Mexico’s roots and aspirations. Narrator Gabriel Porras’ easy delivery handles both unnerving details—like the city’s 1985 quake, the constant threat of volcano eruptions, and the presence of dangerous drug lords— and the inherent gentleness of Villoro’s urban memories, from his love of public transportation to his childhood tales of his sheepherding Spanish grandfather. Whether or not you’ve been to this vital metropolis, Villoro’s love of Mexico City will make you want to plan a trip.