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56
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
46/100Critics
65/100Scholars
Author:
Juan Villoro, Alfred MacAdam
Publisher:
Pantheon
Date:
March 23, 2021
Horizontal vertigo. The title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes, which led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. Villoro wanders through the city seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things, while drawing connections among them.
What The Reviewers Say
... gathers [Villoro's] most incisive essays, chronicles and personal memories in an attempt to tackle a singular challenge: How does one comprehend the most populous city in North America, with its rich history, complicated economy and multivalent culture? Each person who experiences it has his or her own interpretation of what the city is, and Villoro’s is as striking as the iconic urban center.
Villoro recounts his adventures with a mix of irony and empathy, with a sense of humor and a feeling for the absurd. He is exquisitely attuned to the capital’s contradictions and nuances, and he knows how to listen to its inhabitants. There are deeply moving moments in this book.
Dating back to 1993, the entries in this diary of a city mostly veer away from the catchalls used commonly when writing about metropolises, and stand as Villoro’s own illustrations of an unfathomably difficult task, placing oneself in the context of a world like Mexico City.
Villoro applies his witty and incisive pen to the monster that is Mexico City.
