Paul Theroux's "On The Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey" Explores the Complex Beauty and Resilient Culture of Mexico

USA - English

• USA - English

NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In "ON THE PLAIN OF SNAKES: A MEXICAN JOURNEY" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 2019, $30, ISBN: 978-0-544-86647-8), preeminent travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux journeys along the U.S.-Mexico border and into the rural interior to explore a rich, complex culture shaped by ageless traditions and current economic realities. Theroux, who has spent more than 50 years traversing the globe to chronicle the lives of people in distant lands, turns a keen eye on Mexico, a country steeped in immigration news headlines and worn tropes of sarapes and siestas.

In his latest adventure, Theroux brings a journalist's clarity, a historian's depth, and a storyteller's watchfulness. He paints a rich mural of Mexican life, from sampling traditional home-brewed mezcal to meeting Francisco Toledo, Mexico's greatest living artist, to meeting with the secretive rebel leader of the Zapatistas in Chiapas.

As he did in "Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads," Theroux makes his Mexican journey a road trip, driving himself in his own car the entire 1,954 Mexican border, into and around the cities and ventures deep into the rural landscape. He discovers the border to be "a front line that sometimes seems at war, at other times an endless game of cat-and-mouse." Theroux elicits stories from dozens of detained migrants—teenage Daneris, fleeing gang assaults in Honduras; middle-aged Norma from Oaxaca, torn between family members on both sides of the border; Ernesto, a 70-year-old house painter contemplating a lonely future without his four estranged adult children. He watches Maria, a mother of three, quietly praying before a meal at a Nogales shelter, and observes, "Sometimes a whispered word, or a single image or glimpse of humanity can be a powerful motivation for looking deeper into the world."

Theroux takes readers on that deeper, nuanced journey through the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas. He does not sanitize the trauma of poverty in Oaxaca, where per capita income is on par with Bangladesh or Kenya, nor does he minimize the dangers faced by migrants from Mexico and Central America hoping to enter the U.S. "On their trips through Mexico…migrants are brutalized, abducted, or forced to work on Mexican farms, as virtual slaves," he writes. "In the past decade, 120,000 migrants have disappeared en route, murdered or dead and lost, succumbing to thirst or starvation."

Despite the daily trials of rural Mexicans, he finds, the communities share an enduring pride in tradition and strong family ties. In exploring the ancient but overlooked culture south of the border, Theroux contemplates his own status, as a man in his late 70s living in America's youth-obsessed, Instagram-driven society. "I had begun my trip to Mexico in a mood of dejection and self-pity, feeling shunned, overlooked, ignored, rejected."

Theroux connects with Mexican writers, community leaders, rebels, and common laborers, and finds inspiration in their courage, self-sufficiency, and generosity. "One of the greatest thrills of travel," he writes, "is to know the satisfaction of arrival, and to find oneself among friends."

Praise for "On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey:"

"Like his previous accounts, this journey, narrated in his usual, easygoing, conversational style, includes countless lovely descriptions of Mexico's landscapes and insights into the country's history and literature, including Mexican magical realism…Illuminating, literate and timely—a must-read for those interested in what's going on inside Mexico."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Dark-edged but ultimately hopeful…Theroux's usual excellent mix of vivid reportage and empathetic rumination is energized by a new spark of political commitment. Armchair travelers will find an astute, familiar guide in Theroux."
--Publishers Weekly

Praise for Paul Theroux:

"Relentlessly engaging…Theroux demonstrates how a traveler's finely wrought observations…sometimes offer the best political and social analysis."
--Washington Post

"Much of [Theroux's] writing reflects affection for the people in whose midst he is apt to find himself, and a spirit of inquiry that is part anthropological and part autobiographical."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Theroux has been whisking me around the planet for more than four decades. I am transfixed, always, by his ability to write convincingly about the human condition, to make me laugh and cry--and stop to think. His work is benign sorcery. And the books keep coming."
--Anthony Summers, Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for History and Official and Confidential, The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, The Eleventh Day: The Ultimate Account of 9/11

"[Theroux's] work is distinguished by a splendid eye for detail and the telling gesture; a storyteller's sense of pacing and gift for granting closure to the most subtle progression of events; and the graceful use of language."
--Chicago Tribune

"Paul Theroux is an undisputed master of travel literature. He has traversed Mexico with such dedication that he knows its roads as he knows the lines on the palm of his hand. His curiosity does not recognize borders. Nor is he a stranger among us: he is Don Pablo, a wise man who never stops learning."
--Juan Villoro, journalist, playwright, and one of Mexico's most famous authors

"A fascinating immersion in my country, free of prejudice and with eyes wide open."
--Guillermo Osorno, founder of the cultural journal Horizontal and author of Tengo Que Morir Todas las Noches

About Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux ('The world's most perceptive travel writer'--Daily Mail) is the author of many highly acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), The Mosquito Coast (1981) Riding the Iron Rooster (1983), and Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories (2014). In 2015, Paul Theroux was awarded a Royal Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for "the encouragement of geographical discovery through travel writing." This award, approved by the Queen, is the highest award attainable for a traveler, and Theroux joins the ranks of recipients including Sir Edmund Hillary, Admiral Richard Byrd and Dr. Thor Heyerdahl. His other awards include the American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters Award for literature; the Whitbread Prize for his novel, Picture Palace; and the James Tait Black Award for The Mosquito Coast. His travelogue, The Old Patagonian Express: By Train through the Americas, and The Mosquito Coast were both nominated for the American Book Award. His novels Saint Jack, The Mosquito Coast, Doctor Slaughter and Half Moon Street have been made into films and his short-story collection London Embassy was adapted for a British mini-series in 1987. Theroux holds honorary doctorates from three American universities and remains a highly sought-after speaker nationwide.

In The New York Times Book Review, Francine Prose called his story collection Mr. Bones "a series of characteristically dark and sharply focused snapshots from the world that Theroux has observed–and invented." Theroux's book Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (2015), was described by Kirkus Reviews in a starred review as "an epically compelling travel memoir," and a Publishers Weekly starred review called it "Theroux's best outing in years." In a starred review, Publishers Weekly describes the essay collection Figures in a Landscape (2018) as "a magisterial grouping of intimate remembrances, globe-trotting adventures, and incisive literary critiques."

In 2016, the Huntington Library in Pasadena, Calif. acquired Paul Theroux's papers for its collection, covering the period from 1965 to 2015. The Theroux Archive at the Huntington Library includes notebooks, autograph drafts, unpublished texts, and corrected typescript drafts for nearly all of Theroux's 51 books, as well as extensive and significant correspondence from the Nobel Prize-winning novelist V.S. Naipaul and many other writers, including Graham Greene, S.J. Perelman, Nadine Gordimer, Margaret Drabble, Iris Murdoch, Stephen Spender, Gore Vidal, Laurens van der Post, Jan Morris, William Styron, and Bruce Chatwin. "One of the most accomplished and worldly-wise writers of his generation" (The Times, London), Paul Theroux lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

Follow Paul Theroux on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and visit http://www.paultheroux.com for more information.

Past Press Releases

Paul Theroux's Four Seasons Road Trip Maps His Tribute To America's "Deep South" (September 2015): https://www.dropbox.com/s/m65y53t0yvkmuhi/PT%20Deep%20South%20Press%20Release.pdf?dl=0

Paul Theroux Figures In A Landscape: People And Places On Sale May 8 (April 2018):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/quzxi2kxxldn932/PT%20FIGURES%20IN%20A%20LANDSCAPE%20Press%20Release.pdf?dl=0

Additional Reading

"Borderline Insanity at the Fence in Nogales" in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/opinion/sunday/borderline-insanity-at-the-fence-in-nogales.html

"What Makes Francisco Toledo 'El Maistro'" in Smithsonian Magazine:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-makes-francisco-toledo-180972172/

For further information or images, please contact:
Sheila Donnelly Theroux | [email protected]

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SOURCE Paul Theroux