Download Ebook God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant
Nevertheless, some people will certainly seek for the very best seller book to check out as the very first referral. This is why; this God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant is presented to satisfy your need. Some individuals like reading this book God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant as a result of this popular book, yet some love this due to favourite author. Or, numerous additionally like reading this publication God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant because they actually have to read this book. It can be the one that really love reading.
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant
Download Ebook God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant
Imagine that you get such particular remarkable experience and expertise by just reading a book God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant. How can? It appears to be higher when an e-book can be the most effective point to find. Books now will show up in published and also soft documents collection. One of them is this e-book God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant It is so usual with the published e-books. However, lots of people in some cases have no space to bring guide for them; this is why they can't read guide wherever they want.
Often, reading God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant is very uninteresting and it will take long time beginning with obtaining guide and begin reviewing. Nevertheless, in modern era, you could take the developing innovation by making use of the web. By net, you can see this page as well as start to search for the book God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant that is needed. Wondering this God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant is the one that you require, you can opt for downloading. Have you understood how you can get it?
After downloading and install the soft file of this God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant, you can start to review it. Yeah, this is so delightful while somebody should read by taking their huge books; you remain in your new way by just manage your gadget. Or perhaps you are operating in the workplace; you could still make use of the computer to review God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant totally. Obviously, it will not obligate you to take lots of web pages. Simply page by web page depending upon the moment that you have to review God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant
After knowing this very easy means to check out and also get this God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant, why don't you inform to others regarding through this? You could inform others to see this site and opt for browsing them favourite publications God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant As known, right here are lots of lists that provide numerous kinds of books to accumulate. Just prepare few time as well as web links to obtain guides. You can really enjoy the life by reading God's Middle Finger: Into The Lawless Heart Of The Sierra Madre, By Richard Grant in a quite straightforward way.
Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the rugged, beautiful Sierra Madre mountains begin their dramatic ascent. Almost 900 miles long, the range climbs to nearly 11,000 feet and boasts several canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon. The rules of law and society have never taken hold in the Sierra Madre, which is home to bandits, drug smugglers, Mormons, cave-dwelling Tarahumara Indians, opium farmers, cowboys, and other assorted outcasts. Outsiders are not welcome; drugs are the primary source of income; murder is all but a regional pastime. The Mexican army occasionally goes in to burn marijuana and opium crops -- the modern treasure of the Sierra Madre -- but otherwise the government stays away. In its stead are the drug lords, who have made it one of the biggest drug-producing areas in the world.
Fifteen years ago, journalist Richard Grant developed what he calls "an unfortunate fascination" with this lawless place. Locals warned that he would meet his death there, but he didn't believe them -- until his last trip. During his travels Grant visited a folk healer for his insomnia and was prescribed rattlesnake pills, attended bizarre religious rituals, consorted with cocaine-snorting policemen, taught English to Guarijio Indians, and dug for buried treasure. On his last visit, his reckless adventure spiraled into his own personal heart of darkness when cocaine-fueled Mexican hillbillies hunted him through the woods all night, bent on killing him for sport.
With gorgeous detail, fascinating insight, and an undercurrent of dark humor, God's Middle Finger brings to vivid life a truly unique and uncharted world.
- Sales Rank: #30818 in Books
- Model: 3782042
- Published on: 2008-03-04
- Released on: 2008-03-04
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.44" h x .80" w x 5.50" l, .63 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As he travels through Mexico's Sierra Madre, one of the largest drug-producing regions in the world, British journalist Grant (American Nomads) encounters a rugged landscape where the mythical old Mexico meets the challenges of the new. The birthplace of Pancho Villa and the Apaches' last refuge, the Sierra Madre has long been home to outlaws and eccentric characters that inspired a variety of American westerns. Into this legendary danger zone, with its exceptionally high murder rate, rides Grant—on horseback, though he has never ridden previously. Grant is the finest kind of travel narrator; though fully cognizant of the dangers and foolhardiness of his obsession with this land, he throws himself into crazy situations, such as a quest for buried gold treasure, a sampling of Mexican folk remedies, a terrifying Tarahumara Indian ritual when God gets into his annual drinking bout with the Devil, a little cocaine or blasting parakeet with local drug dealers, and lots and lots of drinking. He narrates these adventures with unflappable charm and humor, risking his life to the reader's benefit, shared fear and delight of discovery. Though eventually worn out by his physically and emotionally challenging journey, Grant still manages to produce a clear-eyed, empathetic account of this complex, fascinating place. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the Sierra Madre Mountains begin their ascent. Nine hundred miles long, the range climbs to nearly 11,000 feet and contains several canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon. Grant points out that the land is home to Indians, drug smugglers, bandits, Mormons, and opium farmers. Fifteen years ago, he explored this land, where he was chased by cocaine-fueled Mexican hillbillies seeking to kill him. He visited a folk healer hoping to cure his insomnia and was told to take rattlesnake pills, and he attended strange religious rituals. Grant also consorted with cocaine-snorting cops, taught English to Guarijio Indians, and hunted for an outlaw’s buried treasure. “I never want to set foot in the Sierra Madre again,” he writes. “I was out of courage, out of patience, out of compassion.” It was an arduous trip for Grant, but readers will be glad that he took it. --George Cohen
Review
"There is nothing here of the 'I jumped over a puddle' aspect of modern adventure stories. As an Englishman, Grant has far too much of the mad dog in his character, and I am surprised indeed that he survived his journey. This is a thoroughly enlivening book, the rare kind that makes you want to sleep with a pistol under your pillow." -- Jim Harrison, author of Returning to Earth
"This is exactly the book you're hoping for when you pick it up: a crazy, sprawling story so well-written, you can't decide whether to keep reading or go to Mexico to see for yourself. Keep reading: You have an extraordinary book in your hands." -- Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm
Most helpful customer reviews
55 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
Simply a good read.
By B.G.
When I first came across this book, I sort of pictured the story of a foolish quest by a white man way over his head in some of the most dangerous parts of Mexico. I imagined that the title of the book reflected his hardships while doing hands-on research for God's Middle Finger, leaving the author wondering why exactly he decided to travel one of the most violent places in North America - alone - to begin with, with comical results for the reader. While the story does certainly touch on some dangerous encounters, I was instead surprised to see that the title is more of a reflection of life in rural Mexico; it's as if God himself turned a blind eye to this land and the poverty and violence is reflected in the people there.
God's Middle Finger certainly has its comical elements to it but what I most got out of reading this was the amazing contrast between the lives of Mexicans and those of us Americans right across the border. Life in rural Mexico is difficult, brutal, unforgiving, and spontaneously violent. To balance out the many hardships faced, Mexicans overindulge in alcohol, cocaine, and religious festivities involving a laughably large amount of the two.
The book is almost a perfect length, with a lot of ground covered in the story and never is there a point where it feels as though the author is dwelling too much on a certain point. Despite describing quite successfully the brutal and difficult lives Mexicans face, Grant never comes across as preachy, or that the rest of us are spoiled for enjoying much less violent lives. In fact, on a few occasions he reacts with scorn towards the absurd level of machoism that Meixcan men display, and their often callous disregard for human life.
The only reason I gave this book four stars as opposed to five is due to its abrupt ending. After returning from Mexico, I expected Grant to give us at least a quick chapter of reflections on his experience in the Sierra Madre, but instead I turned the page to find the bibliography and wondering "what happened next??" Nevertheless, this is one of the most entertaining books I've read in some time, and I'll definitely be checking out more of Grant's work.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Men Behaving Badly: Mexican Edition
By G. Bestick
The combination of tribalism, machismo and modern weapons technology will stop the advance of civilization dead in its tracks. The Sierra Madre mountains, stretching from the US border into southern Mexico, possess all three elements in abundance, which makes them a place any sensible person will go out of their way to avoid. Richard Grant decides to lean into them instead, and the result is a lurid chronicle of bad roads, hard towns and evil men.
Originally inhabited by Indians eking out a subsistence living, the Sierra Madres were settled by Spanish ranchers, miners, loggers and Jesuit missionaries beginning in the 1600s. During the Mexican revolution, Pancho Villa and others used the mountains as a base and hiding place. The ejidos, communal agricultural lands granted after the revolution, became overgrazed and poorly farmed, and today the "crops that pay" are marijuana and poppies used to manufacture heroin. The economy of the region is dominated by the drug trade and the cultural tone is set by the narcotrafficantes, impulsive, violent men with a slash and burn attitude toward their lives and everyone else's.
Grant, a British journalist living in Arizona, brings his own cultural biases to his travels, those of a skeptical, rational Northern European who believes in a contractual society governed by the rule of law. Nothing he encounters conforms to those biases. He rails against the Mexican idea of machismo, which creates a never-ending cycle of drunkenness, violence, revenge and the abuse of women. (For instance, if you rape a woman but then marry her, it isn't a crime.) The rule of law gets subverted by threats and bribes from the drug traffickers. When the government sends the Army in to destroy drug crops, it wrecks the local economy and forces all the working age men to emigrate illegally to the US to make a living.
Hard and hopeless as he makes it sound, Grant also finds grace notes in his travels: a generous hospitality, an openness to the warm and sweaty aspects of living, a willingness to bring the mystical into everyday life, giving it a magical tinge at times. Grant finds Mexico compelling but baffling. He leans on The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz' masterful examination of the Mexican character, to help explain it: Indian myths, Catholic and Moorish influences from Spain, and the political ideas of the Enlightenment swirled together to create a culture that combines fatalism in the face of brute authority, a superstitious belief in practical magic and a stoic, inward personality that finds its truest emotional expression in drunken violence.
Modern Mexico is at a crossroads. It could become a democratic model for developing Latin American countries, or it could become the Afghanistan of the Americas, a corrupt, ineffectual government overwhelmed by a narcotics economy, a culture that combines a rigid behavioral code with impulsive violence. Grant's book is a good guide into what these issues look and feel like to the people living through them, day by hard day.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Really so dangerous???
By Cabra montés
No doubt is a well written book by a gifted story teller. But just came a month ago back from Chihuahua's Sierra Madre, (I live in central Mexico) spent two weeks birding and doing nature photgraphy there with my wife in areas far away from the Copper Canyon, Creel and all the normal tourist spots and not a single problem. We were riding our own jeep in order to be able to visit one of the few remaining nesting sites of the thick-billed parrots 6 hours north-west of Basaseachi Waterfall (Tutuaca) in the worst-middle-of-nothing road you can imagine. But ALL of the people we encountered in our trip was the most helpful and nicest country-people. We never felt threatened or endangered, encountered trucks with loggers, miners, cattle-ranchers (for sure some narcos also) and no problem!! Made stops in Cuahtemoc, Cebadillas, Vallecillos,Creel, Yahuirachic and other small communities, an army checkpoint...... and did not found any risk situation. No doubt there is trouble in that area of my country, and a lot of violence thanks to the narcos up there and their drug smuggling, but if you have common sense, know how to move and you are not looking for trouble is a wonderful place to visit. I think Mr. Grant embellished quite a bit his story and was looking by purpose for trouble. Who in the world would have cocaine and beers with local folks and police men if you dont whant trouble???
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant PDF
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant EPub
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant Doc
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant iBooks
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant rtf
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant Mobipocket
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar