Mexico is a novel by James A. Michener published in 1992. The main action of Mexico takes place over a three-day period in the fictional city of Toledo in 1961. The occasion is the annual bullfighting festival, at which two matadors — one an acclaimed hero of the sport, the other a scrapping contender — are prepared to fight to the death for fame and glory. Through the memories of the book's narrator, an American journalist of Spanish, Indian, and Mexican descent, Michener provides plenty of historical background, including a depiction of the gruesome human sacrifice that took place hundreds of years before on the city's periphery. The story focuses on bullfighting, but also provides great insight into Mexican culture. The reader follows the bulls from their breeding to their "sorting" to the pagentry and spectacle of the bullring, where picadors and banderilleros prepare the bull for the entrance of the matador with his red cape. The author creates one of his most memorable characters in the bullfighting "critic" Leon Ledesma, a flamboyant sportswriter who elevates bullfighting into an art form through his grandiloquent essays.
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| Novels: |
The Fires of Spring (1949) • Return to Paradise (1951) • The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953) • The Floating World (1954) • Sayonara (1954) • The Bridge at Andau (1957) • Hawaii (1959) • Caravans (1963) • The Source (1965) • The Drifters (1971) • Centennial (1974) • Chesapeake (1978) • The Covenant (1980) • Space (1982) • Poland (1983) • Texas (1985) • Legacy (1987) • Alaska (1988) • Caribbean (1989) • Journey (1989) • The Novel (1991) • Mexico (1992) • Recessional (1994) • Matecumbe (2007) |
| Non Fiction: |
The Future of the Social Studies (1939) • The Voice of Asia (1951) • Rascals in Paradise (1957) • Report of the Country Chairman (1961) • Iberia (1968) • Presidential Lottery (1969) • The Quality of Life (1970) • (1971) • Sports in America (1976) • (1978) • United States of America (1982) • (1983) • All We Did Was Fly to the Moon (1985) • Six Days in Havana (1989) • (1990) • The Eagle and The Raven (1990) • My Lost Mexico (1992) • The World is My Home (1992) • Writer's Handbook (1992) • Creatures of the Kingdom (1993) • Literary Reflections (1993) • William Penn (1994) • Ventures in Editing (1995) • Miracle in Seville (1995) • This Noble Land (1996) • A Century of Sonnets (1997) |
| Short story collections: |
Tales of the South Pacific (1947) • Selected Writings of James Michener (1978) |
| Film, TV and theatrical adaptations: |
South Pacific (musical) (1949) • The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953) • Sayonara (1957) • South Pacific (film) (1958) • Hawaii (film) (1966) • Centennial (miniseries) (1978) • Space (miniseries) (1985) |
| about Michener: |
(1985) • (1996) • (2005) |
