El circuito interior. Una crónica de la Ciudad de México

by Francisco Goldman

Lo dijo un crítico célebre: lo único que puede contarse es un viaje o un crimen. El circuito interior cuenta las dos cosas. He aquí la crónica del duelo del escritor y periodista estadounidense Francisco Goldman tras la muerte de su joven esposa en 2007, y de su inaudita y última estrategia para dejarlo atrás: aprender a manejar en la Ciudad de México. Que pronto se revela, además, como un personalísimo manual para manejarse en una realidad aún más enrevesada y caótica que las calles del DF: la actualidad mexicana.

En la tradición de la gran crónica apegada al terreno, dispuesto a seguir las curvas de una ciudad de prodigios y catástrofes, aferrado al volante, Goldman elabora su propio dolor, pero también el de todo un país, al tiempo que recupera algunos acontecimientos y hechos de sangre emblemáticos del pasado mexicano reciente: los feminicidios de Ciudad Juárez, la represión de los campesinos de Atenco, el movimiento #YoSoy132 o el secuestro y posterior asesinato de los jóvenes del bar Heavens ―anuncio del fuego que, a manera de coda, se llamará Ayotzinapa―. Goldman nos conduce, pues, dejándose conducir por la oleada de dignidad política y cívica, pero también por el humor que nace del infortunio, a través de reflexiones, conversaciones y anécdotas que son, a un tiempo, autorretrato y alto periodismo.

La mirada de Goldman no es la de un extranjero, sino la de un enamorado, y tal vez por eso la imagen que proyecta de la realidad de México no solo resulta elocuente, sino inmensamente conmovedora.

«A este libro hay que agradecerle que nos devuelva la sensación de que vale la pena, a pesar de todo, vivir con intensidad los circuitos interiores de la ciudad», ha dicho el crítico Roger Bartra, y seguro que tiene razón.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Biography Memoir, Latinx, United States, Biography

284 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2014

About the author

Francisco Goldman is an American novelist, journalist, and 'maestro', at Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), the journalism school for Latin-America created by Gabriel García Márquez. Goldman is also known as Francisco Goldman Molina, "Frank" and "Paco".

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Guatemalan mother and Jewish-American father. His first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens (1992), won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and his second, The Ordinary Seaman (1997), was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He currently resides in Mexico City and Brooklyn, New York. He also teaches at Trinity College (Connecticut).

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we last left Mr. Goldman, he was bereft and just grieving the loss of his young wife, Aura, in an ocean accident. Say Her Name is one of the most moving books I've ever read; I was warned not to read it on the bus because I wouldn't be able to stop crying. Goldman examines Aura's life with the eye and detail of the journalist he is, but with the heart that only comes with someone completely smitten.​
The Interior Circuit ​gives us a still recovering Goldman, but one who's ready to tackle new challenges, like learning to drive in Mexico City. We get memories of Aura, and it's nice to be reminded of his other friends and family (like Fabis) but Goldman turns his heart outward to the city he loves to call home and he examines it, again, like the journalist he is.
I'll admit this book lacks total cohesion and focuses on the unpleasant (to say the least) results of the "narco-war" (which the D.F. has largely been spared, at least in the media). This is not an Anthony Bourdain love story to a city, it's the I've-lived-here-and-can-call-out-bad-behavior love story that only a townie can write.
Five stars is generous, but I can't not love ​the writer who keeps the galoshes his dead wife bought to clean the bathroom. That is to say, smitten.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd book. It combines personal loss and recovery, heated political issues and curious travel tidbits all in a chronicle format.

HIs last book, “Say Her Name” was a both beautiful and difficult story of the loss of Francisco Goldman’s Mexican wife in 2007. He returns to chronicling his life five years later. He now spends most of the year living in Mexico City and teaching one semester teaching in Brooklyn, thanks in part to the success of “Say Her Name.”

The book starts off partly catching up and filling us in with DF (Distrito Federal as it was commonly known, although it has now changed to Ciudad de México). He still commemorates Aura’s death and with the help of a therapist, is trying to move on.

So Goldman decides to learn to drive in DF, not a simple feat judging by the traffic woes and “challenging drivers.” He signs up for lessons and with the help of the Guía Roji, a map book version of all the various colonias and barrios of the City, he makes a stab at driving and detailing DF. This part was a real treat and his wit and sarcasm made it very enjoyable.

The year is 2012 and every six years the Mexican vote in a new president. It’s impossible not to mention political sides and he certainly has a bent against the PRI and it’s “Ken doll” president Enrique Peña Nieto. No worries, it’s good fun with the político barbs and good to get some background on the never ending political issues. He has a lot of praise for the mayor of DF, Marcelo Ebrard, who along with Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) helped to clean up and make the City vibrant and safe (weirdly Ebrard lived in the same building as Goldman).

So things are going well and then he goes on a party bus with a bunch of drunken youths. He gets into an argument and gets beaten up very badly by some kids with parents involved with the PRI. The PRI ruled Mexico for some 70 years acting like a dictatorship and then were ousted for 12 years starting in 2000 with Vicente Fox. But what the hell is a fifty year old doing on a party bus with teens?

After that bus ride, things seem to go down hill. Goldman admits he hit rock bottom and needed to climb out. Mexico gets a new mayor, Miguel Ángel Mancera and on May 26, 2013, thirteen young people go missing from a club called Heavens. This is where the book takes a turn. Cartels, corrupt police, corrupt politicians and the mayor denies the cartels are in DF, makes this big chunk of the book a gruesome crime story.

The cult of Santa Muerta, the impact on the poor families, the gritty life and death issues in one of the world’s biggest cities makes this enlightening and difficult to read. If the first half of the book acted like a tourist brochure to visit the big city; the latter half cries “run for the hills.”

So I am torn. What is he trying to say? There is a part where he sees the therapist and rationalizes what happens. I wasn’t convinced. He’s a very good writer. But I am just a little baffled. Is he saying Mexico under the PRI is back to the old corrupt days? He mentioned that prior to 2012 the citizens lived in a bubble and now it’s popped. Are the cartels running the country; the PRI; the corrupt police?

In 2018, after six years, the PRI were trounced and AMLO and his Morena party has swept to power. During Peño Nieto’s reign cartel violence escalated and during the election over 130 candidates were murdered. What has happened to Mexico?

Should he write another book on recent developments? His love life? It almost feels like he needs to. If so, will I read it. I don’t know?

3.5. Right in the middle.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved his general observations about Mexico City, as well as his personal story. But the book got weighted down by the many-chapter focus on the After Heavens kidnapping mystery and I lost interest.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book felt all over the place. the first half, about him getting through his grieving period, is stronger than the second half which is about a group kidnapping in Mexico city. I felt the whole thing was too loosely related.

[Leslie Rawls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Multi-layered and beautifully written, _The Interior Circuit_ presents Goldman's experience riding, and sometimes being pounded by, the waves of grief after his young wife's death in a body-surfing accident. He dives into life in Mexico City, specifically the DF, in part to connect with this place that Aura treasured. And the book moves far beyond Goldman's personal grief and into the wonders of the DF and Mexico --- the beauty of the people and heritage and the horror of the narco world in most of the country, and now moving into the DF. Books with statistics and reporting are often dry, inviting readers like me to skim. Not this one. When Goldman uses statistics, he's already laid a scene that allows the reader to see not just numbers but the people that make up those numbers. A truly remarkable book, well written, and hard to put down.

[Milly Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro. Excelente libro.
Estuve en la presentación y por ello sé de qué va, más allá de lo que dice.
Si amas México, hay que leerlo. Si quieres comprender lo que nos pasa como mexicanos, hay que leerlo. Si quieres saber qué sucede con el autor luego de su libro Di su nombre, hay que leerlo. Si te gusta (o te asusta) manejar en México, hay que leerlo. Si no te interesa en lo absoluto la política, quizá es mejor que no lo leas, es más político que personal, y más biográfico que nada. A mi me encantó.

[Michael Flick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discouraging tale of Mexico City (and indeed all Mexico) reduced to a criminal enterprise uniting narcotics gangs and politicians and police. No reason to hope for better. I grew up there in the 1960s when my family moved there and like the author came to love the City and its surreal nature. It was a before the gangs—or just their infancy; a lost time fondly remembered. “Maybe the most surreal moment I witnessed was in a taxi one night: at every dog we passed in the street, the driver slowed the taxi and barked loudly out the window.” [146] That never happened to me, but it wouldn’t have surprised me. A

[Luke Gilliam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read before, during, and after a recent trip to CDMX. The two halves of the book are quite different, and I was expecting more of the personal memoir of the first part to continue throughout the book. Nevertheless, the focus in the second half on the Heavens case paints a vivid picture of the social and political challenges facing the people of Mexico City which is interesting, if somewhat more difficult to hang on to.

[Emmkay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldman lives part of the year in Mexico City, and he writes about it with affection and depth. He focuses on 2012-13, a time when he continued to grapple with the rawness of his grief after the death of his wife. He decides to learn to drive stick shift and to drive in the city - Mexico City’s notorious traffic having long dissuaded him. The first part of the book intersperses his (not exactly successful) efforts with other musings about life in the city and his own grief and memories. The second part of the book delves into the ‘leviton’ or disappearance of a group of young people from a nightclub, using it to explore politics and crime in the city.

Ultimately, while Goldman was unsuccessful in mastering the ‘interior circuit’ (the name of an internal highway in the city), he completes another truly interior circuit of sorts through the course of the book. I found it moving and also loved how he wrote about the city - I recognized some places I knew, and was enriched by being introduced to others in advance of a return visit.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books is divided in two parts. The first part describes how the author deals with the his loss of his wife: he decides to learn to drive in Mexico City. If you have any idea about how this city works and its pace you'll understand what a daunting task this is. The challenge is an exercise in dérive as he decides to drive to places he chooses randomly on the famous Guía Roji city guide book. Through this process he also talks about the history, politics and culture of México City as well as his own grief. The second part focuses more on a kidnapping incident he covers as a journalist in the infamous barrio of Tepito. Although the description of this event and his comments on the politics surrounding it are very interesting the leading thread is somewhat disregarded in this second part. I think part I and II could have been separate works. Nevertheless, I think that if you like reading about cities this a book you'll enjoy.

[Stephen King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thought provoking and intense book, describing in heart wrenching terms the grief of a husband who has lost his Mexican wife in a surfing accident and how we comes to terms with his grief. At the same time it is a powerful description of the violence and corruption which lies behind Mexican society and politics viewed from the relatively stage vantage point of Mexico City. Like other reviewers, I felt the pursuit of the kidnapped group in the second half of the book took far to long to unravel.

[Nora Rawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goldman's portrait of Mexico City is a lovely one; he's somewhat less successful when it comes to explaining his own halting progress at moving on from his wife's death, in that I wish he would be more open about why it is that he's constantly pursuing 20-somethings. His portrait of DF politics also feels a bit programmatic, and the second half of the book, which moves on from the personal reflections to address corruption, isn't very well able to hold its own.

[Christie Bane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book that did as much as any book to help me even begin to understand Mexico City. The author was married to a Mexican woman who died in a tragic accident five years before he wrote the book. He spends part of his time in NYC and the rest in Mexico, and he decides to come back to Mexico to find some closure with his wife's death and also to take driving lessons while he's there, since he has never driven in Mexico City. His descriptions of the city are pure gold for anyone obsessed with Mexico City like I am, his writing is great, and the narrator of this book (maybe it's the author, I never checked) is also great.

So why only four stars? Well, because I actually think this would have been better as two books. The first book could have been called Learning to Drive in Mexico City, and been about the city and his feelings about the loss of his wife. The second one could have been called Mexico City: The Dark Side. It's about the narco-related kidnapping and execution of twelve people from a night club in Mexico City, and the implications of that crime. (Has Mexico City really become safer than it used to be? Does the heavy police presence really mean drug cartel violence is not an issue like it is in some of the other Mexican states?)

Even though I feel like it should have been two books instead of one, that did not impede my enjoyment of the writing, and I definitely want to read everything this author has written about Mexico now.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this even though I question what the author was doing getting into certain situations.

It touched on Mexico City and even referenced Daniel Hernandez, Down and Delirious in Mexico City!

Beautifully written non-fiction. I felt his grief throough out the book and while some may not have liked it, I appreciated him going into detail on the political climate in Mexico and details on the Heavens case, and Ayotzinapa.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating chronicle, of both Mexico City, or DF as it's usually referred to by "chilangos," natives of DF, and the life of author Francisco Goldman. He reveals a Mexico City far richer in interest than the narrow journalistic stories concerning it would have one believe. The book intertwines current events in DF with the life, both past and present, of author Goldman. Although not a native, author Goldman, the US born son of a Guatemalan mother and a Jewish father, has an abiding affection and curiosity for the city. A central figure in the book is that of his late wife, Aura, who died in a tragic accident five years previous to the time the book was written. Goldman details the difficulties he's had in dealing with her demise, often sinking into various bad habits. He treasures the friendships he's been able to maintain. They, as much as anything else, have helped get back on a sure footing.

One section of the book deals with the disappearance, or, as he terms it in Spanish, the "leviton," or literally, lifting, of a group of young people from an after hours nightclub in the posh DF neighborhood called Condesa. Reading all the twists and turns in the investigation, and the difficulty of ever being sure that one can get an accurate account from any division of the government, reveals much of the current state of corruption so prevalent in all levels of official Mexico.

Goldman, however, decries the overweening emphasis on the "narco" culture of Mexico. In brief but revealing portraits of friends and acquaintances, he shows us a Mexico suffused with arts and culture, a Mexico as alive and thriving culturally as any of the more celebrated international capitals of culture.

His writing occasionally offers striking, florid prose, as in one short passage detailing how his view of his immediate environs had changed, he would have it, by the simple purchase of a new pair of glasses:

My eyeglasses were a cinematographer who'd mastered the nourish expressionism of Mexico City's nighttime streets, shadows starkly outlined; street lamps
like glass flowers instead of spreading haze, the rediscovery of one-point linear perspective in long, receding double files of softly gleaming parked cars;
the intermittently illuminated facades of old and sometimes very old buildings like glimpses into individual personalities that are hidden by day, revealing
scars but not secrets, battered but proud endurance, psychotic earthquake cracks, the maternal curve of a concrete balcony holding out its row of
darkened flowerpots.

As both a chronicle of the tawdry side of both DF and the authors life, but, as well, a love letter to friends, his dear departed wife, and Mexico City itself, The Interior Circuit is a worthy achievement.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just starting and really enjoying it. The books opens on Avenida Amsterdam, which I remember well. I wasn't particularly daunted by driving in Mexico City. However, I confined myself mostly to within a few square miles of where I was living. I did have more fender benders in my four years in Mexico City than I've had in 24 years in Los Angeles. And I agree with Goldman's observation that "peseros [are] hulking minibuses whose bashed and scarred exteriors attest to the Road Warrior aggression of their notorious pilots..." My only really scary encounter during a minor accident was when a pesero driver side-swiped me. We both pulled over to inspect the damage and suddenly six other pesero drivers stopped their vehicles and were loudly advocating for the idiot who hit me. Ah, memories. I handed the driver $10 to go away and the problem vanished.

My fondest memory of driving in Mexico City (at least in hindsight) was with my friend Joan, looking for a gallery in a dodgy neighborhood. There was a group of attractive women who appeared to be waiting to cross the street. I rolled up for directions. A beat or two too late, I realized they were hookers, and as I got closer, I realized they were cross-dressing hookers who were more than delighted to see me (all of 29 at the time). I think one or two offered to show us personally how to get where we needed to go. Effusive thanks later, we sped off...

Now finished and kind of depressed. The way the book is organized is a little confusing. The first 7 chapters are numbered. The last chapter is not numbered. The first seven chapters are a fun, slightly spooky journal as Goldman 'hits bottom' figuratively and literally in the wake of the tragic death of his wife, Aura, five or so years earlier. The last, really long, and unnumbered chapter is about the murder of 12 or 13 young people who were abducted at a Condesa night spot called After Heaven. Goldman is NOT a fan of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Goldman basically accuses the President of orchestrating the murder or at least manipulating the aftermath in a way to consolidate the PRI party's power in Mexico City. The last sentence of the Appendix is a quote from journalist Diego Osorno: "This is the situation now. Pena Nieto has decided that there's going to be no other capo of capos but himself." Ugh. Not a cheerful note about a city I love.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldman provides an engaging yet disjointed look at Mexico City, a place he has truly fallen in love with. Goldman's perspective on the city is somewhat circumscribed as he tends to focus on (besides a long segment at the end on Tepito) the hip, bourgeois neighborhood of Condesa where he and his other leftist, bohemian, artist-type friends live and frequent.

Having lived in Mexico City myself I found it fun reading about all the quirks of the city that one truly appreciates after having spent some time there. Nevertheless, I believe the book is still accessible to those who have never set foot in Mexico City since Goldman's vivid descriptions and powerful and deeply passionate emotions about the city and his experiences there keep one wanting to read more. There's also a strong undercurrent throughout the book about coping with grief and loss that many will be able to relate to.

Although there were a number of passages I enjoyed in the book, as a whole the work felt disjointed. Goldman bounces back and forth from describing his own personal experiences in the city to then providing a more journalistic perspective that tries to report on various political events that have occurred or are occurring in Mexico City. Although the book proceeds in chronological order, the chapters do not always link well with one another and thus it almost feels like you're reading a series of essays as opposed to one continuous narrative. The exceedingly long final chapter of the book felt particularly disconnected from the rest of the book and would have been better served as a long piece in the New Yorker or even a book on its own. It feels like Goldman set out to write a book about Mexico City, chronicled his experiences in a series of notes as they were occurring, and then tried to cram it all together with some sort of overarching theme. Overall, I don't think he was entirely successful, but in general it was an enjoyable read and a good introduction for anyone interested in getting a taste of Mexico City.

[Brian Grover · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly liked this book, despite the fact that it's fairly poorly conceived and edited. First off, let me say I thought this was a travelogue about Mexico City when I picked it up - which it's not. The first half of this book does talk about the city a fair amount, but it's mostly about the author mourning the five year anniversary of his wife's death in a freak accident.

It's a little pathetic - he decides to learn how to drive a car in Mexico City in the summer of 2012 as a tribute to her, then basically gives up on the plan as soon as he confirms that it's hard and stressful to drive a car there when you don't know what you're doing. So it's him walking around a lot, talking to his neighbors, going out for drinks with friends, etc... Feels really aimless and unfocused, but he's a pretty likeable guy, so it makes it easier to tag along with him.

It's also funny how candid he is about his flaws, primarily liking to booze it up, given that he's about 60 years old. One night he and a friend are at a bar and end up on a party bus with a bunch of 20 year olds. He ends up getting into a fight, and like five of the kids beat the hell out of him and leave him bleeding on the sidewalk. What a random, embarassing anecdote to include in the book.

Anyway, the second half is him being a quasi-activist, in the subsequent summer of 2013, when a dozen youths are kidnapped from in front of a club in downtown Mexico City (and summarily executed). This half of the book devotes a lot of time to explaining the national politics of Mexico, and what a corrupt scumbag the author thinks the Mexican president, Pena-Nieto, is (and he makes a pretty good case). It's interesting, and also really depressing, and just a touch frightening given that I'm going to be spending a lot of time over the next six months in Mexico.

Goldman's story jumps around in borderline stream-of-consciousness fashion, and you're never really sure if he's going anywhere, but it's still an entertaining read.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seems to have two distinct narration styles. The first is Goldman's easy-going stream-of-conscious style similar to that in his novel, "The Long Night of White Chickens". He uses this style for the memoir portions of the book to recount the elation and tragedy he experienced while living in Mexico City. He also lets the reader in on the grieving/recovery process following the death of his wife as revealed in, "Say Her Name". He describes adventures of learning to drive in that massive, congested, tangle of urbanity where traffic rules don't always apply.

This intriguing style allows Goldman to cover a significant number of topics in a seamless manner: one long paragraph sums up the chronology of his life, the next paragraph covers the history of Mexico, and the next a run-down mansion called Casa Fortaleza he likens to Xanadu.

The second narrative is a reporter's chronicle of a mass kidnapping case along with Goldman's own search for answers and an analysis of Mexican politics. This book came out this year (2014), and as with any news story, I wonder how long this portion of the book will remain relevant. Then again, the PRI's rule and its ties to the drug trade go back decades, so residents of the progressive DF might read it as a cautionary--and possibly prophetic--tale.

I love learning about Latin American culture and politics, so this book was high on my list. Goldman's writing is informative and entertaining. He provides an intimate and somewhat painful glimpse into his own life. For me, this is an even more significant act of bravery than learning to drive in the DF.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many years ago I read and quite enjoyed Goldman’s first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens. Goldman teaches in Connecticut, lives in Brooklyn but calls Mexico City home. Goldman’s wife died in a freak bodysurfing accident five years before Interior Circuit was published and this book represents his attempt to move from mourning to living again. His plan to accomplish this is to learn to drive in Mexico City (The interior circuit refers to a 42km ring road around the city’s neighborhood) Mexico City is one of the most notoriously dangerous places to drive in the world, so Goldman’s self-challenge is not a trivial one. He takes driving lessons that proceed predictably, that is, with no small degree of danger. As he describes the lessons he also begins to describe aspects of Mexico City’s neighborhoods, politics and cultural life. The second half of the book is almost completely dedicated to tales of the narcotrafficantes and their attempts to move into the capital from their northern Mexico strongholds.

Despite the grim nature of much of the book there are also tales of Goldman’s social life, particularly among fellow writers. One of the best books I read this year is Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World, which is discussed in Goldman’s book. Interior circuit is also a metaphor for Goldman’s attempt to understand himself, his life journey. In a way this is a travel book, somewhat akin to Sebald’s mixture of reflection, reportage, history and memory and although the geographic area is circumscribed, Goldman brings to life the sprawling energies and particular problems of our southern neighbor’s capital city.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm... this book. I started reading it to preface my upcoming trip to Mexico City, and had hoped it would be in the same vein of travel memoirs that I am used to reading. The first half of the book was close to what I had been expecting; a man who spends his time between Mexico City and my neck of the woods, the Hartford/NYC northeast corridor, embarks on a mission to learn how to drive in the DF to somehow find closure 5 years after the death of his wife. Great! He talked about some neighborhoods I might encounter, some political events that motivate the city that I'll come to meet, etc. Yes, a little sappy and romantic for my taste, but good nonetheless. Then you can tell during the middle of the book that he had intended to end the story, but decided to continue after some extraordinary events involving a mass kidnapping of people from an after-hours club in a nice area of the city that isn't normally known for events like that. The rest of the book follows his and his friend's investigation of this crime, trying to understand the link between the narcos and the political elite. Again, a good chronicle, but not what I was expecting. The two parts of the book seemed very disjointed to me. Even the title of the book refers to a main street in the city and is therefore linked to the first half of the book and the author's driving classes.

I gave it 4 stars because, while not what i had wanted to read, it was very well written and an accurate representation of the author's life; his closure came when he didn't expect it, so the book ended when I didn't expect it, I guess, and the events of the second half changed the purpose of his life in the city.

[katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guatemalan writer Francisco Goldman's chronicle set in Mexico City is a tender, then chilling tale about death. First, Goldman relates how he deals with his grief over losing his young wife in a surfing accident. His therapy includes learning to drive a stick shift car on the difficult city roads and holding an annual barbecue. He also spends many hours drinking in cantinas with friends and alone. The second part of the book recounts the horrendous story of how twelve young people from the infamous Tepito market district are kidnapped from a nightclub in an upscale neighborhood in broad daylight. Politics and society in the modern day megapolis are analyzed methodically as he and a journalist friend try to unravel the crime which has brought Mexico City into the brutal world of the drug cartels from which it had been largely protected for years. The progressive policies of the last two mayors have been eclipsed by the take over by a PRI party follower when the new PRI president brings back the old corruption and collusion with the drug cartels. One must focus on the theme of death, Goldman says, in order to live life fully. Like Roberto Bolaño before him, Goldman explores the incomprehensible world of violence and corruption in modern Mexico. Goldman's prose is not as powerful as Bolano's, never the less the book is fascinating.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book was excellent. It did a wonderful job of painting a picture of Mexico City - both the culture and the vibe of the city. It told a deep, personal tale of mourning the loss of a spouse, as well as introspection and learning in that process. The story spanned many, many years and was an entertaining, fun, and joyous ride.

Then, came the last... "chapter". The last chapter compromises the second half of the book. Gears shift, the writing style gets repetitive and loses direction. It is no longer personal, but feels more like an extended news article that will never end. It feels essentially un-edited. The author goes into excruciating detail about the political climate, and maniacally focuses on the kidnapping of 13 people from a night club. While a truly sad story, it feels irrelevant to the first half of the book, and is much, much too long. Sadly, I no longer enjoyed picking up the book to read. The chapter could have been condensed into a 20-page Atlantic article, and I'd have been much more content reading it.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitled "A Mexico City Chronicle," The Interior Circuit is a memoir connecting journalist Francisco Goldman's life in Mexico City, his attempts to regain his life after the death of his wife, and stories about the political and criminal landscape of the metropolis.

Goldman's personal stories weren't really very interesting.  Even his attempts to learn to drive a stick-shift in Mexico City traffic should have been amusing, but they failed to gain even a giggle out of me.  Despite mentioning the death of his wife and his attempts of move on, he didn't dwell on this either - although to be fair, he had already written a book on the subject.  It did find his interpretations of the Mexico City politics and their connection with the drug cartels fascinating.  I didn't know that much about the subject before, and it really piqued my interest, although I can't say I was persuaded by some of the author's political arguments.

There was some good stuff here, but everything seemed too hodge-podge, too loose.  A good editor might have been able to help.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every so often, as I am walking to the counter to check out the stack of books I've purposely gone to the library to pick up, I'll grab a featured book just because it looks interesting. More often than not, they turn out to be good choices, as The Interior Circuit has proved to be. In this book, Francisco Goldman does a lot: he weaves the story of grieving for his deceased wife in with descriptions of Mexico City, the culture of the city, the corruption of politicians, a fresh and daring political movement led by students, and what was most interesting to me, the narco war which has taken over Mexico. I learned a lot about the country of my parents' birth and about the 'war' which, on more than one occasion, has affected people close to me.

Goldman is a good story-teller; his writing is superb and, for that reason, I'm interested in reading more of his books.

[Dan Mcdowell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around Mexico City... Reading this just as el Chapo escaped from jail certainly made for interesting timing. I suppose it feels strange to have a place so big, so massive, so close yet barely understand its history or its present... This book was strong in it's second phase, the focus of a kidnapping at Heavens. The personal struggles in the first half of the book struggled to mean much to me, but I didn't read Say Her Name, a previous book by the author that I"m sure would have made that section have greater meaning for me. Perhaps after I read it, I'll want to revisit this section again.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, in a way, two books. The first, about the death of the author's wife five years before and his attempts to deal with his grief. (Goldman has written a novel about his wife's death in a swimming accident.) The second is about police and government corruption both in the country and, especially, in Mexico City. Although I am moderately interested in the DR (as Mexico City is actually called) corruption, the first part of the book is of much greater interest - often humorous and very touching.

[Doriana Bisegna · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Goldman's memoir Say Her Name, I was instantly smitten by this author. The Interior Circuit is interspersed with his having to deal with his wife Aura's death and his life in Mexico City. He writes about Mexico City's politics, drug trade, corruption and crimes against the innocent.

[Calvin D'souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book. a Love letter if you like to one of the world's great cities (and easily one of my favourite cities). A mix between great honest storytelling and narco-politics (particularly in the second half). a great read. even better if you know and appreciate the city.

[umang · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half is an engaging discussion of politics between DF and rest of the country. Second half focused on a DF kidnapping in a nightclub, and it seemed the like author kept putting the manuscript down and then restarting without remembering where he left off.