Michael McCormick’s Reviews > The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings > Status Update

These last chapters that fall under "The Other Mexico" section of the book are quite good insofar as I learned about the events of October 2nd, 1968, as well as about the author's thoughts on the history of Mexican politics since the Revolution of the early 20th Century: "The future is not a time of love: what man truly wants he wants now. Whoever builds a house for future happiness builds a prison for the present."

Thank God for Octavio Paz. His book, "The Labyrinth of Solitude" is a revelation. I am excited by and am enjoying every word of it. The most remarkable thing I've discovered about it is how accessible it is: he writes about Mexican history and culture so clearly.

This is scary stuff. "Everything that makes up the present-day Mexican, as we have seen, can be reduced to this: the Mexican does not want or does not dare to be himself." That's on page 73.

This is an incredible book. It illustrates for me so much about Mexican men and women and Mexico as a nation, and I am only on page 47 of 398! I increasingly want more and more to perfect my Spanish. This book blows me away. I'm so glad to be reading it.