goldandsalt's reviews
997 reviews

This is an excellent ethnography of food and agriculture in central Mexico. It's highly readable, as ethnographies go, and very interesting. I read it as a sort of companion to [b: The Omnivore's Dilemma|25310666|The Omnivore's Dilemma|Michael Pollan|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475679718s/25310666.jpg|55632318], because Gonzalez talks about how to the Zapotec, maize has a soul, which is a huge contrast to corn as a commodity in the US. This was for an independent study on sustainable agriculture systems, and the book immediately became a valuable segment of my study.

This book was rather hard to get into. The first 50-75 pages were quite a drag, and I didn't really care about the teenage protagonist. However, it was worth wading through, as the rest is a really interesting piece of fiction interwoven with history. I'm glad to have read it, and will definitely try reading more of the author's work.