Alfredo Corchado

The best line in the book belongs to Angela: "You have stopped being a reporter...you are part of the story now. You're so close now, you can't even divide the lines." This is such an interesting topic, but Corchado's made a gonzo-journalism, mixed format mess of it. It could have been a novel, a report, a memoir, or a history...instead it is all of those things and doesn't do any particularly well. You get a little about the history of Mexico, the border, Mexcian-American relations, Mexican food and music, the reporter's thoughts on his doomed relationship, family drama, and the beat reporter lifestyle...I can't rate lower because at times I enjoyed the perspective, but I can't rate higher because there's too much sense of a missed opportunity.… (mehr)

Great Prose, Great History

Corchado's prose is fantastic. It is succinct and very understandable. His descriptions of people and places ring true. He is an excellent writer, making it easy to fly through "Midnight in Mexico."

This book follow the author, a veteran journalist, as he deals with a threat against his life for reporting about Mexico's drug war. In the midst of this main story, Corchado discusses life in two cultures, his love interest, his family, and poverty in Mexico. He also gives an excellent, albeit brief, history of the drug trade from Mexico to the United States. I would love to see Corchado write more about that history.

There are two reasons for not giving this book five stars: 1) Corchado jumped the timeline a few times and I got lost, and 2) the jacket gave me the impression this book was a story about Corchado trying to dig up information for stories rather than dealing with himself as the story.… (mehr)