Horizontal Vertigo: A city called Mexico

Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico by Juan Villoro
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A great mosaic of experiences in Mexico City - "Chilangopolis"
Places I'm very familiar with, others I've never visited -Mexico City is huge.
Great descriptions of idiosyncrasies that I'd never realized were exclusive to Mexicans in general, and Chilangos in particular.

The chapters devoted to the earthquakes of 1985 and 2017 are particularly harrowing.

Great read.

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Signal to Noise - by Silvia Moreno-García

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in Mexico city and alternating between 1988 -when teenage misfit Meche and two best friends discover they can do magic with vinyl records- and 2009 -when they are reunited at the funeral for Meche's dad.
With magic involved it does not go well. Weaving a plethora of music references -from Timbiriche to Nina Simone and Duncan Dhu- with witchcraft, I found this a refreshing story.

I enjoyed that the protagonist Meche, is not a nice person. Although she seems grown-up in the 2009 portion, she still carries around a huge chip on her shoulders from when she last saw her friends.

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