It ain't what is but it used to be.
Alan Riding knew Mexico well. Problem is that
'Distant Neighbors' describes Mexico as Mexico was before Uncle Sam's idiotic drug war destroyed the social order that prevailed during the eighty-year reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Today's Mexico, ravaged by drugs and violence and revolutionary upheaval, bears little resemblance to the place Riding knew.
Still, Riding's book is a good look at what used to be. The knowledge of what used to be will give you a better idea of how radically things have changed in Mexico during the last ten or twenty years. Recommended reading for anyone who is crazy enough to actually go to Mexico these days.
