Sliced Iguana: Travels in Mexico Book

I'd like to defend this book against reader reviews that describe it as "slow" and "hard to get into," because I don't think that's quite fair. This book is unrelenting in its erudition, its intensity--full of history, full of anthropology, full of politics and, especially, religion. It's not a travel book to pick up because you can't afford a vacation this year and need to get away from it all.

This book ISN'T an easy read, and learning about the fallout from Spanish conquest, resonating on every page, isn't a casual diversion. It risks piety, with a rich and textured argument to back it up. It also lacks much in the way of humor, and can be joyless, at times--so it's not the kind of book I'd want to read every day.

At the same time, when I risk a scan of reader reviews here on Goodreads and find casual dismissals of a very fine book, I get pissed off. So take a chance on a serious book. Once you're done, you can read something by a professor on sabbatical who hires quirky locals to improve the value of a rundown house, etc etc.