Overview

Set against the vibrant background of one of the world's most dangerous cities, Oh Mexico! is not only a classic travel memoir, but also contains great narrative and stuffed with amazing facts about this country's colourful history, lit up by warmth, wit, wisdom and pizzazz. With an eye for the bizarre and comic, Lucy's engaging account of surviving life and love in a vast, bustling Central American city is irresistible. After graduating from university with an Arts degree, she is faced with a dilemma: find a job or disappear to Latin America, the exotic land of her childhood dreams! Arriving in Mexico City with little money and only basic Spanish, Lucy's To-Do list is simple enough: 'Next morning I awoke and began writing a to do list. Not that I am an organised person, but I was feeling overwhelmed - and I always find that a to do list gives me a sense that there is a potential to cope with the situation. 1. Find something to eat, 2. Wash undies, 3. Learn Spanish and 4. Get a job' Lucy promptly finds work as an English teacher and scores a room in a sunny apartment. Her new flatmate, the well-connected Octavio, is unnervingly attractive. So begins a comic tsunami of challenges as Lucy negotiates Mexico City's stratified worlds, meeting everyone from street hawkers to crazy gringos, academics and socialites. Then, as the two men she accidentally falls in love with discover each other's existence, her extrovert family arrive for a visit! With a curious mind and a knowing eye, Lucy's account of life in this riotous third-world metropolis that is Mexico City is utterly irresistible.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lucy Neville
Publisher:   Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Imprint:   Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Dimensions:   Width: 13.40cm , Height: 2.90cm , Length: 21.40cm
Weight:   0.481kg
ISBN:  

9781857885729

ISBN 10:   1857885724
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   16 June 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Reviews

Part love story, part adventure, Oh Mexico! is a fun, light read, ideal for those eager to run away.A Courier Mail Lucy takes you along as she deals with public transport, shopping, the endless doubles entendres of the local language (almost everything has a secondary, sexual connotation) male machismo, local politics, a hilariously fraught visit by her parents and sister and much more. Anybody who has ever been a 20-something traveller should enjoy this engaging read - think Holy Cow in Mexico.A Bookseller and Publisher Mexico City is famous for decapitations and gang violence. So announcing you are moving there would worry most parents - even Lucy's unshockable father Richard Neville, once tried for obscenity in the infamous Oz Boys case. Lucy's comic observation and eye for the bizarre results in a classic coming of age romantic travel memoir that mixes Almost FrenchA with Like Water for ChocolateA .A Northside a vibrant account of life in Mexico. It is a typical tale of an adventurous twentysomething... excellent when describing the challenge of finding a place to live, being overwhelmed by the sex appeal of her handsome flatmate, responding spontaneously to new and alien experiences, finding a job teaching English to a group of women she calls the First Wives' Breakfast Club , struggling with the complexities of speaking a foreign language, unraveling the nuances of class in Mexican society and learning the subtleties and texture of daily life in Mexico City. The combination of adventure and romance is charming and informative. Her parents' arrival just as she is disentangling herself from love affairs with two men adds a frisson of clandestine chaos. Neville is a talented writer whose easy, warm style and very non-chick lit calmness in the presence of glamorous men makes for an entertaining account of two years and two loves in a city little known to many. Sydney Morning Herald 'At its very best, travel writing has the capacity to illuminate not only the heart of a traveller but of a country, too. The page-turning journey that is Oh Mexico! manages to do both things with considerable skill and frequent hilarity...Neville has the canny reserve of a born story teller ,capturing the dissonances as well as the melodies of expatriate life in a country like no other' Weekend West 'Neville's first book is a travel memoir written with all the panache the pizazz, the characters and suspense of a good novel.' Adelaide Advertiser

Every so often a young writer comes along who can open up a special place to us, and at the same time remind us all of the way we were. This is what Lucy Neville has done in this enchanting travel memoir. Carmen Callil ...one of the pleasures of her delightful first book, a memoir of two years living in Mexico, is to spend 300-odd pages in the company of an open-minded yet morally grounded young woman. While Oh Mexico! fearlessly mixes it down on the streets of Mexico City, its sensibility is the antidote to every macho, exhaust-fogged travelogue that you have ever avoided reading. -The Times Part love story, part adventure, Oh Mexico! is a fun, light read, ideal for those eager to run away. - Courier Mail Lucy takes you along as she deals with public transport, shopping, the endless doubles entendres of the local language (almost everything has a secondary, sexual connotation) male machismo, local politics, a hilariously fraught visit by her parents and sister and much more. Anybody who has ever been a 20-something traveller should enjoy this engaging read - think Holy Cow in Mexico. - Bookseller and Publisher Mexico City is famous for decapitations and gang violence. So announcing you are moving there would worry most parents - even Lucy's unshockable father Richard Neville, once tried for obscenity in the infamous Oz Boys case. Lucy's comic observation and eye for the bizarre results in a classic coming of age romantic travel memoir that mixes Almost FrenchA with Like Water for Chocolate. - Northside A vibrant account of life in Mexico. It is a typical tale of an adventurous twentysomething... excellent when describing the challenge of finding a place to live, being overwhelmed by the sex appeal of her handsome flatmate, responding spontaneously to new and alien experiences, finding a job teaching English to a group of women she calls the First Wives' Breakfast Club , struggling with the complexities of speaking a foreign language, unraveling the nuances of class in Mexican society and learning the subtleties and texture of daily life in Mexico City. The combination of adventure and romance is charming and informative. Her parents' arrival just as she is disentangling herself from love affairs with two men adds a frisson of clandestine chaos. Neville is a talented writer whose easy, warm style and very non-chick lit calmness in the presence of glamorous men makes for an entertaining account of two years and two loves in a city little known to many. - Sydney Morning Herald At its very best, travel writing has the capacity to illuminate not only the heart of a traveller but of a country, too. The page-turning journey that is Oh Mexico! manages to do both things with considerable skill and frequent hilarity...Neville has the canny reserve of a born story teller ,capturing the dissonances as well as the melodies of expatriate life in a country like no other' Weekend West 'Neville's first book is a travel memoir written with all the panache the pizazz, the characters and suspense of a good novel. - Adelaide Advertiser

Author Information

Lucy Neville was born in 1983. After completing school she worked as a volunteer on an indigenous reserve in Costa Rica. Returning to Australia she did an Arts Degree in Politics and Latin American Studies before travelling to Spain to study teaching English as a foreign language. From there she continued to Mexico City where she has been living, teaching English, exploring and performing in a minor role in one of Mexico's biggest soap operas, Tequila Loving.

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