MEXICAN JOURNEY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 794, 8 October 1954, Page 14

MEXICAN JOURNEY

TEMPLES OF THE SUN AND MOON, by Michael Swan; Jonathan Cape, English price 21/-. «NGLISH writers who have found in a visit to Mexico a stimulus to their creative work have often been moved to write about their travels. Mr. Swan has followed in distinguished steps. His own roaming takes him from Mexico City by land and air to a cross-section of Mexican towns and villages, to the old and new empires of the Mayas, and even to British Honduras, Many of the places described by Mr. Swan are tourist centres, to which he gives adequate understanding. Gossipy accounts of chance meetings with dull travellers are here the weakest part of the book, But in the jungle and in remote and untouched villages his perception quickens, and his fusion of history and geography is most effective. There are many well-written chapters, Mr. Swan’s devotion to literature is as rewarding as the translations of the poems which illustrate one aspect of the cultures he met. There is a strong current of human interest. The golden women of Tehuantepec, the fiestas, the bull-fights, the street scenes, and the politics are splenadlid contrast to the background of architecture and temples, frescoes and masks. The illustrations are good, and the maps printed as end-papers are useful. The appendices include studies of Mexican

history and art.

John

Pascoe