The Interior Circuit

[djrefugium]

This is a book that took me a long time to get through. I renewed it twice. It was worth it.

It's about Mexico City and the government and people that live there, in the bubble that is the Distrito Federal (aka the DF). Having just visited for the second time, I was really interested. It sheds light on some things that are rather unsavory, like the Heavens Levanton case in which 12 people were kidnapped from in front of a bar and found dead outside the city later on. The police were actually implicated, and it took place a few blocks from the Hotel Century where I stayed my first time there. (As an aside, I always seem to find messed-up places to stay and be fine in them- I totally innocently booked a room at the Cecil Hotel in DTLA for a conference, then found out about Richard Ramirez and Eliza Lam later. Yikes.)

The author is an amazing, vivid writer who has been through so very much, and his sorrow but also his reconciliation and grieving come through clearly. It's about moving through loss, about knowing things, about his love for the city that seems to be wild and full of life, but has a dark side as well. I loved reading it because I'm of a morbid turn of mind, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. I understand much better now why people were so happy to elect AMLO and why they are not pleased with Peno Nieta.

I've just started another Noah Levine book called Dharma Punx, on the vein of reading about sobriety and buddhism. (Since I'm neither sober at the moment, nor buddhist, it's one of those reads that is just filling me in on what it's like to go through these things.)

I also skimmed an old book called How To Retire Early, which is tremendously outdated and not worth the effort.

Onward--