- Mexico (novel)
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Mexico 
1st edition coverAuthor(s) James Michener Country United States Language English Genre(s) Historical novel Publisher Random House Publication date 1992 Media type Print (Hardback) Pages 625pp. ISBN 0-679-41649-8 Mexico is a novel by James A. Michener published in 1992.
The main action of Mexico takes place in Mexico over a three-day period in the fictional city of Toledo in 1961. The occasion is the annual bullfighting festival, at which two matadors — one an acclaimed hero of the sport, the other a scrapping contender — are prepared to fight to the death for fame and glory.
Through the memories of the book's narrator, Norman Clay, an American journalist of Spanish and Indian descent, Michener provides plenty of historical background, including a depiction of the gruesome human sacrifice that took place hundreds of years before on the city's periphery. The story focuses on bullfighting, but also provides great insight into Mexican culture. The reader follows the bulls from their breeding to their "sorting" to the pageantry and spectacle of the bullring, where picadors and banderilleros prepare the bull for the entrance of the matador with his red cape. The author creates one of his most memorable characters in the bullfighting "critic" Leon Ledesma, a flamboyant sportswriter who elevates bullfighting into an art form through his grandiloquent essays.
Works by James A. Michener Novels The Fires of Spring (1949) • The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953) • Sayonara (1954) • Hawaii (1959) • Caravans (1963) • The Source (1965) • The Drifters (1971) • Centennial (1974) • Chesapeake (1978) • The Watermen (1979) • The Covenant (1980) • Space (1982) • Poland (1983) • Texas (1985) • Legacy (1987) • Alaska (1988) • Caribbean (1989) • Journey (1989) • The Novel (1991) • South Pacific (1992) • Mexico (1992) • Recessional (1994) • Miracle in Seville (1995) • Matecumbe (2007)
Non-fiction The Future of the Social Studies (1939) • The Voice of Asia (1951) • The Floating World (1954) • The Bridge at Andau (1957) • Rascals in Paradise (1957) • Japanese Prints (1959) • Report of the Country Chairman (1961) • Iberia (1968) • Presidential Lottery (1969) • The Quality of Life (1970) • Kent State: What Happened and Why (1971) • Firstfruits, A Harvest of 25 Years of Israeli Writing (1973) • Sports in America (1976) • About Centennial: Some Notes on the Novel (1978) • United States of America (1982) • Collectors, Forgers — And A Writer: A Memoir (1983) • All We Did Was Fly to the Moon (1985) • Six Days in Havana (1989) • Pilgrimage: A Memoir of Poland and Rome (1990) • The Eagle and the Raven (1990) • My Lost Mexico (1992) • The World Is My Home (1992) • Writer's Handbook (1992) • Creatures of the Kingdom (1993) • Literary Reflections (1993) • William Penn (1994) • Ventures in Editing (1995) • This Noble Land (1996) • A Century of Sonnets (1997)
Short story collections Tales of the South Pacific (1947) • Return to Paradise (1951) • Selected Writings of James Michener (1978)
Film, TV and
theatrical adaptationsSouth Pacific (musical) (1949) • The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1953) • Return to Paradise (1953) • Sayonara (1957) • Until They Sail (1957) • South Pacific (film) (1958) • Hawaii (1966) • The Hawaiians (1970) • Centennial (1978) • Space (1985) • Texas (1994) • South Pacific (film) (2001)
Categories:- American novels
- 1992 novels
- Novels by James A. Michener
- Random House books
- Novels set in Mexico
- 1961 in fiction
- 1990s novel stubs
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