Review by Choice Review
Written by an accomplished journalist and published by a prestigious university press, this book is as engaging, scholarly, and well written as one might expect. Hendricks's stories tell of her encounters on the US-Mexico border during several extensive visits. The author persuasively argues that the border should be regarded as a "region" and not merely an international dividing line. The idea of the border and the borderlands as an integrated cultural region is in fact a well-developed, widely accepted notion in the academic world, but perhaps not yet in the American popular imagination. In the US, the current sentiment seems to be adamancy about building a high wall to separate the two nations and keep foreign danger and unwanted intrusions--drugs, illegal immigrants--out of the US. Hendricks demonstrates that the border is a binational, bicultural, bilingual region that in every way inextricably links the well being and destinies of the US and Mexico, links them in ways that demand that problems and progress (be they economic, environmental, or social) be handled cooperatively. The author does not lecture or theorize, but instead argues her thesis through vibrant portraits painted with powerful words. Including bibliographical references, this is a wonderful book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. E. Hu-DeHart Brown University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
