Scan barcode
delasondas's review against another edition
5.0
I think this book should be required reading for every American. It is poignant and prescient. The harrowing journey that people embark on to get from central America to the United States is something that we all need to understand and respect. These folks are coming to the United States because they have to, and the U.S. bares some responsibility for having created the life-or-death conditions in countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
micaelabrody's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.75
this was an incredible read/listen. as someone from the US, and specifically from the northeast, i have very little personal experience with The Border, and not a lot of awareness of the nuances behind immigration and migrant experience. not only was this enlightening on an “academic” level for lack of a better word, but martínez really tackles the personal experience of migrants as well. as always with an audiobook, there is a part of me that wishes i’d read it on paper; it takes me so long to get through audio that i can lose the thread a little (not a knock on the narrator, who read it with as much empathy as martínez wrote). on paper i really do think this would have read as energetically as a novel with multiple perspectives; not that these migrants should be treated as characters but their stories are personal, engaging, sympathetic, unique… basically, really fucking human. it’s easy with a Hot Button Issue to lose track of that even if you have abundant personal connection to the area and the issue, but martínez never, never does - he manages to straddle some fine lines here; he's matter-of-fact without being distant, empathetic without being sappy, and thrilling without feeling sensational.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault
clairealex's review against another edition
5.0
Martinez at times travels as a migrant, having ridden "the Beast" 8 times, and at other times as journalist does interviews. Thus he gives a picture of multiple aspects of issues surrounding immigration for people without papers. Besides seeing the experiences of the migrants themselves, readers see the folks who run shelters, coyotes, narcos, and people who live in various towns. Martinez even spends a day with US border patrol. He conveys changes in the trip north as US rules change, as the fence/wall grows, as the drug trafficking imposes itself on every aspect of living and leaving.
michellegotto's review against another edition
5.0
Like Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" and Sheri Fink's "Five Days at Memorial," Oscar Martinez's astonishing book reads like a captivating thriller. Martinez spent two years riding the rails and following the migrant trail through Mexico, witnessing the hardships and traumas that migrants suffer as they try to make their way to the United States. Over a thousand miles, on a train that claims lives and limbs, avoiding robbers, rapists, and kidnappers, paying taxes to narcos and coyotes, only to find that they have to battle the border.
But why? Why do they do it? If they are willing to endure these torments, what must they be escaping? This book is a must read. Amazing.
But why? Why do they do it? If they are willing to endure these torments, what must they be escaping? This book is a must read. Amazing.
kathymurphy's review against another edition
4.0
Great read about what migrants go through in their travels north. It once again proves how bad life is where they are leaving, to be willing to go through so much for just the possibility of a better life.