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A review by dontpanic42
The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez
3.0
This is one of those books that is Important, with a capital I. It presents stories of Central American immigrants traveling through Mexico to the United States, and all of the challenges and horrors that journey presents. For those of us in the US, where this migration is a steady and inevitable stream, and where many of these migrants become part of our machinery that makes our country run, these stories provide context for understanding the world we're living in.
Still, while the stories are important, I was disappointed by their delivery in this book. This is really not one narrative but a collection of related pieces of medium-form journalism. Each chapter could have been a magazine article. As a result, we're left to view the migrant journey through a slideshow of snapshots, rather than being taken on the full journey ourselves. I think that lessened the overall impact of the book. There are some good pieces in here, certainly, but the overall collection was uneven.
Also, I have not read this in Spanish, but I do speak Spanish, and I could see awkward portions of the translation where I could guess at the original meaning and also see that it hadn't been conveyed. Translation is undoubtedly a challenging art, and I don't pretend that I could have done it better. But I did leave with the feeling that someone else likely could have.
So, all in all, an Important book that could nevertheless have been done better.
Still, while the stories are important, I was disappointed by their delivery in this book. This is really not one narrative but a collection of related pieces of medium-form journalism. Each chapter could have been a magazine article. As a result, we're left to view the migrant journey through a slideshow of snapshots, rather than being taken on the full journey ourselves. I think that lessened the overall impact of the book. There are some good pieces in here, certainly, but the overall collection was uneven.
Also, I have not read this in Spanish, but I do speak Spanish, and I could see awkward portions of the translation where I could guess at the original meaning and also see that it hadn't been conveyed. Translation is undoubtedly a challenging art, and I don't pretend that I could have done it better. But I did leave with the feeling that someone else likely could have.
So, all in all, an Important book that could nevertheless have been done better.