A review by pierreikonnikov
The Lawless Roads by Graham Greene, David Rieff

2.0

This wasn't so bad as to put me off Graham Greene; he can clearly write. The question that I could not ask- and that made me fall out of interest in the book after 100 pages- is why on earth did he write it? A travel book cannot be written by someone who isn't in love with something about the place they are travelling, it simply doesn't work. All Greene sees in Mexico is bad food (which is just baffling), inconsequential Indians (and his racism is barely hidden), and bad Catholicism. He is deeply antagonistic towards almost everything he comes across, right from the outset, but not in an amusing or interesting way: there is a complete reluctance to engage with Mexico, almost a revulsion, which is just not what one looks for in a travel book at all. Bizarre. Not recommended.