Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico - Softcover

Wright, Ronald

3.78

188 ratings by Goodreads

9780805014709: Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805014705 ISBN 13: 9780805014709

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1991

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Describes the culture and daily life of the modern Maya, and discusses the land of the ancient Maya

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Ronald Wright is the internationally acclaimed, bestselling author of several non-fiction books, including A Short History of Progress, Stolen Continents (which won the Gordon Montador Award), and Cut Stones and Crossroads. He is also the author of the novels Henderson's Spear and A Scientific Romance, the latter of which won Britain's David Higham Prize for Fiction. He was born in England, educated at Cambridge, and now lives in British Columbia.

Review:

“One of Wright’s many achievements is to arouse in his readers a sense of political rage without inducing cynicism and despair. He manages this delicate feat by juxtaposing recent events with stories from Mexican and Guatemalan history, and from the pre-Conquest period of Mayan life—as well as by means of some wry, deprecating anecdotes about his own travels. To read this book is to swim through several different times.” - The Gazette (Montreal)

“Outstanding.... Wright draws on his experience to make the old Maya as real as the new Guatemalans and it is all delivered with great style.” - The Sunday Times (London)

"Mr. Wright’s narrative blends anthropology, archaeology, history, and politics with his own entertaining excursions and encounters, and, without any visible didactic effort, he teaches us a lot about the ways that culture endures.” - The New Yorker

“Ronald Wright is a superb travel writer, erudite, humorous, without bias, equipped with a true historian’s nose.” - The Observer (London)

“Any account of the modern-day Maya must be a tapestry, weaving together past glories and present destitution. Ronald Wright has managed admirably ... a skilful marriage of history, archaeology and reportage.” - The Baltimore Sun

“Mr. Wright offers a rich, almost Keatsian prose that often makes picture books seem rigid snatches at reality.... Whether he leads us into Guatemala City or a tiny village or a restaurant, we can count on everything being exactly the way he describes it and much better than we could have described it ourselves.” - The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

“Excellent.... Wright combines super research on the Mayan past with a passionate concern for Central America’s present, in a book that is informative on every page.... An important account.” - The Kansas City Star

"Time Among the Maya will firmly establish Wright as one of the most thoughtful and informative writers in the genre.” - Quill & Quire

“Time Among the Maya is an intelligent, balanced, warm, and often wise book. Ronald Wright has the ability to see, feel, and simultaneously begin to understand a time and place far different from our own. And he has the talent to describe for others the world he has found.” - The Globe and Mail

“A brilliant, highly engaging travelogue, sparkling with wit, incisive observation, and sheer good writing.... Wright is the ideal traveling companion.” - Toronto Star

“Fine research and descriptive powers.” - The New York Times Book Review

“In his lively account ... Wright deftly weaves the past into the present in a fascinating tale of Mayan endurance in the face of Spanish conquistadores and modern death squads.” - Maclean’s

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.