{"product_id":"a-visit-to-don-otavio-a-mexican-journey-9781590179697","title":"A Visit to Don Otavio: A Mexican Journey","description":"In the mid-1940s, Sybille Bedford set off from Grand Central Station for Mexico, accompanied by her friend E., a hamper of food and drink (Virginia ham, cherries, watercress, a flute of bread, Portuguese ros ), books, a writing board, and paper. Her resulting travelogue captures the violent beauty of the country she visited. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Bedford doesn't so much describe Mexico as take the reader there--in second-class motor buses over thousands of miles, through arid noons and frigid nights, successions of \u003ci\u003ecomida corrida\u003c\/i\u003e, botched excursions to the coast, conversations recorded verbatim, hilarious observations, and fascinating digressions into murky histories. At the heart of the book is the Don Otavio of the title, the travelers' gracious host, his garrulous family and friends, and his Edenic hacienda at Lake Chapala. Published in 1953, \u003ci\u003eA Visit to Don Otavio \u003c\/i\u003ewas an immediate success, \"a travel book written by a novelist,\" as Bedford described it, establishing her reputation as a nonpareil writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/21\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781590179697\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 392\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.90d","brand":"Sybille Bedford","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43059850084533,"sku":"9781590179697","price":19.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_5e6689d7-5ca3-4d8b-99c5-32d87a5183b5.jpg?v=1690299436","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/a-visit-to-don-otavio-a-mexican-journey-9781590179697","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}