The Beats in Mexico

"Calonne's book brings together a mass of description, information, knowledge and quotation to form a wide-ranging compendium of Mexican connections across the Beat field. It should inspire scholars to examine in more depth a literary history too often chronicled in only the colourful but reductive terms of Beat biography."
 

— Oliver Harris, Professor of American Literature at Keele University and President of the European Beat Studies Netw

"With The Beats in Mexico, David Stephen Calonne finally fills a critical gap in Beat Generation scholarship—tracing not only the influences of Mexico on the major Beat writers, but on their predecessors, followers, and contemporaries. We devoured this thoroughly researched, beautifully written study. Highly recommended!"

— Arthur S. Nusbaum, Third Mind Books

"Calonne takes readers on a much-needed tour through the complex, often surprising relationship between the Beats and Mexico, offering insight after insight into numerous writers and their works—a book the size of the Pyramid of Kukulcán."

— Steven Belletto, author of The Beats: A Literary History

"In The Beats in Mexico, David Stephen Calonne provides a literary critic's reading of the countercultural movement's relationship with the country whose rich culture was slowly gaining appreciation in the U.S. . . . Calonne's own attitude to the Beats is rather like [Margaret] Randall's attitude to Mexico—he examines the source material thoroughly and is admiring rather than adulatory. . . . His detailed study demonstrates that though their work on Mexico was sometimes naive, the Beats were not callous appropriators—they were well-meaning apologists."— Daniel Rey, Writer's Mosaic

"Adds nuance to the popular understanding of the place of the Beats in twentieth-century US literature. . . . The extensive endnotes provided by Calonne invite one to consider the myriad possibilities for future research, allowing the reader to make connections beyond the pages of his book. For that reason, The Beats in Mexico rewards careful reading and scholarly imagination. Furthermore, the narrative Calonne provides is well organized, accessible, and very readable. . . . What The Beats in Mexico offers is an important standpoint from which to revisit the place of 'Mexico' in the literary imagination of foreign visitors to that country."— Review of International American Studies