Reviews
- New York Times Notable Book
- Winner of American Library Association Award
“Ted Conover has written a book about the Mexican poor that is at once intimate and epic. Coyotes is travel literature, social protest, and affirmation. I can compare this book to the best of George Orwell’s journeys to the heart of poverty.” — Richard Rodriguez, author of Brown and Hunger of Memory
“Absorbing … sharply observed and sympathetic … Mr. Conover’s description of what would normally be a routine plane flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles becomes a perilous, frightening journey for these workers; and a cross-country drive from Arizona to Florida (without a map) similarly takes on the nervous coloration of a thriller. In relating these events, Mr. Conover combines a sociologist’s eye for detail with a novelist’s sense of drama and compassion … he has defiantly succeeded.” — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
“Honest, funny, touching and important … There is grace in this book, even more wisdom. What makes it really glow on every page is Mr. Conover’s realization that he is dealing neither with a crime nor a tragedy, but with another of those human adventures that make America a country that is constantly renewing itself … remarkable. — T.D. Allman, New York Times Book Review
“Compelling, often funny, and suspenseful … He evinces a deep understanding of and feeling for the men who must take such risks to get mere subsistence money for their families …” — The New Yorker
“A deftly written and compelling narrative … written with passion, wit and authority, Coyotes is … something to shout about.” — Seattle Times
“Incisive and revealing … Coyotes has a very unsettling way of prodding reflection.” — San Diego Tribune
“This engrossing story is also an important social document … Conover is a sympathetic and perceptive observer, but more than that, he is a superb storyteller … Coyotes is a book of astonishing veracity, and a galloping good read.” — Wilson Library Bulletin
“Conover’s book is full of good humor, the kind that hears the nightmare beneath the joke.” — Village Voice
“The 29-year-old Conover has but one other book to his credit … he, however, shows an insight and style that reminds you of more mature writers like Naipaul and John McPhee.” — Houston Post
“A superbly written, compelling, sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, extremely perceptive account … humor makes the book sing.” — The Minnesota Daily
“Ted Conover’s Coyotes should be greeted with applause … a first-rate piece of investigative journalism that reads like an adventure.” — Rocky Mountain News
“Always fascinating.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“A devastating document. This one must be read.” — Leon Uris