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COYOTES A
Journey Across Borders (original subtitle: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens) new preface, 2006
Vintage, 1987. New York Times Notable Book. Winner of American Library Association Award. Anthologized in Arguing Immigration (Touchstone, 1994), Today's Best Nonfiction (Reader's Digest, 1988), and Travelers' Tales Mexico (O'Reilly and Habegger, 1994).
"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."
"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.
"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 ..."
"A deftly written
and compelling narrative ... written with passion, wit and authority, Coyotes is ... something to shout about."
"Incisive and revealing
... Coyotes has a very unsettling way of prodding reflection."
"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."
"Conover's book
is full of good humor, the kind that hears the nightmare beneath the joke."
"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."
"A superbly written,
compelling, sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, extremely perceptive account
... humor makes the book sing."
"Ted Conover's
Coyotes should be greeted with applause ... a first-rate piece of investigative
journalism that reads like an adventure."
"Always fascinating."
"A devastating document. This one must be read." — Leon Uris
from the back cover "We were nowhere–there was nothing around. We worried we had been betrayed, abandoned for reasons unknown. The desert sky was clear, and the temperature soon up in the eighties. All my clothing made me look sick, like an invalid–and, because of the way I sweated, I did indeed feel feverish. 'You're scared, aren't you,' said Jesús. 'Scared?' My companions were not always New Age males, admiring of those who shared their feelings and vulnerabilities. 'No, I'm not scared. I'm just fucking hot.' I thought that sounded convincing. I asked, 'You've been through this a lot. Don't these guys ever scare you?' Jesús shrugged. 'Not too much. The money is the main thing. The gun is for that–to make sure we pay, after they do their part of the deal." The acclaimed author of Rolling Nowhere has taken another adventure, this time on the underground railway that operates across America's southern border. To discover what becomes of Mexicans who desperately slip into the United States, Ted Conover walked across deserts, hid in orange orchards, and waded through the Rio Grande. This electrifying account is the harrowing vision of a way of life no outsider has ever seen before.
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