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God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Grant
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.92
You Save: $6.08 (41%)
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 15405
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1416534407
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.210484
EAN: 9781416534402
ASIN: 1416534407
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Twenty miles south of the Arizona-Mexico border, the rugged, beautiful Sierra Madre mountains begin their dramatic ascent. Almost 900 miles long, the range climbs to nearly 11,000 feet and boasts several canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon. The rules of law and society have never taken hold in the Sierra Madre, which is home to bandits, drug smugglers, Mormons, cave-dwelling Tarahumara Indians, opium farmers, cowboys, and other assorted outcasts. Outsiders are not welcome; drugs are the primary source of income; murder is all but a regional pastime. The Mexican army occasionally goes in to burn marijuana and opium crops -- the modern treasure of the Sierra Madre -- but otherwise the government stays away. In its stead are the drug lords, who have made it one of the biggest drug-producing areas in the world.Fifteen years ago, journalist Richard Grant developed what he calls "an unfortunate fascination" with this lawless place. Locals warned that he would meet his death there, but he didn't believe them -- until his last trip. During his travels Grant visited a folk healer for his insomnia and was prescribed rattlesnake pills, attended bizarre religious rituals, consorted with cocaine-snorting policemen, taught English to Guarijio Indians, and dug for buried treasure. On his last visit, his reckless adventure spiraled into his own personal heart of darkness when cocaine-fueled Mexican hillbillies hunted him through the woods all night, bent on killing him for sport. With gorgeous detail, fascinating insight, and an undercurrent of dark humor, God's Middle Finger brings to vivid life a truly unique and uncharted world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 Fun Reading, But Questionable Believability January 4, 2009
Frederick S. Goethel (Central Valley, CA)
I suppose if you go to a place and look for the worst that the particular place has to offer, you will find it. While I am sure that the Sierra Madre are not particular hot spots for fun and excitement, I doubt that the whole place is as bad as the author portrays them to be. Nor, I feel certain, are all of the people who inhabit the area into some sort of lawless behavior.
The writing was satisfactory, but there was something not quite believable about the whole story. It made me think I was reading the written version of a Hollywood "reality" show, which in reality is not reality.
 My Middle Finger December 25, 2008
D. MacKay (Alamos Sonora Mexico)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am an American Citizen and I have lived in Alamos Sonora for 15 years. My wife and I have raised our two daughters here and we have a couple of business that take us into the sierra Madre with tourists on a regular basis. Alamos is one of the places that Richard Grant writes about in his book God's Middle Finger, however after reading the book I feel like Richard must have been writing about a different Alamos!
It would be nice if someone could write a reasonable and accurate account of life in the Sierra Madre, certainly "God's Middle Finger" is NOT IT! Unfortunately Richard Grant's cobbled together self promotional fantasy has done a incredible amount of harm to businesses that depend on tourism in the Sierra, while providing a disservice to anyone who would reconsider going on a trip to Mexico because of the tales Richard has concocted for this book. In an attempt to project his manhood and discover his own machismo, he has cut and pasted experiences he had more than a decade ago with some new ones provided by some of the most unsavory people around (they are the ones who happen to speak English, which was necessary for Richard). Even one of the wonderful people who took him out on his "research" trips is very disturb by what Richard gleaned through him and later wrote in the book.
In the US he would probably be sued for slander by some of the real characters in this book (I personally know some of them), unfortunately that will not happen here in Mexico, and I'm sure Richard knows that. Just like the Narcos he abhors in his book, he has taken what he can get from the locals and is moving on to the next victim. Apparently he learned a lot on his summer vacation in Mexico; how to make a buck with no regard for human life or condition.
Yes! Be afraid, be very afraid! But not of the Mexicans or Mexico, but of fictional accounts packaged as reality sold to you in the pursuit of the all mighty dollar!
This is a foolish book written in an irresponsible manner, it is not a true or accurate account of what life is like in the Sierra Madre.
 ...And the horse you rode in on too! December 15, 2008
Kregg Pj Jorgenson (Seattle)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
How can you not love a travel book where the very Prologue has the author being hunted at night by drunken locals for sport? Perhaps if some of the other writers out there had the same motivation the quality of writing in general might improve...but I digress. RICHARD GRANT's Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre God's Middle Finger is enjoyable and excitable reading, the kind that has you wondering just what in the %$#@ was he thinking but leaving you glad that he went on his adventures and even more pleased that he wrote about them.
God bless all mad crazy Englishmen and those who write from adventure experience, otherwise we'd be up to our collective back pockets in books by authors whose only heated close calls come from some yahoo with a cell phone spilling their coffee order in front of them at the coffee shop!
This is good travel writing, good adventuring, and some good history tossed in as well. I'm adding him to my list of writers I like to read and will pay full price for his books since he doesn't make any royalties on the used copies. Let's keep the boy in business!
 Mountain High November 22, 2008
Scott A. Kallick (Pittsburgh)
Richard Grant does not take Gonzo journalism to the places that Hunter S Thompson did, with the amped up, drug fueled non-stop self abuse that was written in the 1970's, but his version is the same premise.
Go to a God-forsaken place where one's life is randomly spared each day the sun comes up, and live to write about it.
At the soul of the story is Joe Brown, a seventy something author who has lived at the foothills of the Sierra Madre, and braved a rough, hardscrabble existence. Brown warns Richard Grant that he will surely die should he complete his fantasy of travelling through this area.
Grant, of course, goes in spite of this, and makes some acute observations about the people he encounters.
Some of the most eye-opening encounters are with local police. These are mean, corrupt, and hard living folk for whom justice is a concept that has never breached their consciousness. Envariably, the only way to get into their graces as an outsider is to smoke copious amounts of mota with them, or drink ones self into oblivion in their presence. Of course, buying them cocaine is a third option.
There are some truly kind and helpful people to be found on this journey, however, they are few and far between.
He writes with wonder of the Tarahumara's, and here, in my opinion he is at his best. Providing a historical context, he tells of these people who are so tough, that they cut up strips of rubber from tires, wrap them around their feet, and proceed to run 100 miles. A group of Tarahuma's were brought to Leadville, Colorado to compete in the ultra-marathon. With no training, no stretching and a diet rich in barley and hops (brewed in Mexico's finest breweries) they put the most finely trained athletes in this sport to shame.
When he slips into his alcohol and mota filled paranoiac writing of fear and life preserving actions, it can be fun, but disjointed, and not nearly as interesting.
Still, an excellent read. I am glad I learned about the lawlessness of our southern neighbors.
Booze, drugs and danger November 22, 2008
Blue (Washington, DC United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"God's Middle Finger" reminded me of a much racier version of articles from the old men's adventure magazine, Argosy. The writing here is proficient, and each of the many episodes included in the book is eminently readable and fun. Ultimately, what I didn't get about this book was why anyone would want to go into the Mexican Sierra Madre. If Richard Grant's description of the area is half accurate, there's not much there but dust, heartache and the great risk of dying a violent death. There's a lot of Mexico that I find more appealing.
Still, Grant's adventures in the lawless Mexican north make for some interesting reading. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for a story with a beginning and tidy ending.
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