1992 "First Edition" stated on copyright page; Random House publishers, New York; larger hardbound in mustard and purple boards with metal foil lettering and decor on cover and spine; Mexico maps inside boards; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket very good.
 
Description -
Mexico by James Michener is a sweeping saga of the colorful and often tumultuous history of Mexico and its people. This takes place in the fictional city of Toledo, Mexico where Norman Clay, an American journalist, comes to explore his Spanish roots as well as to report on its Festival of Ixmiq-61 and its bullfights pitting two celebrated matadors in a decisive duel; the Spaniard Victoriano executing dramatic arabesques versus Juan Gomez, the relentless little Indian. Clay reports that it is "appropriate, therefore, that our protagonists should represent almost ideally the two historic strains of Mexican history: the ancient Indian, the recent Spanish". 
 
Plot -
The main action of Mexico takes place in Mexico over a three-day period in the fictional city of Toledo in 1961. The occasion is the annual bullfighting festival, at which two matadors — one an acclaimed hero of the sport, the other a scrapping contender — are prepared to fight to the death for fame and glory.
Through the memories of the book's narrator, Norman Clay, an American journalist of Spanish and Indian descent, Michener provides plenty of historical background, including a depiction of the fictitious Indian civilization that once flourished on city's periphery. The story focuses on bullfighting, but also provides insight into Mexican culture. The reader follows the bulls from their breeding to their "sorting" to the pageantry and spectacle of the bullring, where picadors and banderilleros prepare the bull for the entrance of the matador with his red cape. .