| An Era of Delusion and Discovery | | | | Merida, she lost herself in the drug culture and in an |
| Linda Dahl has captured the essence of a unique era, | | | | alcoholic stupor. She was plagued with loneliness and |
| created a cast of eccentric characters, and placed | | | | feelings of despair. |
| them in another time and place the Mayan pyramids, | | | | Erica observed the scarcity of basic needs, the |
| and the Mexico of the 1970s in her novel "Gringa in a | | | | wretched conditions, the personal disasters, and the |
| Strange Land." | | | | plight of those destined to poverty. Her paintings took |
| Erica Mason has a dream of finding herself through | | | | on a matching depth of reality as her clear vivid |
| her art. She visits the colonial city of Merida in the | | | | strokes came to life on canvas as her own life |
| Yucatan peninsula and is torn between working to | | | | continued in a downward spiral. |
| become an artist and giving in to the enticement and | | | | "Gringa in a Strange Land" is written from Linda Dahl's |
| lure of the drug culture. The story takes Erica to the | | | | own personal observation gained from time spent in |
| Mayan ruins and to the beaches of Belize and the city | | | | the Yucatan and throughout Latin America during her |
| of Oaxaca. | | | | college training in Latin American studies and while |
| Twenty-three year old Erica Mason is a well educated | | | | growing up in the 60's, the era and setting of the book. |
| middle class youth enamored by the counter culture of | | | | Dahl's writes is literary in style. She writes with depth |
| the 1960's and 70's. She became engaged as an | | | | of feeling. I especially appreciated the character |
| advocate in causes such as: women's lib, legalized | | | | development of her protagonist, Erica, her supporting |
| abortion, and anti-war rallies. Erica soon came to the | | | | characters, and the various antagonists. |
| realization that she had become trapped by an | | | | Dahl writes with diligent detail. Her descriptions of the |
| addiction to prescription drugs. | | | | topography and ethos are breathtaking conveying |
| Erica traveled to the Mayan world of the Yucatan. It is | | | | understanding and insight into the background of the |
| Erica's hope that she will find herself. It is her dream to | | | | Yucatan, its culture and its people. |
| become an established proficient skilled artist. | | | | "Gringa in a Strange Land" is dynamic writing and |
| Disillusioned and overcome with the unbearable heat of | | | | absorbing reading. Powerfully gripping. |