Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border (Audio CD) (Unabridged)

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border (Audio CD) (Unabridged)
VolunteerVal avatar reviewed on + 596 more book reviews


This memoir is a combination of the author's reflections on time as a US Border Patrol officer, snippets of Mexican history, and reflections on assisting his friend who went to Mexico after 30 years in the US and couldn't return because he was not a citizen.

Each important topic in this memoir could be its own book, so it merely scratches the surface of them. That may be for the best as some segments, especially those outlining the treatment of migrants by the coyotes 'assisting' them to cross to the US, were extremely violent and difficult to read.

I felt it was quite fragmented but a helpful introduction from a person who had first-hand experience with matters that are often in the news but quite removed from my daily life.