Dodge, How Green was my Father

After reading a couple of his mysteries, tried this one. Fun, not a classic. I kind of prefer Dodge's adventure stories, which pull off that man-of-the-world savoir faire with panache, let's call it. Basic bumbling-dad lit predicaments here as they get caught in Mexican laziness and ineptitude on the way south, plus some pretty funny stuff about their bureaucratic roundabout in getting their car shipped. The really sad part is that the family ends up in Guatemala, which he considers fairer, more clean, more efficient, and more generally honest than Mexico--a mere 7 years before the US-backed overthrow of the Arbenz regime, which led to more than forty years of dirty war against the people. It's a sad extra-textual gravity to add to the book.