William Friar's and Patricia Katzman's new Panama tour guides

review

Two worthy new Panama tourism guidebooks

a review by Eric Jackson

Long-time readers will know that I hardly ever review anything I don't like. The creative art of the insult has its well established place in reviewing, but that just isn't my personality. I generally just don't comment on things I find unworthy. (Ah, but then I have this strange range of tastes, from underground comix on up to classical music. My ex-wife, the drama major, always alleged that my sense of taste is located entirely in my mouth, but oh, well....)

Anyway, here I review two new tourist guides to Panama, very different books. Each has its flaws, but on balance each is a good addition to the genre.

William Friar, a San Franciscan who grew up here, the son of an American era PanCanal publicist, has his new book in the Moon Handbooks series. You can tell something of his eye for architecture from the cover.

Patricia Katzman, a native of New York state now transplanted to Florida, has written a new entry in the lineup of Hunter Travel Guides. You can tell by the cover that she knows how to spell Panama in Spanish.

Friar's book contains more information about more things and places. But Katzman gets into things that Friar doesn't touch, or covers more superficially.

In many respects the comparison of these guides is the difference between male and female culture. Katzman doesn't mention prostitution or the boxing scene like Friar does, but unlike the competition she talks about traveling in Panama with kids, and includes a little guide to Panama City's gay bars. I take Katzman's graphic domination by Kunas to be a form of gender identity, in that despite the male political domination Kuna society is pretty matriarchal and that's one reason it's more attractive to women than some of our other indigenous cultures.

Sometimes Friar's greater familiarity with Panama leads him to dismiss things that maybe he shouldn't, but I won't go so far as to chalk it up to clichés about familiarity and contempt. He's not contemptuous, but he calls a trashy beach a trashy beach and the likes of IPAT director Rubén Blades would to well to pay attention to his criticisms of this sort. On the other hand, his little aside on the historical events of January 1964 would offend many a Panamanian nationalist --- and many a devoted history buff --- as something of a Zonian revisionist caricature. (The paper on which his mama worked, The Spillway, was FAR worse on this subject if you look it up, by the way.)

The newness of Panama to Katzman, who is also not averse to panning a trash-covered place, is both a strength and a weakness. A few things she just doesn't get, but many more things she perceives with non-jaded eyes, to the extent that people who have lived here all their lives have some fresh insights to be gained from her work.

See, there isn't just one way to see Panama. Mass tourism is mostly boring. Niche tourism is where the best of the industry is at. Now there are certain niches of Panamanian life that I treasure but neither Friar nor Katzman notice, but I'm a different person, someone who might take offense if presumed "normal." If you have to choose one of these books or the other, it may be best to pick the one by the person with whom you most identify. Or else you might decide that you will get more by being contrarian. Me? I'm glad I have both of these books to add to the family Panama collection.

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