Increasing literacy rates and engagement with reading as a cultural practice in Mexico has been the focus of many postrevolutionary programs, yet studies show that few Mexicans choose to read on a regular, voluntary basis. While the image of Mexicans as nonreaders is a common theme in contemporary Mexican literature and popular culture, few studies exist on the topic. This article analyzes representations of the nonreader in Rosa Beltrán’s novel Efectos secundarios (2011) and the relationship of these portrayals to citizenship, cultural policy and management, the cultural industry, and the effects of neoliberalism in twenty-first-century Mexico. While novels such as El último lector (Toscana 2004; The last reader) and advertising, such as that of the Gandhi bookstore chain, depict reading apathy as a personal failure on the part of Mexican citizens and a lack of volition to exercise what might be seen as a civic responsibility, Beltrán’s novel shows Mexican nonreaders as victims of a failed state marked by corruption, impunity, insecurity, and violence, which impede reading as a cultural practice. Because a reading public may be seen as vital for democracy, Beltrán’s novel invites critical engagement with key debates on reading and education policy, the politics of the Mexican publishing industry, and the effects of corruption and violence on the distribution of cultural goods.
