Product Description
The internationally acclaimed author Carlos Fuentes, winner of the Cervantes Prize and the Latin Civilization Award, delivers a stunning work of fiction about family and love across an expanse of Mexican life, reminding us why he has been called “a combination of Poe, Baudelaire, and Isak Dinesen” (Newsweek).

In these masterly vignettes, Fuentes explores Tolstoy’s classic observation that “happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In “A Family Like Any Other,” each member of the Pagan family lives in isolation, despite sharing a tiny house. In “The Mariachi’s Mother,” the limitless devotion of a woman is revealed as she secretly tends to her estranged son’s wounds. “Sweethearts” reunites old lovers unexpectedly and opens up the possibilities for other lives and other loves. These are just a few of the remarkable stories in Happy Families, but they all inhabit Fuentes’s trademark Mexico, where modern obsessions bump up against those of the mythic past, and the result is a triumphant display of the many ways we reach out to one another and find salvation through irrepressible acts of love.

In this spectacular translation, the acclaimed Edith Grossman captures the full weight of Fuentes’s range. Whether writing in the language of the street or in straightforward, elegant prose, Fuentes gives us stories connected by love, including the failure of love–between spouses, lovers, parents and children, siblings. From the Mexican presidential palace to the novels of the poor and the vast expanse of humanity in between, Happy Families is a magnificent portrait of modern life in all its complicated beauty, as told by one of the world’s most celebrated writers.

Praise for Carlos Fuentes
Winner of the Cervantes Prize

The Old Gringo

“A dazzling novel that possesses the weight and resonance of myth [and] the fierce magic of a remembered dream.”
–The New York Times

The Death of Artemio Cruz

“Remarkable in the scope of the human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and sharp dialogue.”
–The New York Times Book Review

The Years with Laura Díaz

“Reading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . . The breadth and enormity of this accomplishment is breathtaking.”
–The Denver Post

This I Believe

“Engaging, offering surprising conclusions, provocations or turns of phrase . . . Put down the page-turner and dare to drink these full-bodied, red, shining words.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review

The Eagle’s Throne

“Dazzling, razor-sharp . . . prescient . . . a feast of political insight.”
–The Washington Post Book World


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fuentes - a disappointment
I've been an avid fan of Fuentes for years. This is a disconnected, disappointing presentation by this great author.

Sameness and Difference
Benjamin Disraeli once wrote, "Those who have known grief seldom seem sad." (Endymion). The publisher of "Happy Families" described this book as an exploration of the great Russian storyteller, Tolstoy's observation that "all happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (The opening line in "Anna Karenina") The sixteen short stories and sixteen poems all relate to unhappiness and sorrow in the family. The title of the book was not just a paradox; it was also a hint that the stories were founded on paradoxical events. The father in "A Family like No Other" was named "Pastor Pagan", an honest man who worked in a corrupt company and forced into retirement, but really, was dismissed, for showing up the dishonesty around him. His son ended up working for his father's boss. His sister couldn't face reality except by gazing at the films on the television; his mother, a bolero singer so burdened by emptiness in her family's life that singing became at once her relief and her prison.

"Mater Dolores" was a riveting story told through an exchange of correspondence between a woman, Vanina, and the man, Jose Nicasio, who ravished and killed her daughter. She wrote to Jose (who was serving time in prison) to understand why it had happened to her daughter; driven by a desire that could only form in a mother in her situation. The reader should note the unusual punctuation. When a paragraph begins "Senora Vanina:" it would be Jose writing to her and conversely, when it starts "Jose Nicasio:" it would be Vanina writing to him. However, the author broke from this pattern in the penultimate paragraph when he wrote "Jose Nicasio," using the comma instead of the colon.

In "Conjugal Ties" Fuentes compressed the deepest paradox of freedom in the form of enslavement, and love in the form of torture. The "Mariachi's Mother" was probably one of the most tragic and sorrowful tales in the collection. An honest boy who sings in a mariachi band was arrested for the fraud committed by his fellow band members. He was released without charge only because the police wanted to use him as an undercover agent on account of his good looks and innocent demeanour. One day, his group of undercover policemen were identified by the townsfolk and set upon. Two of the police were killed and the others including the boy were beaten up; the boy was hit so hard his vocal chord snapped and he was not able to speak after that. As it happened, his mother, Dona Medea Batalla, had been drawn out of her house by the commotion and so found herself carried by the mob to the scene when the attack on the police began. Dona Medea took her son home to nurse him, and prayed for him. Eventually, he recovered his voice. That was the end of the story, which was also the start of the plot. Puentes began the story with the scene of Dona Medea naked (save for a diaper to contain her incontinence) in a police cell. She had been arrested with many of the residents who attacked the police the day her son was felled by the same mob.

Some of the stories were a little more tragic-comic. "The Discomfiting Brother" was one of them. It was a story of a wealthy and successful man whose wayward, trampy brother paid him an unexpected visit after a sixty year absence. We are compelled to wonder whether the ambitious charge to succeed socially and financially, was a virtue or a corruption of virtue. "How could I believe in the good with a diabolical brother like you?" That question was asked by the tramp brother. "Sweethearts" was a story more bitter than sweet. It will move hearts that have find lost love yet were neither able to relive the past nor change the course for the future. That was the story of Manuel who, in his twilight years found himself on the same cruise ship as his childhood love, Lucy, now a grandmother. "Is the wait for love to come more tortured than sadness for love that was lost?" Manuel asked. "If it's any comfort to you, let me say that it's nice to love someone we couldn't have only because with that person we were a promise and will keep being one forever..." Manuel promised.

With these delightful short stories Fuentes seemed to understand what the Russians have been writing all along. It was no wonder that a book about "Happy Families" was in fact a book about unhappy ones. Chekov reminded us that "the happy man feels good only because the unhappy bear their burden silently" and that sooner or later we will have our turn of unhappiness. When that time comes, no one will care for if they did, they too would be unhappy ("Gooseberries", 2000 Bantam Books). It is just like the way madness weaves in and out of the slim, porous coat of sanity.
... Read more

Product Description
Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

During a long, lingering lunch at the Automobile Club de France, the elderly Comte de Branly tells a story to a friend, unnamed until the closing pages, who is in fact the first-person narrator of the novel. Branly's story is of a family named Heredia: Hugo, a noted Mexican archaeologist, and his young son, Victor, whom Branly met in Cuernavaca and who became his house guest in Paris. There they are gradually drawn into a mysterious connection with the French Victor Heredia and his son, known as Andre. There is a hard-edged emphasis on the theme of relations between the Old World and the New, as Branly's twilit, Proustian existence is invaded and overcome by the hot, chaotic, and baroque proliferation of the Caribbean jungle.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

El Espejo Enterrado
I have really enjoyed using this book.I am in several spanish classes at college and I have found that Fuentes' book is an easy read; you are able to understand and visualizesome of the history of Latin America.The structure of the book is less like a textbook and more like a novel, the facts are all there, they are just presented in a different way, a more subjunctive way.I encourage those who need a good resource on the history and culture of Spain and Latin America to consider this book.

Best book I have read in a long time

Los espejos simbolizan la realidad.............De los espejos de obsidiana de la urbe totonaca de El Tajin a los espejos ibericos de Cervantes y Velasquez, el de la locura y el del asombro, un intercambio de reflejos ha ido y venido incesantemente de una a otra orilla del Atlantico. (Excerpted from the back cover of the book).

Such reflejos are the subject of the book, which is listed as an essay (ensayo) among the works of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, but whichshould really be classified under the subject of History in that ittraces the development of the Spanish speaking people from prehistory to modern times.

The bookconsists of 18 chapters as follows: "La Virgen y el Toro"(the Cretan and Greek roots); "La Conquista de Espana" (by Cartage and Rome); "La Reconquista de Espana" (bythe Barbarians, later by the Moors); "1492: El Ano Cruzal" (the expulsion of the Moors by the Catholic kings, and the discovery of the New World); "Vida y Muerte del Mundo Indigena" (the natives of North America, Cortes and Moctezuma);"La Conquista y la Reconquista del Nuevo Mundo" (the conquest of the New World, the new towns, the universities, the new religion); "La Era Imperial" (the problems with the administration of the New World, the defeat of the Spanish armada by Francis Drake); "El Siglo de Oro" (literature and art in imperial Spain - Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, Velasquez, Tirso de Molina, Francisco de Zurbaran); "El Barroco del Nuevo Mundo" (problems and unrest in the New World, Aleijadinho, Juana Ines de la Cruz);"La Epoca de Goya" (Melchor Gaspar de Jovellanos and Francisco de Goya y Lucientes); "Hacia la Endependencia: Multiples Mascaras y Aguas Turbias" (the unrest among the Creoles and the desire for independence); El Precio de la Libertad: Simon Bolivar y Jose de San Martin" (the expulsion of Spain from Latin America); "El Tiempo de los Tiranos" (Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina, Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia in Paraguay, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Benito Juarez and Maximilian and Carlota in Mexico); "La cultura de la Independencia" (Latin America looks back at Spain while neglecting the local Indians and blacks, Argentine gaucho Jose Hernandez and his poem Martin Fierro, Cubanwriter and patriot Jose Martin, Mexican cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada); "Tierra y Libertad"(The Mexican revolution of 1910, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa); "Latinoamerica" (the general situation and problems of modern day Latin America); La Espana Contemporanea" (the general situation and problems of modern day Spain); La Hispanidad Norteamericana" (a very interesting chapter providing statistics on the total number of Hispanics as well asthe number of Hispanic illegals in the United States,describing the invaluable contribution of the Hispanic people to the US economy andmore).

El Espejo Enterradomay be listed as an essay, it may be classifiedas a history book, yet it is more than that, because Carlos Fuentes is more than an essayer or a historian.He is a multifaceted artist who sees and describes reality in amore comprehensive as well as captivating manner than the average essayer or historian would.He does not just give the description of the events that shaped the history of the Spanish speaking people, he makes them interesting, he makes the reader want to learn more.For example, by discussing theindividuals whose thoughts and actions influenced the decisions of the Spanish speaking people (e.g., Jean Jacques Rousseau and Napoleon);by relating the major events from which those related to the Spanish speaking people developed (e.g., the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the American Revolution); or by describing the works of the Spanish speaking artists who reflected the periods during which they lived (e.g., Don Quixote, La Vida Es Sueno, Las Meninas, La Maja Desnuda.Hence with this book, the reader will learn more than the history of the Spanish speaking people, he/she will meet (again) some of the great thinkers of the Western world, he/she will be reminded of the history of the Western world, he/she will learn about the products of the most illuminated minds of the Spanish speaking world.He/she will also discover about many word origins, (how many among youreading this reviewknow the meaning of the word Saragoza, the origin of the name Malinche, the identity of the woman from whom California got its name, the reason why they call the turkey guacolote in Mexico). And he/she will acquire an awful lot of useful information which would otherwise not be easily available all in one book, for example, the real significance of Goya's Saturn Devouring his Children".

This is a book that, once started,cannot be put down.A book that many will wish will never come to the end.

Available in Spanish, as well as English with the title The Buried Mirror - Reflections on Spain and the New World, a must for anybody who is interested in history, in the works of the creative mind (including its author's) and the origin of things. Perhaps a must for just anybody interested in expanding his mind, whether or not of Hispanic descent.

El Espejo enterrado
Reviewing a book that i received, have not read it, but it's in great condition and shipping was very quick. Thank you.

ME ENCANTO!
"EL ESPEJO ENTERRADO" ES UN LIBRO QUE NO PUEDES DEJAR DE LEER. TIENES QUE TOMARTE UN TIEMPO PARA LEERLO Y APRENDER DE O RECORDAR LA HISTORIA DE TODO AMERICA.

Carlos Fuentes esta equivocado
Fuentes dice en el Espejo Enterrado que Rocinante es una yegua y no es cierto. Reto al mismo Carlos Fuentes a que me lo demuestre. ... Read more

Product Description
Laura Diaz is a passionate character, intimately connected to many historical events. Through her story, Carlos Fuentes writes the journal of the Mexican twentieth century, supporting his novel with facts and characters that define the shape of today's Mexico. In best-seller list of El Nuevo Herald and El diario la Prensa. Featured in Univisión, Telemundo, LA Channel 22, CBS, La Opinión, El Nuevo Herald, El Diario la Prensa, etc.Description in Spanish:Un recorrido por la vida intima de una mujer y sus pasiones; los obstaculos, prejuicios, dolores, amores y alegrias que la conducen a conquistar su libertad propia y su personalidad creativa. Una saga familiar, originada en Veracruz. Laura Diaz y otras figuras de la talla de Frida Kahlo y Diego Rivera comparten aspectos centrales de la historia cultural y politica del pais, y nos llevan a reflexionar sobre la historia, el arte, la sociedad y la idiosincrasia de los mexicanos. En esta novela, como nunca antes, Fuentes es fiel a su proposito de describirnos el cruce de caminos donde se dan cita la vida individual y la colectiva. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Fiasco monumental
Este libro es un monunental fiasco y se queda en una aburrida y desabrida historia de una mujer que va dando tumbos por la novela sin orden ni concierto. Personajes desdibujados y guión deslabazado. Y la grán mentira de que salen Diego y Frida, que apenas ocupan diez de las 400 páginas que ocupa el tostón de libro este. Esperaba un libro que novelase la reciente historia de méxico y me he encontrado con un tostón que me ha costado terminar. Fuentes: me temo que no te daré otra oportunidad...

Una historia que vale la pena leer.
La historia de Laura Diaz puede llegar a ser tomada como idealista, pero encierra los deseos de todo ser humano y muy intereantemente nos lleva de la mano de la historia de Mèxico del siglo XX.
Yo soy de Guatemala, pero ambos paises tiene una cultura paralela en el tiempo y con muchos puntos en comun, por algo fueron conquistados al mismo tiempo y por casi las mismaspersonas.
Tanto en lo social como en lo polìtico este libro pudiera llegara a ser tambien la historia de ambos paises, ambos con revoluciones, represiòny corrupciònm que hacen que uno se sienta identificado con el tema.
En resumen una lectura fascinante.

Bellísimo...
Una relato lindísimo sobre la historia de Mexico, el amor y la vida en general. No dejen de leerlo...Me ha costado conseguir un libro que lo supere.

La gran dama Laura Diaz
Este es uno de los mejores libros que Carlos Fuentes ha escrito. Digo que es uno de los mejores pero no el mejor que a esrito. Si te gusta la historia entonces te va guster mucho. Si tienes interes en la historia de Mexico te va gustar mas porque es una novela inolvidable que puedes ver por los ojos de Laura Diaz, una mujer fuerte y sensilla que tiene que luchar para los derechos que hoy en dia apenas las mujeres estan disfrutando. Es una bonita novela que se trata de los cambios que han occurido en Mexico durante el siglo XX. Es muy emocional la historia, especialmente si conoces familia que a vivido los cambios durante los ultimos cien anos. Yo pase el tiempo leyendo este libro y pensando en mi abuelita que hace unos anos fallecio a los 99 anos. Como Laura Diaz estuvo presente para ver los cambios entre el gobierno y los atitudes de la cultura sobre los derechos de los humanos sin pensar si es mujer o hombre. Laura Diaz vive una vida completa con gran amores, familia y todo el tiempo al lado de los famosos y un testigo de la historia de Mexico. Te recomendo este libro para entender la historia de Mexico y como la mujer es parte de esa historia.

Los Anos con Laura Diaz
The 5 stars I give this work is not because I am in love with Fuente's overall work, but because this historical fiction provokes thought and analysis in a poetic way of the life as seen through the eyes and feelings of a woman.
If the reader wishes to to learn the history of a country while becoming enveloped in how a woman, a wife, a daughter, a lover and friend is impacted by the choices made, this is a book to read. ... Read more

Product Description
From the mysterious cave drawings at Altamira to the explosive graffiti on the walls of East Los Angeles, images in Spain and the Americas speak to us of the astonishing richness and vitality of Spanish culture. Now Fuentes, an internationally renowned novelist and diplomat, provides a unique history of the forces that have created this remarkable culture. 157 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

El Espejo Enterrado
I have really enjoyed using this book.I am in several spanish classes at college and I have found that Fuentes' book is an easy read; you are able to understand and visualizesome of the history of Latin America.The structure of the book is less like a textbook and more like a novel, the facts are all there, they are just presented in a different way, a more subjunctive way.I encourage those who need a good resource on the history and culture of Spain and Latin America to consider this book.

Best book I have read in a long time

Los espejos simbolizan la realidad.............De los espejos de obsidiana de la urbe totonaca de El Tajin a los espejos ibericos de Cervantes y Velasquez, el de la locura y el del asombro, un intercambio de reflejos ha ido y venido incesantemente de una a otra orilla del Atlantico. (Excerpted from the back cover of the book).

Such reflejos are the subject of the book, which is listed as an essay (ensayo) among the works of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, but whichshould really be classified under the subject of History in that ittraces the development of the Spanish speaking people from prehistory to modern times.

The bookconsists of 18 chapters as follows: "La Virgen y el Toro"(the Cretan and Greek roots); "La Conquista de Espana" (by Cartage and Rome); "La Reconquista de Espana" (bythe Barbarians, later by the Moors); "1492: El Ano Cruzal" (the expulsion of the Moors by the Catholic kings, and the discovery of the New World); "Vida y Muerte del Mundo Indigena" (the natives of North America, Cortes and Moctezuma);"La Conquista y la Reconquista del Nuevo Mundo" (the conquest of the New World, the new towns, the universities, the new religion); "La Era Imperial" (the problems with the administration of the New World, the defeat of the Spanish armada by Francis Drake); "El Siglo de Oro" (literature and art in imperial Spain - Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, Velasquez, Tirso de Molina, Francisco de Zurbaran); "El Barroco del Nuevo Mundo" (problems and unrest in the New World, Aleijadinho, Juana Ines de la Cruz);"La Epoca de Goya" (Melchor Gaspar de Jovellanos and Francisco de Goya y Lucientes); "Hacia la Endependencia: Multiples Mascaras y Aguas Turbias" (the unrest among the Creoles and the desire for independence); El Precio de la Libertad: Simon Bolivar y Jose de San Martin" (the expulsion of Spain from Latin America); "El Tiempo de los Tiranos" (Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina, Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia in Paraguay, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Benito Juarez and Maximilian and Carlota in Mexico); "La cultura de la Independencia" (Latin America looks back at Spain while neglecting the local Indians and blacks, Argentine gaucho Jose Hernandez and his poem Martin Fierro, Cubanwriter and patriot Jose Martin, Mexican cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada); "Tierra y Libertad"(The Mexican revolution of 1910, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa); "Latinoamerica" (the general situation and problems of modern day Latin America); La Espana Contemporanea" (the general situation and problems of modern day Spain); La Hispanidad Norteamericana" (a very interesting chapter providing statistics on the total number of Hispanics as well asthe number of Hispanic illegals in the United States,describing the invaluable contribution of the Hispanic people to the US economy andmore).

El Espejo Enterradomay be listed as an essay, it may be classifiedas a history book, yet it is more than that, because Carlos Fuentes is more than an essayer or a historian.He is a multifaceted artist who sees and describes reality in amore comprehensive as well as captivating manner than the average essayer or historian would.He does not just give the description of the events that shaped the history of the Spanish speaking people, he makes them interesting, he makes the reader want to learn more.For example, by discussing theindividuals whose thoughts and actions influenced the decisions of the Spanish speaking people (e.g., Jean Jacques Rousseau and Napoleon);by relating the major events from which those related to the Spanish speaking people developed (e.g., the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the American Revolution); or by describing the works of the Spanish speaking artists who reflected the periods during which they lived (e.g., Don Quixote, La Vida Es Sueno, Las Meninas, La Maja Desnuda.Hence with this book, the reader will learn more than the history of the Spanish speaking people, he/she will meet (again) some of the great thinkers of the Western world, he/she will be reminded of the history of the Western world, he/she will learn about the products of the most illuminated minds of the Spanish speaking world.He/she will also discover about many word origins, (how many among youreading this reviewknow the meaning of the word Saragoza, the origin of the name Malinche, the identity of the woman from whom California got its name, the reason why they call the turkey guacolote in Mexico). And he/she will acquire an awful lot of useful information which would otherwise not be easily available all in one book, for example, the real significance of Goya's Saturn Devouring his Children".

This is a book that, once started,cannot be put down.A book that many will wish will never come to the end.

Available in Spanish, as well as English with the title The Buried Mirror - Reflections on Spain and the New World, a must for anybody who is interested in history, in the works of the creative mind (including its author's) and the origin of things. Perhaps a must for just anybody interested in expanding his mind, whether or not of Hispanic descent.

El Espejo enterrado
Reviewing a book that i received, have not read it, but it's in great condition and shipping was very quick. Thank you.

ME ENCANTO!
"EL ESPEJO ENTERRADO" ES UN LIBRO QUE NO PUEDES DEJAR DE LEER. TIENES QUE TOMARTE UN TIEMPO PARA LEERLO Y APRENDER DE O RECORDAR LA HISTORIA DE TODO AMERICA.

Carlos Fuentes esta equivocado
Fuentes dice en el Espejo Enterrado que Rocinante es una yegua y no es cierto. Reto al mismo Carlos Fuentes a que me lo demuestre. ... Read more

Product Description
In Myself with Others, Fuentes has assembled essays reflecting three of the great elements of his work: autobiography, love of literature, and politics.They include his reflections on his beginning as a writer, his celebrated Harvard University commencement address, and his trenchant examinations of Cervantes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Borges.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

His brilliant mind revealed
I believe Carlos Fuentes to be the most brilliant Latin American writer of this century; hands down over his closest literary rivals Borges and Garcia Marquez. That in itself is no easy feat and that said, you must understand, reveals my impartial praise for his work(s).This book was published in the eighties so the themes that are often political are now oudated. This is a revealing book that is compromised of different essays Mr. Fuentes wrote, at different times, including the concluding essay at a Harvard Commencement. One of his favorite topics is included,Cervantes's "Don Quixote." This in itself is worth the price of the book alone as Mr. Fuentes tells the reader how to read the novel, that is not a novel to be readonly once. He explains the story within the story and how it relates to modern literature. With the insights I learned from reading his assessment I will once again read "Don Quixote" and probably understand it much better. He goes on to discuss Diderot, Gogol, Garcia Marquez and Bunuel(will I ever look at his films in the same light?)and their relationship to literature.It is nothing short of fanatastic the way he weaves stories in and out without losing track of his original thought; he brings everything full circle. There are times when he leads you in his thought process to areas of esoteric darkness, where if you don't have the literary background to follow you will be lost. Have no fear though because before long Mr. Fuentes comes back to the original premise and continues on his masterfulstorytelling. Carlos Fuentes writes like some painters paint, he uses words or color to bring out his subject and points to the place where they almost walk off the pages or canvas. I can hardly believe that this book has never been reviewed as of this writing. Check it out if you like literature and brilliant writing; there is a reason why he has won the Cervantes Prize. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A dreamy literary vision
There is a certain poetic fusion connecting the five novellas found in this fine book of short stories that is like a disconnected dream you might experience upon waking. Carlos Fuentes delivers his verbal barrage and assault upon everything that has created the modern Mexican. He delves into his historical replays with witty insight, carefully ripping apart the sacred past with tongue in cheek imagery that is funnyand thought provoking at once. After reading some passagesyou will go back and read them again for the sheer eloquence and beauty of the masterful use of language. Fuentes says things in such a way that even things that should offend you are so profound in their simplistic articulation that you have to chuckle. Fuentes delivers his message in suttle ways but with an impact that gets under your skin, envelopingand seducing you in his recreations that are colorful and walk off the pages taking you on a wonderful journey as only he can. Even tough the stories are unrelated they somehow feel like the greater part of the whole. I found all the stories to be different, completly entertaining with the exception of one. This is probably my own personal taste but I had trouble getting into "The Two Numantias," quite possibly because of mynot being as familiar with the subjects. However, when Fuentes is talking about La Malinche, Cortes, Chapultepec, Cortes , the Spanish conquerors and the Aztecs, often in hyterically hyped imagery, the results are as familiar as frijoles and tortillas. Carlos Fuentes often writes in a hyper sexual mode as is evident in"Apollo and the Whores" where the sexual escapades are rated xxxbut have an erotic texture that somehow make them less raw;besides his hilarious and outrageous narrative dominatesand makes you laugh at the outlandsih scenarios. This book of five short stories is definitely recommended for someone not familiar withCarlos Fuentes. As one of Mexico's most brilliant and prolific writers, Fuentes demonstrates why he is one of the best Latin American writers. If you are unfamiliar with Fuentes this might be a good place to start since the stories are shortand give a good indication of his writing style; if you don't like a particular novella you can always skip it. However if you do like Fuentes and want to read more than I would recommend "Christopher Unborn,""The Death of Artemio Cruz, ""The Good Conscience," or more recently the epic books "The years With Laura Diaz" or "The Buried Mirror." I'll end this review or suggestive prodding of you to read Carlos Fuentes by borrowing verse from a Fuentes scene involving two singers, one singing in Nahuatl another in Castilian."We've only come to dream, and the words flow far from the valley, into a distant sea where the silent rivers of life come to a halt. The narrative continuesand the singing ends without ending: "My flowers will never end,
My songs will never end.
I raise them up,
I am only the singer......."

A fable
Something magical connects the five distinct stories which comprise 'The Orange Tree'. They read like the jumbled fragments of a beautiful, disorienting dream. Fuentes offers glimpses of remarkable events - thefirey fall of the Aztecs, the sexual death of a fading film star, a Romansiege - and makes their ugliness beautiful. All the while, he weaves adelicate web of connective tissue, turning 'The Orange Tree' into aremarkably cohesive tapestry of Latin American history and culture.Surreal, haunting and elegant, this book reads like a vision.

A STRANGE, HAUNTING WORK OF SURREALISM
The Orange Tree is a book of unusual beauty. Fuentes, once again playing the historian, presents a reiteration of Latin American history which is utterly convincing as a piece of pure mythology. This perhaps lies inFuentes' uncanny ability to assign either perfect charm or horrifyingugliness to so much of what he describes: the spectacular fall of the AztecEmpire; the complex seige of a Spanish city by the Romans; the dreamlikearrival of Columbus to a ambivilant paradise.

The five novellas of TheOrange Tree offer the reader voices which seem to speak from beyond lifeand history. We are presented tales of death and suffering in a context sohuge, so ambitious, that Fuentes has destroyed the barriers of history andconstructed a reality all his own. The lavishness of his vision ishypnotic.

Read this book with abandon; allow its mythology to consumeyou. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the story of the observations of Christopher, still unborn in his mother's womb, who has been conceived so that he can be entered for the great Christopher Columbus prize for being the first child born on 12 October 1992, the anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fuentes at his most fun and prescient
Currently on a Fuentes kick, I picked up Christopher Unborn. Although written in the 1980's about 1992, Fuentes is completely on target in his subject matter, and his Makesicko of 1992 looks a lot like today.
You will read this and recognize american liberals and conservatives, southern mexican secessionist sympathizers, leftist ideaologues, mall shoppers and reality tv "celebrities" all captured and satirized perfectly. I read this book with a sardonic smile not thinking of the past, but of today.
The man's a genius, and any book of his is worth a good read, but underneath the narrative is a lot of fun. Of the 3 novels I have read, I get the greatest sense that Fuentes truly loved his characters, flawed and cracked as they are.
Some of it is challenging, but Fuentes always is, and usually working through the challenges is highly rewarding.

Brilliant
This book was written on the eve of the 500th year anniversary marking the fateful encounter between the Spanish Euoropeans and the various indigenous groups of the Americas. Not so coincidently, the prolific, briliant writer Carlos Fuentes sets the circumstances to this novel to coincide with the event. The premise for the book is a contest being held in Mexico with a great prize offered for the first born child on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival. The child is Christopher, the narrator of the novel who makes shrewd observations about the world he will be born into,all from the comfort of inside his mother. This allows Fuentes, the author, to rip into all of the ills of modern Mexico with his usually witty and sharp use of lanuage. A master at manipulation of common laguage, he changes the words to fit his vision. Several examples of how he changes words are Mexico City to Makesicko City, Kafkapulco, Quasimodo City, Samsaville, Huitzilopochtliburg or President Dangerous Dickson before the Watergate Waterloo, blockabulary for vocabulary,Califurnace, PornoCorno, Coca-Culo and Acapukelco(or did I make this last one up?). However this is nothing compared to the daggers Christopher throws at everything from the devastation of the earthquake and the aftermath, the PRI, Mexican history and all it's tragic consequences including the massacre at Tlateloco, the narco-polices ties to the narco traffickers themselves and in short, all is fair game for Fuentes via his narrator Christopher. His observations on popular culture include everything from Lennon to Lenin to Boy George. It is a scathing, passionate view of the world Chistopher will enter. Christopher contends his nine months inside his mother are when his life began and this comfort and fear of what is out there make the narration a brutal, wry, cynical commentary. The satirical view is enhanced by a cast of characters who all are part of the make up of a world Christopher will inherit. The action of the novel is a backdrop for a political campaign and all it's cast of characters bothfor and against.Some of the names of these politicos and associates are Deng Chopin, Hipi Toltec, Fagoaga, Matamoros Moreno, Robles Chacon and D.C Buckley just to name a few. Coming in at over five hundered pages it is no easy read but totally enjoyable. The literature flows beautifully, creating images as only Carlos Fuentes can. As one of thepreeminent writers of our times, Fuentes unleashes a novel for the times that will be reflected upon years from now as a masterpiece marking the collision of worlds that occurredfive hundred years ago. This is an excellent book for educators at the AP level in high school or college to use for a literature class or to supplement a history course. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Mexico and it's contemporary literature. ... Read more

Product Description
Where the Air Is Clear, Carlos Fuentes's first novel, is an unsparing portrayal of Mexico City's upper class. Departing from a traditional linear narrative, Fuentes constructs his novel around a series of encounters with members of this world, including Federico Robles, an ambitious self-made millionaire; Rodrigo Pola, a writer whose father was executed in the Mexican Revolution; and Norma Larragoiti, a social climber striving to erase her humble past. At the center of these events is Ixca Cienfuegos, and enigmatic figure who views the dramas enacted around him with unusual clarity, and who, with the aid of an Indian priestess, plots the destruction of the group.

Overlaying Mexican myths onto comtemporary settings, Fuentes shows that even the rich and powerful must succumb to the indomitable spirit of Mexico, which undermines all institutions and shapes all destinies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Mexico Explained
Mexico is the major character in this first novel by Carlos Fuentes. It helps to be enamored of Mexico or interested in the history and politics of Central and Latin America. It's a hard read; I found it a rewarding, often entertaining and above all enlightening one. By the way, the original Spanish title is "La Region Mas Transparente," quite different from the English translation.

You'll get more out of it if you know some Mexican history
Considered by many to be Fuentes' all-time masterpiece, Where the Air is Clear (1958), his first novel, takes you on a roller-coaster tour of post-revolutionary Mexican urban history.It's all there, from roughnecktaxi drivers and prostitues trying to make their daily bread, to boredmembers of a fading aristocracy, of which only the double-barreled namesremain.The novel's diverse characters meet and unmeet in a bizarre rangeof social situations, ever-observed by the Spanish-Indigenous hybrid IxcaCienfuegos.Cienfuegos, a type of Greek Chorus character who watches theups and downs of the novel's cast like a mad-scientist doing an experiment,doesn't hesitate to drop in for a chat to the characters, provoking them topour out their hearts in sometimes tedious monologues.If you have a basicgrasp of Mexico's history you'll understand this novel better, although ifyou don't know the history, a stack of not too subtle symbols will help youout. (A young member of a once aristocratic family looks at herself in amirror, while Vivaldi plays on a scratched record in the background. Thatkind of thing.) Don't take this novel to the beach, it ain't a beachnovel. Argentine writer Julio Cortazar, in a letter to Fuentes afterreading the book, summed it up: ``You've given in to the magnificent sincommitted by so many first-time novel writers..you've put a whole worldinto 500 pages.''A rare Latin American urban epic, this book is certainlyworth reading for anyone with an interest in the Mexican psyche. If youwant to see how the thinking behind Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of Solitudewould work, applied to a TV mini-series, and have a few days to spare, giveit a go. ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1978, this novel of international intrigue by Carlos Fuentes is set in Mexico, and features the Mexican secret service. It is the story of the attempt by the Mexican government to retain control of a recently discovered national oil field. Secret agents from Arab lands, Israel, and the United States attempt to wrest control of the source for their own purposes. In a plot thick with dirty tricks, violence, sex, amazing coincidences, and betrayals, the novel's movie-loving hero, Felix Maldonado, confronts the villains.

Description in Spanish: Novela policiaca que retrata al Mexico del boom petrolero y tiene como trasfondo una reflexion acerca de lo ilusorio de la libertad. Un burocrata es arrojado a un indescifrable torbellino de intriga y espionaje internacional donde se le despoja de su identidad, y descubre un siniestro juego de intereses. Como la hidra, el petroleo renace multiplicado de una sola cabeza cortada. Semen oscuro de una tierra de esperanzas y traiciones parejas, fecunda los reinos de la Malinche bajo las voces mudas de los astrosCarlos Fuentes ... Read more

Product Description
During the years of intense revolutionary struggle in Mexico, an old North American writer heads south of the border in search of his destiny. His life takes on a series of strange twists and tragic adventures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

This is a book about frontiers: those between the USA and Mexico.
Gringo Viejo by Carlos Fuentes

This is a book about frontiers: those between the USA and Mexico.On the one side we have the Mexican revolution with its different manifestations of terror and its popular uprising, until it arrives to the final degeneration of the capitalistic vortex: the dominion and corruption of a bourgeoisiewithout scruples and the continuation of the exploitation of the Mexican people by the new upper class.On the other side the tense relationship between the two countries.

Fuentes talks about four principal characters in in this artistic composition--two men and two women.

The main character--Gringo Viejo--the American Ambrose Bierce, a renown writer and newspaperman, that crosses the frontier South to fight with Pancho Villa. Bierce is a man that comes in search of a violent death, because he refuses to die of boredom.Because he wants to realize the American Dream of being a good looking cadaver, and because in his country--the USA--he has no more frontiers to cross.Fuentes helps Bierce by imagining frontiers that have no salvation.

diferencias entre culturas
Ese libro nos muestra las cuantiosas maneras en que lo norteamericano diferencia con lo mexicano.Siendo norteamericano, me identifico con Ambrose Bierce y Harriet que llevan sus costumbres y modales en todo momento."La búsqueda" que efectúa el Gringo Viejo es algo que va en contra de las normas de la sociedad y me parece un poco tabú.La forma en que Fuentes escribe no añade nada al contenido ya que sus historias no parecen auténticas.Realmente no recomiendo el libro a los que buscan una diversión; pero sería aconsejable leer el libro si sea un estudiante de la revolución mexicana.

Las fronteras...
Gringo Viejo no tiene el mismo estilo de La Muerte de Artemio Cruz, es más ligero. El libro nos lleva a conocer las fronteras u obstaculos que tiene cada uno de los personajes y las de ambas culturas: Norteamericana yMexicana. En lo personal me gustaría un final distinto. Si alguien quisieracomentarlo personalmente mande un mail. ... Read more

Product Description
Two narratives twine through this superb novel: one introduces Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, a fabled orchestral conductor, and his great passion,Inez Prada, a red-haired Mexican diva; the other is a mysterious telling of the first encounter in human history between a man and a woman. Berlioz's music for The Damnation of Faust brings Gabriel and Inez together, while the emerging love of neh-el and ah-nel--the original lovers--echoes the Faustian pact of love and death. Linking these narratives is a beautiful crystal seal that belongs to Atlan-Ferrara, its meaning an enigma that obsesses him. And like the light refracted through the seal, these stories begin in prehistory and spiral out into infinity.
In Inez, we find Carlos Fuentes at the height of his magical and realist powers. This profound and beautiful work confirms his standing as one of the world's pre-eminent novelist.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

The Damnation of Faust Thrice Told
I read this short, enigmatic novel, "Inez" by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes because it draws heavily upon one of my most beloved works of music, Hector Berlioz' "The Damnation of Faust". Berlioz called this work a "legende dramatique". It is usually performed as a concert opera.It is based upon Goethe's Faust, with a text by Berlioz himself.It tells the story of an aging scholar who sells his soul to Mephistopheles to win the love of the beautiful Marguerite.At the climax of Berlioz' opera, Faust is driven off on horseback to hell to the sound of a furious "hup-hup" while Marguerite is saved and goes to heaven. In his book,Fuentes makes a great deal of the "hup-hup" of Faust's fateful journey.

Fuentes's novel tells the story of a 93 year old conductor Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, who has spent much of a long career conducting this masterwork of Berlioz. The opera is intertwined for Ferrara with his love for a great Mexican singer, Inez Rosenzweig who adopts the stage name Inez Prada.Ferrara and Prada see each other at three widely-spaced times in their lives, the first in London during WW II, (when Inez is a fledgling but strong-willed singer, only 20 and a virgin) the second in the early 1950s (when Inez dismisses a lover from her apartment to receive Ferrara) in Mexico and the third in London in 1967. During the first meeting Prada rejects Ferrara as a lover but becomes infatuated by a young male friend who appears in a photograph with Ferrara.Ferrara walks away from her, and the picture of the young man mysteriously disappears from the photo.During the second meeting Ferrara and Prado consummate their love but do not otherwise pursue their relationship. Prada marries briefly.During the third meeting the couple reminisces while Ferrara oonducts a version of Faust with Marguerite in the nude. The two never see each other again.Ferrara has a mysterious crystal he received from Prada and, he believes, it allows him access to the past and the future. As an aged man of 93 conducting Faust for the last time, his thoughts are on Prada.

The Prada-Ferrara story is juxtaposed against an even more enigmatic tale involving a man named Neh-el and a woman named Ah-nel.This story is set in primordial time as the first love between a man and a woman as they separate themselves from the other animals.Their story involves tenderness, lust, incest, and the change from a matriarchial, egalitarian society to one based upon patriarchy.

The Faust-Marguerite, Ferrara-Prada, Nehel-Ah-nel relationships all involve the mysterious nature of love and sexuality between a man and a woman.They also involve the ability of music to capture this relationship and to transcend it. (The Nehel -- Ah-nel relationship involves the tale of a primitive silver flute which plays music never since heard.)The strongest scenes in this novel are those that are closest to Berlioz' music, that capture its romantic passion, and that illustrate Ferrara's life-long obsession with the score.The book includes extended discussions of the power of music and difficult reflections on the nature of male-female relationships.There is also a great deal of fantasy in the book as it concerns the mysterious crystal and the early relationship of Neh-el and Ah-nel.

This is a moving but obscure novel. Those fascinated with the book should explore for themselves Berlioz' flamboyant and passionate setting of "The Damnation of Faust".Berlioz' "legende dramatique" is readily available on many fine CD sets.

Robin Friedman

Simple yet rich
I've read nearly every book wrtten by Carlos Fuentes and found ths one to be great but not his best. Somewhere between great andmind blowng would be more accurate. I only wish it were longer. Carlos Fuentes , the master story teller never fails to produce works that will stand the test of time as great literary pieces.Written in a short story format the story is nonetheless epic. Fuentes manages to use language to carry you beyond the incidents you are reading about , he opens up your mind to possibilities through his use of passages that are fluid streams of thought. There are several good customer and editorial descriptions of the actual storyline butsuffice to say that Fuentes goes out of bounds , beyond the limits and back as he interweaves a story with another, carrying you through a time machine tunnelwhere the light you see is your own thought process being ignited. His concepts are relatively simple in comparison to some of his otherworks but there is always so much more to a Fuentes book. This is a book that is best enjoyed read over a short period of time,a few hours, a day or a weekend to become completely engulfed in. I read this over a few hourssessions in the Baja California desert where there were few interruptions or distractions. This is an excellentshort book in a long list of great Carlos Fuentes novels. This storyis a gripping fantasy and an emotional rollercoaster that is beautifully written, and highly recommended.

beautifully written short fiction
I have always been a fan of Carlos Fuentes and other novelists writing in Spanish.This book does not disappoint, even tho it is short.It's beautifully written, with language that evokes a dream.The stories of the old man, Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, looking back on his life and his love of a woman, Inez Prada, intertwine with that of a pair of lovers in ancient times. Overlaying it all is music - mostly that of Berloiz and his "The Damnation of Faust" - but also other music, the original music that man made when he was learning to talk.The beauty is marred by the evil things men do - the London Blitz in WWII and violence in the ancient time.But the scars on the earth can be healed - as Atlan-Ferrara says, "Sing until the bombs of Satan are silenced."

Inez - A Magnificent & Magical Novel
If you're a fan of Carlos Fuentes' early novels,like "Aura" and "The Death of Artemio Cruz," then you are bound to enjoy "Inez," (in Spanish, "Instinto de Inez"). In this, his latest book, after "The Years With Laura Diaz," the author returns to the magical world of fantasy, and to some of his favorite themes: creativity and time.

Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, a dynamic and celebrated symphony conductor, reflects back on his life, at age 93, and realizes that only death awaits him. These reflections reveal his great passion for one woman, and for music. They also disclose the conductor's view of the world, and destiny, as he confronts death. "El muerto no sabe lo que es la muerte, pero los vivos tampocos" ("The dead don't know what death is, but neither do the living"). The past holds for him the memory of his love for the red-haired, dark eyed Inez. Gabriel has a shimmering glass seal, a mysterious object "sufficient unto itself." This seal might bestow upon its bearer the ability to see past, present and future, to hear music of impossible beauty, and to read unknown languages. The maestro hopes to find, in the crystal seal, the impossible reflection of Inez and a return to a time when they were together - to transcend time, distance and space through their love.

The crystal also provides the link between two intertwining stories - that of Atlan-Ferrara and his memories, and a parallel narrative which records Inez' dreams - a poetic love story telling of the first encounter in human history between a man and a woman. "Inez" is an extraordinary tale which contrasts love and obsession, life and death, male and female.

Alan-Ferrara encountered Mexican opera singer, Inez Prada, three times over the course of his lifetime. The first time was during the 1940 London blitz. This was when he initially heard her sing. In 1949 they met again in Mexico City. She had become a renowned diva. Atlan-Ferrara had moved-up in his career also, and was now one of the world's most important orchestra conductors. Their last meeting took place in London, 1967, when the conductor decided to break all the rules of traditional opera. Each time they met they were performing Berlioz's opera, "The Damnation of Faust." It is "the opera that permits me to travel in time...," Fuentes said in an interview. "It is Berlioz who invents this original dissonance, this extraordinary mystery of the origin of music and the origin of voice."

Fuentes also stated that Alan-Ferrara is "modeled on one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the Romanian Sergiu Celibidache." The young Mexican soprano, Inez, Fuentes says was inspired by the legendary Maria Callas.

Margaret Sayers Peden's translation is excellent and captures Fuentes' language as well as any translation could.

Carlos Fuentes, probably Mexico's greatest living writer, is the author of more than twenty books and has received many awards for his accomplishments as a novelist, essayist, and commentator, among them the Cervantes Prize in 1987. Major themes in Fuentes' work are the power of fantasy, national identity, and the promise and failure of the Mexican revolution. Fuentes has frequently been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. His father made him read Mexican history when he was a boy, which Fuentes saw as a history of crushing defeats, especially when compared with the United States. "I learned to imagine Mexico before I ever knew Mexico," he once said.
JANA

A really lovely book.
I read this book a couple of years ago and really really love it.The story stays with you....Fuentes is an amazing writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mr. Cisneros, venezuelan pride
This book demonstrates that in the world of the business, besides the luck, they are necessary other variables, as brain, heart and corage. For the Venezuelans, this book is a pride. ... Read more

Product Description
Spanish Description:
Adan Gorozpe es un arribista, y lo reconoce sin ambages. Su matrimonio con Priscila, codiciada heredera del poderoso empresario Celestino Holguin (mejor conocido como el Rey del Bizcocho), fue un afortunado lance que, en palabras llanas, se llama dar el braguetazo, y lo llevo de pobreton pasante de la carrera de Leyes a influyente abogado empresarial dueno de vidas y haciendas, aun mas encumbrado que su suegro. Como le queda claro que la dicha conyugal, si acaso estuvo en sus planes, jamas llegara, establece una tajante frontera: de un lado quedan el tedio matrimonial y la ridiculez familiar, y del otro su esfera de poder y los encuentros eroticos con su amante Ele, real mujer de su vida.

Asi las cosas entra en escena Adan Gongora, ministro a cargo de la seguridad nacional, chiquito, pero picoso: minusculo hombrecito por su baja estatura, pero gran calamidad por los alcances de su malicia. Dada la corrupcion gigantesca de las fuerzas del orden, en las que la mitad de los policias son criminales y la mitad de los criminales, policias, tiene plena certeza de cual es la mejor estrategia para combatir ese caos: Todos sabemos que la seguridad nacional es insegura. Las fuerzas del orden se alian facilmente con las fuerzas del desorden. Los policias ganan sueldos de miseria. Los criminales les multiplican el sueldo. De tres mil pesos mensuales a trescientos mil. El Ejercito nacional hace labores impropias de la fuerza armada. Es un Ejercito dedicado a labores de policia y derrotado por los criminales, mejor armados que ellos… Yo hare una limpia de las fuerzas del orden. Menos policias y mejor pagados. A ver si asi.

Pero, en los hechos, los metodos de Gongora son espeluznantes: se alia con los peores criminales y encierra o manda matar a los menos aptos; encarcela inocentes y a veces a uno que otro culpable, exhibe a estos y a aquellos y se gana a la opinion publica como garante de la justicia; tambien procede contra clasemedieros con dificultades hipotecarias y uno que otro millonario, para dar sabor al caldo; falsea las estadísticas de la lucha contra el crimen con su cosecha propia de jovenes inocentes a los cuales manda asesinar y luego presenta como presuntos guerrilleros…

Un dia, Gongora le propone a Gorozpe coludirse para elevar su jueguito al mas alto nivel publico: Todos los politicos estan quemados. Son inutiles. No saben gobernar. No saben administrar… Que tal si usted y yo, tocayo, apoyamos a un candidato imposible para la primera magistratura del pais?. Ese candidato, claro, seria Gorozpe, solo que para este momento este sabe que debe deshacerse de Gongora, o al menos neutralizarlo. Esta asqueado del personaje, de sus metodos, de tanta podredumbre. Incluso los cerdos ponen limites a la mierda que tragan. Y para mayor inri, un condimento: Gongora y Priscila parecen haber iniciado un affaire. Como proceder contra tan formidable adversario? Como detener el remolino que arrastra al pais hacia la cloaca?

La unica via abierta siempre es la del espiritu. Ciega e irracional, pero tambien poderosa, avasalladora, la fe sigue ahi. Un Nino Dios alado empieza a predicar en medio del trafico de la mayor avenida de la ciudad y su madre, la Virgen, lo acompana. Las alas del nino son postizas y su madre es quien se las coloca, pero eso no importa. La gente cree, quiere creer, necesita creer, y eso basta.

La novela ofrece un gran final que da destino a todos los personajes, sin descuidar a ninguno, a traves de la irrupcion de los Sigfridos, brazo armado de la muerte que, convocados por Adan Gorozpe, llegan para arrasar con la plaga. ... Read more

Product Description
Winner of the Cervantes Prize
 
Carlos Fuentes, one of the world’s most acclaimed authors, is at the height of his powers in this stunning new novel—a magnificent epic of passion, magic, and desire in modern Mexico, a rich and remarkable tapestry set in a world where free will fights with the wishes of the gods.

Josué Nadal has lost more than his innocence: He has been robbed of his life—and his posthumous narration sets the tone for a brilliantly written novel that blends mysticism and realism. Josué tells of his fateful meeting as a skinny, awkward teen with Jericó, the vigorous boy who will become his twin, his best friend, and his shadow. Both orphans, the two young men intend to spend their lives in intellectual pursuit—until they enter an adult landscape of sex, crime, and ambition that will test their pledge and alter their lives forever.

Idealistic Josué goes to work for a high-tech visionary whose stunning assistant will introduce him to a life of desire; cynical Jericó is enlisted by the Mexican president in a scheme to sell happiness to the impoverished masses. On his journey into a web of illegality in which he will be estranged from Jericó, Josué is aided and impeded by a cast of unforgettable characters: a mad, imprisoned murderer with a warning of revenge, an elegant aviatrix and addict seeking to be saved, a prostitute shared by both men who may have murdered her way into a brilliant marriage, and the prophet Ezekiel himself.

Mixing ancient mythologies with the sensuousness and avarice and need of the twenty-first century, Destiny and Desire is a monumental achievement from one of the masters of contemporary literature. ... Read more

Product Description
This study offers a new reading of Fuentes's major novel by focusing on the function of Jewish mysticism in the text. Organized around the linguistic and textual philosophy/theosophy of the Kabbalah, it argues that the fundamental project of "Terra nostra" is a literary re-construction of the cultural development of Hispanic America. The monograph breaks new ground through the thorough analysis of the novel's strategy of textual re-creation. In the Kabbalah, due to the supposed intimate connection between divine language and the physical reality of every aspect of the universe, the re-reading and re-writing of biblical texts is carried out in order to reshape and ultimately redeem the world. Fuentes adopts this notion of creative textuality as the driving force behind his own novelistic re-creation of Hispanic America. The monograph systematically considers the role of the Kabbalah in relation to language, visual art, time and textuality. The study also considers the connections between Fuentes's novel and the work of immediate precursors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier and Franz Kafka.It also advances the understanding of the novel's engagement with the great works of early Spanish literature such as Rojas's "La Celestina" and Cervantes "Don Quijote". ... Read more

Product Description
Smitten by the modernity of Cervantes and Borges at an early age, Carlos Fuentes has written extensively on the cultures of the Americas and elsewhere. His work includes over a dozen novels, among them The Death of Artemio Cruz, Christopher Unborn, The Old Gringo, and Terra Nostra, several volumes of short stories, numerous essays on literary, cultural, and political topics, and some theater. In this book, Raymond Leslie Williams traces the themes of history, culture, and identity in Fuentes' work, particularly in his complex, major novel Terra Nostra. He opens with a biography of Fuentes that links his works to his intellectual life. The heart of the study is Williams' extensive reading of the novel Terra Nostra, in which Fuentes explores the presence of Spanish culture and history in Latin America. Williams concludes with a look at how Fuentes' other fiction relates to Terra Nostra, including Fuentes' own division of his work into fourteen cycles that he calls "La Edad del Tiempo," and with an interview in which Fuentes discusses his concept of this cyclical division. ... Read more