Search results for "Carlos Fuentes"

The greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution, in a brilliant new translation by an award-winning translator

The Underdogs is the first great novel about the first great revolution of the twentieth century. Demetrio Macias, a poor, illiterate Indian, must join the rebels to save his family. Courageous and charismatic, he earns a generalship in Pancho Villa's army, only to become discouraged with the cause after it becomes hopelessly factionalized. At once a spare, moving depiction of the limits of political idealism, an authentic representation of Mexico's peasant life, and a timeless portrait of revolution, The Underdogs is an iconic novel of the Latin American experience and a powerful novel about the disillusionment of war.

As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed and, in dreamlike flashes, recalls the pivotal episodes of his life. Carlos Fuentes manipulates the ensuing kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon memory, from Cruz’s heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution, through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy death. Perhaps Fuentes’s masterpiece, The Death of Artemio Cruz is a haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico.

Frida Kahlo, one of the most dynamic figures of 20th-century art, has very nearly become a saint, so legendary is her tumultuous and tragic life. While there is no dearth of books about Kahlo and her work, none are as poignantly revealing as this diary, which includes her own words and pictures. We find the genesis of some of her most famous paintings, her love letters, and sketches of people she knew such as her husband, the Mexican mural painter Diego Rivera, and numerous studies for self-portraits. The most fascinating part of the book is the facsimile diary, in its exact size, reproduced here for the first time, with color illustrations. It is accompanied by an English translation with explanatory commentaries.

A soldier who without qualms betrayed his comrades and yet was unable to withstand the wounds inflicted by destiny, reaches the end of his life. Confined to a bed, he faces an imminent and demeaning death; but the will that helped him carve his prominent place in society, refuses to give in. Using a brilliant narrative tone, which brings together past, present and future, the conscious, the subconscious, and objective narrative, Fuentes guides us through the very heart of the Mexican revolution, Mexico s political system and the idiosyncrasies of the ruling parties.

Spanish Description:

Los ultimos momentos de la vida de un hombre poderoso, un soldado revolucionario, un amante sin amor, un padre sin familia un hombre que traiciono a sus companeros, pero que no pudo soportar las heridas que le infligio el destino.
Carlos Fuentes nos revela los procesos mentales de un viejo que ya no es capaz de valerse por si mismo y que se halla postrado ante la muerte inminente e indigna, pero su voluntad que le ha otorgado una posicion sobresaliente en la sociedad se resiste a dejarse vencer.

Usando una brillante tecnica narrativa, que reune en un solo texto el consciente, el subconsciente y la narracion objetiva, el pasado, el presente y el futuro, Fuentes nos conduce por las entranas de la Revolucion, el sistema politico mexicano y la idiosincrasia de las clases dirigentes.

In The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories, Julio Ortega and Carlos Fuentes present the most compelling short fiction from Mexico to Chile. Surreal, poetic, naturalistic, urbane, peasant-born: All styles intersect and play, often within a single piece. There is "The Handsomest Drown Man in the World," the García Márquez fable of a village overcome by the power of human beauty; "The Aleph," Borges' classic tale of a man who discovers, in a colleague's cellar, the Universe. Here is the haunting shades of Juan Rulfo, the astonishing anxiety puzzles of Julio Cortázar, the disquieted domesticity of Clarice Lispector. Provocative, powerful, immensely engaging, The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories showcases the ingenuity, diversity, and continuing excellence of a vast and vivid literary tradition.