Especially in the last story, "The Two Americas", all the glorious intuition that the state of mankind is fallen somehow, not quite following a path of purity and simplicity of ambitions somehow, is distilled and conveyed like a shot of tequila. Fuentes' imagination as a weapon aimed at the complacent. A "nail sticking out" who through his work refuses to be hammered down. Read this for the sense that there are others who have seen and hoped for more than this. I have held onto this book, waiting to be in the mood to read it, since at least.
It is time for me to let it go. I did make a valiant attempt to force myself to read it and it is just not my thing. This is some wonderfully rich and imaginative writing. I'm not as much for the straight historical imaginings, but those were still enjoyable to read. The absurd one was an absolute delight, the non-historical story being a second favorite. Regardless, all good stuff. Maybe some of the beauty of the writing was lost in translation, but for a short book this took me an excruciatingly long time to get through.
Had issues with a lot about it and was not intrigued by any of it. Carlos Fuentes sounded kind of familiar, so I picked up this book from the library. Very interesting, and a clear central theme of the orange tree, which I appreciated. Jun 17, Andrew added it. The first section of this is a touching and humorous look at the downfall of the Mayan empire that I really enjoyed. A really strange book, told from the point of view of a death man.
Really enjoyable though. Bought at Watertown Library 7. A lot of interesting perspectives, but I didn't need to know that much about Cortes's turgid hairy balls. Jun 14, Annie rated it it was ok. Only read the 1st two of 5 stories , as they were the ones that pertained to La Malinche I don't have the stamina for, I guess, historical fiction? Also, some of the steamier passages in one of the sections were causing me to feel feelings, which is unpleasant. May 28, Juan rated it liked it.
Four short stories from one of the best Latin American writers of the twentieth century. While the short stories included are good, but they are not his best. Exquisitely told stories playing with narrative form and Latin America's history of colonization and anti-colonial resistance.
The best Carlos Fuentes book I read from him so far. Incredible recreation of the conquest of Mexico, through the eyes of Cortez's sons and the conquest of Numantia by the Romans. This book reveals the feelings of the autor about the conquest and the foreigner, all the stories are magnificient, especially the one entitled Las dos orillas. Each is roughly 50 pages so for me was a good length and not too short. They are fictionalizations of real events or imagined histories touching on the Americas with each finding some simile or metaphor with orange trees.
An immersive and inspiring work, animated with visions, dreams, myths, and a number of different histories that never took place, but might have in a world rewritten and made anew. The fall of the great Andalusian city … and the fire of Mayan flamethrowers. I saw the burnt water of the Guadalquivir and the burning of the Tower of Gold. The temples fell, from Cadiz to Seville; the standards, the towers, the trophies.
And the day after the defeat … we began to build the temple An immersive and inspiring work, animated with visions, dreams, myths, and a number of different histories that never took place, but might have in a world rewritten and made anew.
And the day after the defeat … we began to build the temple of the four religions, inscribed with the word of Christ, Mohammed, Abraham, and Quetzalcoatl, where all the powers of imagination and language would have their place … " In the end, I did like parts of it, but Fuentes has a style that sometimes gets too much philosophically minded for my taste. But I found it tough going. Obscure subject matter and unclear value to me as a reader.
Perhaps more for those more steeped in history? Or better after reading his other works. But I am not encouraged to do so myself. Great narration. Easy to read. Great stories well mostly. I would recommend this book. After reading other books from Fuentes I was expecting something different but I believe this one has the "magic" from the latinoamerican boom you get from reading other authors.
Great book overall, I will keep reading Fuentes as he keeps on surprising me with his writing style. DNF at p. I found this one interesting, but sometimes self-indulgent and deliberately obfuscated.
It seems like what you'd get by transplanting Borges into the 21st century and with more of an eye to culture than to the raw metaphysics and classicism there. Examples inc I found this one interesting, but sometimes self-indulgent and deliberately obfuscated.
Examples include a translator who deliberately mistranslates the words of Hernan Cortes out of a sense of sympathy with the Aztec people, but which nonetheless leads to their destruction; a dialogue between Cortes' two sons one legitimate, the other illegitimate viewing the same events from different perspectives; the fate of an actor who travels from the United States to Acapulco to have sex with young women.
Several themes run underneath the literal stories and there's a deep strain of meta-narrative - secret histories abound with historical personas only telling the reader in confidence of the true way in which things happened, or may have happened , the typical view of cultural and ethnic conflict is inverted by invading South America, Europe in fact sealed the transformation of its own cultures as it flowed back over the Atlantic toward them , and characters are deeply introspective and not entirely communicative to the point of difficulty of understanding them, in some cases.
As far as the actual language goes, it's extremely rich, and very sexualised. None of the stories go without explicit descriptions of women, though some subvert it the Two Numantias particularly. It seemed excessive at some points, but not entirely out of place.
I don't think I understood the whole thing, but I'm fairly confident that I understood what mattered. This was definitely a fun read, but it also presented some genuinely new ideas to me, and I'm always willing to give a lot of elbow-room to new applications of metaphysics in writing. Incredibly interesting! There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one ». Readers also enjoyed. Short Stories.
About Carlos Fuentes. Carlos Fuentes. Fuentes influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages. Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama; his parents were Mexican. Due to his father being a diplomat, during his childhood he lived in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Washington, Santiago, and Buenos Aires.
In his adolescence, he returned to Mexico, where he lived until He was married to film star Rita Macedo from till , although he was an habitual philanderer and allegedly, his affairs - which he claimed include film actresses such as Jeanne Moreau and Jean Seberg - brought her to despair. The couple ended their relationship amid scandal when Fuentes eloped with a very pregnant and then-unknown journalist named Silvia Lemus.
They were eventually married. Following in the footsteps of his parents, he also became a diplomat in and served in London, Paris as ambassador , and other capitals. Alfaguara in Madrid. El Naranjo March , Alfaguara. Not in Library. Libraries near you: WorldCat. El Naranjo September , Alfaguara. El naranjo , Santillana, S. El Naranjo First published in Classifications Library of Congress PQ F N36 Community Reviews 0 Feedback?
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