Background
Carlos Fuentes was born on Nov. 11, 1928, in Mexico City.
( As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful news...)
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374531803/?tag=2022091-20
( As the Los Angeles Times said: "Drawing expertly on fiv...)
As the Los Angeles Times said: "Drawing expertly on five centuries of the cultural history of Europe and the Americas, Fuentes seeks to capture the spirit of the new, vibrant, and enduring civilization in the New World that began in Spain." Fuentes's singular success in this remarkable endeavor has made the book a classic in its field. (A Mariner Reissue).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395924995/?tag=2022091-20
( Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged wido...)
Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged widow to edit her deceased husband's memoirs. There Felipe meets her beautiful green-eyed niece, Aura. His passion for Aura and his gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374511713/?tag=2022091-20
(Cultures becomes fossilized when isolated, just as they a...)
Cultures becomes fossilized when isolated, just as they are born or rise again when they come in contact with men and women from other cultures, other sets of beliefs, other races. For over five hundred years, an exchange of cultural reflections has cross
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6071106141/?tag=2022091-20
(A soldier who without qualms betrayed his comrades and ye...)
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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9708120472/?tag=2022091-20
(The intimate life of artist Frida Kahlo is wonderfully re...)
The intimate life of artist Frida Kahlo is wonderfully revealed in the illustrated journal she kept during her last 10 years. This passionate and at times surprising record contains the artist's thoughts, poems, and dreams; many reflecting her stormy relationship with her husband, artist Diego Rivera, along with 70 mesmerising watercolour illustrations. The text entries in brightly coloured inks make the journal as captivating to look at as it is to read. Her writing reveals the artist's political sensibilities, recollections of her childhood, and her enormous courage in the face of more than thirty-five operations to correct injuries she had sustained in an accident at the age of eighteen.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810959542/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6073133995/?tag=2022091-20
( One of Carlos Fuentes's greatest works, The Old Gringo ...)
One of Carlos Fuentes's greatest works, The Old Gringo tells the story of Ambrose Bierce, the American writer, soldier, and journalist, and of his last mysterious days in Mexico living among Pancho Villa's soldiers, particularly his encounter with General Tomas Arroyo. In the end, the incompatibility of the two countries (or, paradoxically, their intimacy) claims both men, in a novel that is, most of all, about the tragic history of two cultures in conflict.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374530521/?tag=2022091-20
Carlos Fuentes was born on Nov. 11, 1928, in Mexico City.
As the son of a Mexican diplomat, he went to school in Washington, D. C. , where he became proficient in the English language. He held a law degree from the National University of Mexico and also studied at the Institute of Advanced International Studies in Geneva. He served in the Mexican diplomatic service and traveled in Cuba, Europe, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Latin America.
His first book, Los días enmascarados (1954; The Masked Days), consisted of a series of six stories in which the real world is mingled with the disquieting world of fantasy. He formed and directed, with Emmanuel Carballo, the Revista méxicana de literatura (1955-1958; Mexican Review of Literature). During 1956-1957 he held a scholarship at the Mexican Center for Writers. Fuentes's first great novel, La región más transparente (1958; Where the Air Is Clear), caused a real sensation in literary circles and definitely established him as one of the best young writers. His second novel, Las buenas conciencias (The Good Conscience), appeared in 1959. It undertakes a clarification of Mexican life in greater depth and broader perspective. It is a moral drama of Mexican society in which everyone appears both as victim and accomplice. During 1959-1960 Fuentes edited El espectador (The Spectator). Aura (Dawn), a short novel, appeared in 1962, and that same year he saw the publication of La muerte de Artemio Cruz ( The Death of Artemio Cruz). In his work Fuentes covers half a century of Mexican life, portraying the class which predominated in Mexico at the time, as represented by a man who took part in some of the skirmishes of the Revolution and, beginning in 1920, started to make a large fortune and acquire immense power. The death of this man and his 12 hours of agony constitute the theme of this novel. It was translated into numerous languages. Fuentes's second volume of short stories, Cantar de ciegos (1964; Song of the Blind), is a synthesis of his literary worlds: magic, realistic, and humorous. Fuentes continued to write short stories, novels, plays, and essays which usually address political or social concerns of Mexico and central America. Fuentes critical success reached new heights in 1975 with the release of Terra nostra. Fuentes's next fictions explored the spy novel and Mexico's place in the world. In 1985 Fuentes published El Gringo Viejo, a novel in which he combined an historical figure (American journalist Ambrose Bierce) with the supernatural, and Fuentes received some of the best reviews in his extensive literary career. Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck starred in a movie adaption of this novel. Readers and critics both admired and despised Fuentes. Many critics cited his political views as a distraction to his literary talents; others wished he would focus only on writing fiction instead of exploring political commentary. Octavia Paz, one of Mexico's most recognized poets, was often an outspoken critic of Fuentes. He died on May 15, 2012.
In 1967 he won the Premio Biblioteca Breve, offered by the Seix Barral publishing company, for his novel Cambio de piel (Change of Skin). The novel about the evolution of Mexico earned Fuentes the Mexican Alfonso Reyes Prize. Although Carlos Fuentes had a lot of critics it did not prevent him from continually winning literary awards, including the Cervantes Prize for Literature in 1987. He was an Honorary Doctor of many universities in Latin America, Europe and the United States. Member of the Mexican Academy of Language.
( One of Carlos Fuentes's greatest works, The Old Gringo ...)
( As the Los Angeles Times said: "Drawing expertly on fiv...)
(Cultures becomes fossilized when isolated, just as they a...)
( As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful news...)
(A soldier who without qualms betrayed his comrades and ye...)
(The intimate life of artist Frida Kahlo is wonderfully re...)
( Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged wido...)
For the first time interested in socialism during his stay in Chile, Fuentes adhered to moderately leftist views. He supported the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua (because of which he quarreled with his old friend Octavio Pas) and the Zapatistas in the state of Chiapas. Criticized the ruling in Mexico, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the foreign policy of the United States (especially under Reagan and Bush Jr. ). The United States repeatedly refused to grant Fuentes a visa, and when it was allowed to enter, the FBI placed a close eye on him (on the FBI file he was called "the leading communist writer of Mexico"). At first he greeted the Cuban revolution, but then disappointed in the government of Fidel Castro.
It portrays many grave social problems in contemporary Mexico City in a tone of bitter and violent protest. The structure is developed by continuous juxtaposition of scenes from different social levels and from different epochs. Fuentes uses interior monologue and portrayal of the subconscious mixed with pages that resemble an essay more than a novel. He was also an historian, of sorts, incorporating important figures of Mexican history into his fiction. Fuentes did this because it revealed Mexico-both past and present-to the world. He explained this view to George Kourous in Montage, "Mexico. .. made me understand that only in an act of the present can we make present the past as well as the future: to be a Mexican was to identify a hunger for being, a desire for dignity rooted in many forgotten centuries and in many centuries yet to come, but rooted, here, now, in the instant, in the vigilant time of Mexico. "
Quotations:
“Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre. ”
“Writing is a struggle against silence. ”
“I need, therefore I imagine. ”
“You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die. ”
“One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death. ”
“By its very nature, the novel indicates that we are becoming. There is no final solution. There is no last word. ”
“I believe in books that do not go to a ready-made public. I'm looking for readers I would like to make. To win them, to create readers rather than to give something that readers are expecting. That would bore me to death. ”
“Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me. ”
“Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history. ”
In an interview in Booklist in 1996, Fuentes lamented the fact that in Mexico, "literature remains a minority affair. " He was disappointed that culturally, the value of literature as its own entity does not exist. In 1997 in World Press Review, Fuentes claimed that Mexico had become the scapegoat for all of the problems in the United States. Throughout his career, Fuentes wrote his views and his opinions, not caring who he pleased or who he offended. Through all of this, the only consistent classification he has earned is the reputation as a master narrator. Fuentes himself challenged his critics, "Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre. Do not look for the purity of the novel according to some nostalgic canon. " According to Fuentes, the canon, the collected body of prized literary works, needed to include more multicultural authors and texts. Because of his contributions to journalism, fiction, and non-fiction, Fuentes became an influential Hispanic writer who has expanded the literary canon.
Fuentes married Mexican actress Rita Macedo. His second marriage, to journalist Silvia Lemus, lasted until his death. Fuentes had three children, but only one daughter survived. Two other children, a son and a daughter, died at a young age from hemophilia and a drug overdose, respectively.
