[RVY]≡ PDF Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction Alvaro Uribe Olivia Sears 9781564785145 Books

Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction Alvaro Uribe Olivia Sears 9781564785145 Books

Download As PDF : Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction Alvaro Uribe Olivia Sears 9781564785145 Books

Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction Alvaro Uribe Olivia Sears 9781564785145 Books

I received the hard copy. It's a well bound, attractive book and a good read.

Amazon's description clearly states it is printed in English and Spanish, but I didn't pick up on that fact when I ordered. Such a thing is a big plus for someone who doesn't dominate both languages. I can flip back and forth between the two versions to see how a passage is phrased in Spanish.

It reminds me of "Aurora" by Carlos Fuentes; only there I think Fuentes wrote the English translation himself. Here Uribe has put some good English translators at work.

As for the short stories themselves, they are excellent. I do wish there was chronological order, that we had more infomation on the authors--their ages what school of writing does each belong to, and so on.


Tags : Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction [Alvaro Uribe, Olivia Sears] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This is a collection of stories from 16 of Mexico's finest fiction writers, offering a glimpse of the rich tapestry of Mexican fiction. From small town dramas to tales of urban savagery,Alvaro Uribe, Olivia Sears,Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction,Dalkey Archive Press,1564785149,Caribbean & Latin American,Urban,Mexican fiction - 20th century,Mexican fiction - 21st century,Mexican fiction;20th century;Translations into English.,Mexican fiction;21st century;Translations into English.,Short stories, Mexican,Short stories, Mexican;Translations into English.,20th century,21st century,Anthologies (multiple authors),FICTION Anthologies (multiple authors),FICTION Urban,Fiction,Fiction - General,GENERAL,General Adult,LITERARY COLLECTIONS Caribbean & Latin American,Mexican fiction,Mexico,Modern fiction,ReadingsAnthologiesCollected Works,Translations into English,United States

Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction Alvaro Uribe Olivia Sears 9781564785145 Books Reviews

What a wonderfully inventive and (at times) disturbing ride we encounter with the bilingual anthology, "Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction" (Dalkey Archive Press, $34.95 hardcover; $15.95 paperback), edited by Álvaro Uribe, with Spanish editing by Olivia Sears. (The left page of the open book is in Spanish which faces the English translation.) Uribe notes in his introduction that people often say that "Mexico is a country of poets." He then posits that "[o]ne could say with equal veracity -- and equal neglect of our estimable novelists, essayists, chroniclers, and playwrights -- that Mexico is a country of short story writers." He begins the anthology with a hilarious piece by Vivian Abenshushan entitled "Lukin's Bed" which concerns a man (Lukin) who starts a movement of men who disavow relationships with women. He builds a huge bed where the men in his community could sleep, safe from female companionship. It is a wry commentary on gender roles and human desire. Other stories explore human brutality, sexual desire, cultural hierarchies. The anthology's narratives steer clear from gentle storytelling; these tales are lean, mean and brilliantly woven depictions of modern life. If Franz Kafka were a contemporary Mexican writer, he'd be included in this collection.

[Excerpted from a review originally published in the El Paso Times.]
This anthology, edited by Alvaro Uribe, contains sixteen short stories by Mexican writers born after 1945. It is presented in chronological order with the youngest writer first and the oldest writer last. The left side page is in Spanish and the right-hand page is in English. I read the book in English as I'm not literate in Spanish.

The stories varied in their impact on me with some quite good and others just okay. I liked 'On the Death of the Author', about the last of the Yahi Indians. Ishi, a Yahi Indian wanders outside a California slaughterhouse. He is half-dead from hunger and tuberculosis. He ends up as a display in a San Francisco anthropology museum where he prefers living to his natural environment. The tragedies of his past are examined with great sensitivity and beauty.

'Questioning Samantha' is an unusual story. An eleven year-old girl gets caught having sex during recess in the girls' bathroom of her school. Her father, a widower, doesn't appear to take it at all seriously despite the fact that he is called away from his job by the principal to discuss the matter. He is more concerned about cleaning his dining room windows and getting a different job.

I really enjoyed 'True Friendship', a story about Weinstein and his one-sided friendship and obsession with a man that no one in his family has ever met. This 'friendship' goes on for forty years and Weinstein uses this friend as an excuse for any time he's late or messes up at home or at work. We begin to question whether this friend really exists.

In 'The Preservers', Marta asks her nephew Ignacio to embalm her dead husband Pablo after his death. Rather than bury him, she brings him home and sets him in the sewing room in front of the television where he can watch his favorite shows. When Ignacio's girlfriend, Marisa, gets too cozy with Pablo, the dynamics get skewed.

'Living Treasure' is a wonderful story. Amelie goes from France to Tekendogo in West Africa. She goes there to write about Tekendogo's literature for a French magazine. There, she meets Sangoule, a language teacher and musician, and falls in love. She tries working on her own novel to no avail. Her work on reporting about the literature of Tekendogo uncovers a great hoax. The country has what they refer to as 'living treasures', authors revered by the state. What they have to offer is not as it seems.

'Mariachi' is about a very successful Mariachi singer who hates his music. Accidentally, he gets roped into a role in a movie and becomes an instant sex symbol all over the world. As he says, "My fame is a very powerful drug. I need that which I hate."

The above are my favorite stories in this anthology though I enjoyed several others as well. I think that it must have been very difficult for Uribe to cull the writers down to sixteen. Mexico has a large number of writers and sixteen is just a drop in the bucket. However, the ones that he picked, show the country's literary merits.
I received the hard copy. It's a well bound, attractive book and a good read.

's description clearly states it is printed in English and Spanish, but I didn't pick up on that fact when I ordered. Such a thing is a big plus for someone who doesn't dominate both languages. I can flip back and forth between the two versions to see how a passage is phrased in Spanish.

It reminds me of "Aurora" by Carlos Fuentes; only there I think Fuentes wrote the English translation himself. Here Uribe has put some good English translators at work.

As for the short stories themselves, they are excellent. I do wish there was chronological order, that we had more infomation on the authors--their ages what school of writing does each belong to, and so on.