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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
First translated into English more than a quarter-century ago, Fuentes's acclaimed novel about modern Mexico has since gone through nearly 30 printings. Despite its popularity, the original English version often was unclear, obscuring Fuentes's language and intent. MacAdam's meticulous new rendering gives the English-reading public a fresh slant on the fictional Cruz, a newspaper owner and land baron. The novel opens with Cruz on his deathbed, and plunges us into his thoughts as he segues from the past to his increasingly disoriented present. Drawn as a tragic figure, Cruz fights bravely during the Mexican Revolution but in the process loses his idealism--and the only woman who ever loved him. He marries the daughter of a hacienda owner and, in the opportunistic, postwar climate, he uses her family connections and money to amass an ever-larger fortune. Cocky, audacious, corrupt, Cruz, on another level, represents the paradoxes of recent Mexican history. Written before Fuentes's masterpieces A Change of Skin and Terra Nostra, this novel, with its freewheeling experimental prose and psychological exploration, anticipates many of the author's later themes.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"This is more than a retranslation of a masterpiece. It amounts to a restoration: here is the magnificent book that Fuentes wrote originally, superbly rendered by Alfred Mac Adam into an English version that precisely meshes with Fuentes's Spanish."--Douglas Day
"Carlos Fuentes is perhaps the only living Latin-American writer who has it in him to do for his country what Euclides da Cunha did for Brazil in Os Sertoes, and to make the passion of the land's rebirth and repossession comprehensible to the outsider."--Anthony West, The New Yorker
"Remarkable, in the scope of the human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and sharp dialogue."--Mildred Adams, The New York Times Book Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Carlos Fuentes is perhaps the only living Latin-American writer who has it in him to do for his country what Euclides da Cunha did for Brazil in Os Sertoes, and to make the passion of the land's rebirth and repossession comprehensible to the outsider."--Anthony West, The New Yorker
"Remarkable, in the scope of the human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and sharp dialogue."--Mildred Adams, The New York Times Book Review
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First Sentence
I wake up...The touch of that cold object against my penis wakes me up. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I wake up...The touch of that cold object against my penis wakes me up. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just shoot me in the head already (but not literally...)!,
By "yochin" (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Death Of Artemio Cruz New Translation (Paperback)
In Death of Artemio Cruz Fuentes shows the painful torturous death of a man named Artemio Cruz who lies on his deathbed; his family scurrying around him; looking for the lastest edition of his will; while bitterly recounting different episodes of his and their lives. His wife was literally given to him by her father who Cruz swindles out of his old hacienda fortune; his daughter squirms at the literally decomposing body of her father who's dying of an instestinal blockage (among other things) while she plans her wedding to an insipid dandy lawyer; his doctor tries to treat him by his symptoms and disects him figuratively describing him in purely biological and medical terms but like most doctors in most situations there's pretty much nothing he can; do the prognosis is pretty much hopeless; the man is literally dying. Cruz himself is a power-wielding totalitarianist who rules his little fiefdom with an iron fist; he's an opportunist; if given the chance he'll kick a man when he's down; he has very little sympathy for idealism or love; he's lost that bit by bit; most of it's been torn away from him during the war when he lost his true love. One is left with a deep set feeling of pity for this man who's suffered so much and tortured so many people (including the reader) because he can never truly come to terms with getting his heart ripped out of him; you're almost glad when the book ends and he's remembering his early childhood and the narrator starts to recount his birth; he's uncorrupted at this point; naked; crying and in pain; his little body literally being thrust unto this earth and at the same time the doctors tear into him; his body's shutting down; the surgeons are cussing; cursing this decrepit old man's body which is turning into a mushy corpse...This is not an easy book to read; not because it's disgusting or the words are too difficult; it's just that this man is so repulsive it's very difficult to continue reading this book; it's literally torture to read this book; but finishing it and getting to the end; putting this man to death and putting him in perspective at the same time; because this was a difficult read; you will come away satisfied that all that suffering Fuentes put you through was worth it. Some books it brings to mind are Absalom, Absalom! by Faulkner and even maybe Wurthering Heights by Emily Bronte; if you're looking for a comparable parable. Read it; ...if you dare!
4.0 out of 5 stars
The long winding road,
By Enrique Torres "Rico" (San Diegotitlan, Califas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Death Of Artemio Cruz New Translation (Paperback)
In what is agruably one of Carlos Fuentes's best books(not my particular fave) he creates a story that is put together in such a fashion that it demands the readers full attention . At times it is difficult to follow the time period jumping by the narrator, Artemio , as he reflects on his long life and the twists and turns the events of his times have had on his own life. The narration allows Fuentes to give his jaded view of a corrupt Mexico and the power that it yields individuals. The author is never one to sugar coat his own personal views on Mexico, its culture, traditions and ultimately history. Fuentes focuses in and out of different time periods, at times in rapid freeze frames, like a camera run amok capturing the highlights of a journey, Artemio Cruz is forced to examine his own mortality and the terms of his own integrity. The book is a brillinat piece of literature that deserves more than one read. Like the character in the book , whose life has changed through the years, I decided to read this again and see if it was as powerful as the first time I read it some twenty years ago. For me the book is even better now, the translation is excellent and the book resonates with brilliant imagery and the importance of time and it's overall effect. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the literature of Mexico and would be an excellent choice for secondary educators teaching a course at the advanced literature level. This is a book that can be examined closely for it's allegorical substance as well as literally for it's historical commentary.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The moment of truth,
By
This review is from: Death Of Artemio Cruz New Translation (Paperback)
Artemio Cruz was a destitute boy when the Revolution started. Being a brave and unscrupulous man, he made his way through war and found an important place in the Regime that followed. He became rich and powerful through blackmail, bribe, collusion and violent corruption in general. Now, he's lying on his deathbed, remembering his life. In this novel, the most important character is language itself. Fuentes goes back and forth in time, using First, Second and Third person narrative, to reflect the different standpoints from where the story can be seen. The most interesting thing about the novel is the exploration, from the outside and the inside, of Cruz's mind and personality. It is also an allegory of Mexican history of the past century, which can be used additionally as a metaphor of human history in general. So, why the four stars, instead of five? I think Fuentes's portrait of Mexico, while certainly accurate, uses too many cliches and commonplaces. It's a personal thing, not to dishearten potential readers: the novel is good and cleverly constructed.
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