This book is a great read for any trip in or near the Amazon. It is an eyewitness report of the Huaorani Indians who live mostly untouched in the Amazon until oil is discovered in their territory. It is written by a reporter who got closer than he expected he would. The story is particular to this place and these people, but it is a very common story in the Amazon to have oil and other development dramatically impact previously private indigenous people. ~ elizmartin
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ most famous work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a masterpiece transcending multiculturalist definitions of Latin American literature. Marquez’ genre-redefining epic tells the story of many generations in the surreal Latin American town of Macondo, a locale afflicted by the full gamut of ills visited upon the region, but outlasting all trials through a mixture of resilient identity and conscious obstinacy.
Marquez’ vision of Macondo is no exercise in social realism, or indeed in realism of any kind, nor is it some sort of paean to the common people one might expect from an author in Marquez’ social and geographic context; rather, it is a story of a place and its people, told with generous strands of its subjects embedded in the narrative’s style and perspective. Though this novel makes no attempt at historical accuracy, never even mentioning the name of the country in which Macondo is located, it paints a vivid portrait of the trials and triumphs of many Latin American nations and peoples through the last several centuries, with compelling characters and masterful language.
One Hundred Years of Solitude provides an insight into Latin American culture and identity in a way that few other works of literature achieve, for any region. The book is a beautiful work, even in translation from the original Spanish, and is decidedly Latin American in its style, evoking a sense of wonder paradoxically coupled with a matter-of-fact assumption that all of the fantastic occurrences throughout the history of Macondo are perfectly believable. It is no coincidence that One Hundred Years of Solitude is often the primary example of Latin American literature taught in high schools today.
In traveling to a country like Colombia, or Mexico, or Venezuela, One Hundred Years of Solitude provides a background truer than dry, disconnected historical facts of viceroyalty and neo-liberalism, as it tells a vibrant story encompassing various historical phases and trials relevant to many Latin American nations, showing the reactions and evolution of the people and places involved in fruit production, or the railroad, or revolution. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ masterwork is not only a monumental piece of literature, but also a work that provides impressive insight into the Latin American world, and a stellar sample of the often ignored literary tradition of this vastly complex and nuanced region. ~ Tim Smith
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Diaz leads the reader on a fantastical journey that weaves seamlessly in and out of the Dominican sections of New Jersey and the mother land itself in the Dominican Republic. That is, the DR is the mother land for the Wao family. The protagonist is the younger son, Oscar, whose older sister Lola struggles also with her Latin American identity. Oscar typifies a classic "Star Wars"-esque geek who is self-conscious to the point of insanity with his weight and lack of 'game' with the ladies. The story winds the reader around to an endpoint wherein Oscar is faced with a series of life-or-death decisions related to his first, and only, true love (or even first kiss for that matter, well into young adulthood after college).
How Diaz connects the reader to his native land is by flashing back to each of the central family characters' personal stories of growing up. For the first several chapters the reader gets to see the world through the prism of Oscar's mother, sister, almost brother-in-law, and of course, his own eyes. This technique allows Diaz to hit on several chapters of Dominican history. Clearly, Diaz possesses strong views on the Trujillo regime, and in general, on the history of Dominican
government. With excessive footnotes, Diaz explains multiple aspects of Dominican history that he makes connect intimately with the fictional Wao family.
Having lived and taught in Santo Domingo, where the Dominican setting of the story is (at least half of the novel), I could see the pictures Diaz was painting. Diaz brings to life all aspects of the capital city, including the famous Malecon. He refers also to a number of smaller towns that an adventurous visitor might want to explore. Reading this novel would accomplish numerous goals for a visitor, including exhaustive accounts of history, vivid pictures of sites to see, and an enthralling story. ~ Seth Herschthal
This book is a great read for any trip in or near the Amazon. It is an eyewitness report of the Huaorani Indians who live mostly untouched in the Amazon until oil is discovered in their territory. It is written by a reporter who got closer than he expected he would. The story is particular to this place and these people, but it is a very common story in the Amazon to have oil and other development dramatically impact previously private indigenous people. ~ elizmartin
I'll admit, I have a woman crush on Barbara Kingsolver. I think she's amazing. For me, her writing is like painting with words--so evocative, so carefully crafted, it takes my breath away. So I read with great anticipation The Lacuna, and it did not disappoint. Via the book's main character, Harrison Shepherd, the tale spins around artists Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, the latter of whom painted the famous murals in the capital city's central plaza, the Zocalo. Rivera hires Shepherd, a young teen at the time, to be his plaster-mixing assistant. Through Shepherd, we see the rise of nationalism and communism in the late 1920s and 1930s in Mexico as well as a fictionalized account of exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky and the asylum he finds in that country. The characters take us to various historical sites in and around Mexico City: the famous pyramids of Teotihuacan, the floating gardens of Xochilmilco, and the Coyoacan district, where the famous "blue house" of Rivera and Kahlo still stands. Kingsolver weaves a fantastic tale, letting the reader pause and consider, through our friend Shepherd, these two great artists, their lives, and the work they created that has come to represent in many ways, the beauty and tragedy of Mexico. ~ C. Smith
