The Great Latin American Novel [Paperback]

One of the late Carlos Fuentes's final projects, this compendium of his criticism traces the evolution of the Latin American novel from the discovery of America to the present day. Combining historical perspective with personal and often opinionated interpretation, Fuentes gives us a tour from Machado de Assis to Borges and beyond. A landmark analysis, as well as a scintillating and often wry commentary on a great author's peers and influences, this book is as much a contribution to Latin American literature as it is a chronicle of that literature's greatest achievements. Fuentes has left behind a sage meditation on the literature of a language and the power of the novel. The late, great Mexican novelist and critic offers a personal history of the fiction he admired???.A subtitle for this book could be Novels I Have Loved. Fuentes occasionally offers declarations about the novel ( There can be no literature without the body ) and also provides, in instructional fashion, lists of writers and works and commonalities among them. In moments that have enormous contemporary resonance, he argues powerfully for the great advantages of immigration. A valedictory work full of erudition and heart. The essential summary of Latin American fiction by one of the greatest Latin American writers. This work of profound intellect is essential for anyone seeking to understand the Latin American literary canon.