The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays

From Library Journal
The Latin American literary essay is alive and well, its critical thinking complementing the magic and exoticism common to Latin American fiction. Editor Stavans, a novelist and critic, has compiled 77 essays, translated from Spanish or Portuguese, dating from 1849 to 1994 and representing writers from many of the countries in the region. The broad scope of the anthology is notable, although more influential essays by authors such as Jorge Luis Borges and Octavio Paz do exist. The authors range from Andres Bello to Subcomandante Marcos, while some of the themes treated include identity, religion, and technology. There are also essays about Thoreau and Josephine Baker that North Americans will appreciate. In addition to the literate content, the volume serves as a reference tool thanks to an excellent introduction, a topical index, and short biographies about each author. Highly recommended as a resource in Latino literature collections.?Rebecca Martin, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalbCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The essay often dwells in the shadow of splashier literary forms, particularly the novel, but in Latin America, the essay is given much esteem and exercise. Gathered in this anthology is a feast of essays from the region, defined here as "continental Latin America, Brazil, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean." Selections have been translated into English, their dates of composition ranging between 1849 and 1994; the editor's preface is a strikingly original definition of the qualities of the essay and its appropriateness to the Latin American voice. Particularly enjoyable choices include "Niagra" by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (Uruguayan, 1811^-88), in which he describes the breathtaking grandness of this famous set of falls; "Washington and Bolivar" by Juan Montalvo (Ecuadorean, 1832^-89), comparing the two great heroes of North and South America; and "Books I Read Sitting and Books I Read Standing," by Jose Vasconcelos (Mexican, 1882^-1959), which explains his system of classifying reading matter. The joys and provocations awaiting the reader go on and on. Brad Hooper


Book Description
The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays Edited by Ilan Stavans "Like the novel and the short story, the essay is free-minded, ambitious, and seems to satisfy many needs at once," writes Ilan Stavans. "It entertains, it enlightens, it obfuscates, it confesses, it laments... What it cannot do, though, not even when it desperately tries to, is hide the truth: its texture is too crystalline, too genuine to hide the unhideable; and since essayists are lonely voices crying in the wilderness, their argument generates discomfort and is often censored by the powers that be. But Latin America has never been about silence." For most English-speaking readers, however, even those familiar with the remarkable fictions flowing out of Latin America, the essay has been silent--invisible and unavailable. Now, in The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays, Ilan Stavans has broken that silence dramatically with an anthology that is as vast, as varied, and as fascinating as the region it represents. While retaining much of the flavor of Latin American fiction--the dazzling metaphors, richness of language, and sheer imaginative bravado--these essays give us the more intellectual, critical, and self-reflexive side of the dreaming mind that has so thoroughly entranced the literary world. From Baldomero Sanin Cano's lacerating critique of Theodore Roosevelt to Ezequiel Martinez Estrada's reverential reading of Thoreau; from Pablo Neruda's passionate Nobel acceptance speech to Mario Vargas Llosa's penetrating analysis of the destruction of the Incas; from Isabel Allende's and Carlos Fuentes's personal accounts of their writing to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's playful repudiation of the umbrella and Rosario Ferre's complex assessment of the role of the translator, this volume gives us the whole spectrum of concerns that have animated some of the greatest writers of our time. Of course, the political struggles that have afflicted the region for centuries--the "endemic dictatorships resembling tropical fevers," as Augusto Roa Bastos calls them--exert a constant pressure on the writing gathered here. Indeed, it is the attempt to understand the effects of history and politics on personal, cultural, and literary identities that makes these essays so compelling. Enrique Anderson Imbert asserts that "the history of the essay does not show us a limbo of indecisive people or apprentices, but an emphatic assembly of spirits who felt confident, ingenious, and aware." With selections by Andres Bello, Jorge Amado, Julio Cortazar, Clairce Lispector, Octavio Paz, Ariel Dorfman, Manuel Puig, and many others, The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays is just such an assembly of spirits who deepen our awareness not only of literature but of the magical and terrifying truths of the human condition.


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While retaining much of the flavor of Latin American fiction - the dazzling metaphors, richness of language, and sheer imaginative bravado - these essays give us the more intellectual, critical, and self-reflexive side of the dreaming mind that has so thoroughly entranced the literary world.


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