The latest addition to my website is Sergio Pitol‘s El tañido de una flauta [The Tune of a Flute]. The basic plot concerns an unnamed Mexican film director/producer who, in his younger days, had made a film about Carlos Ibarra, his friend and a budding novelist. Ibarra has drifted around the world, never finishing his … Read more
I have now read twenty Mexican novels in a row. So what have I learned? Well, Mexican literature is as varied as any other well developed literature. I found post-modern novels, feminist novels, historical novels, psychological novels, love and romance and death and dying. However, a few things stand out, even if the twenty novels … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yuri Herrera‘s Señales que precederán al fin del mundo (Signs Preceding the End of the World). This is a superb short novel which can be read as Dantesque journey through the underworld or as the story of a woman illegally entering the United States from Mexico, not to … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Elena Poniatowska‘s Leonora (Leonora). This is a feminist biographical novel about Leonora Carrington. Carrington was a Surrealist painter, something quite rare for an English woman. She was the daughter of a textile magnate and, though brought up in wealth, she was very free-spirited, which did not go down … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Antonio Ortuño‘s El buscador de cabezas [The Head Hunter]. This novel tells the story of Alex Faber who gets involved in the extreme right in an unnamed Latin American country. As a teen he joined a group, the Republicans, which seemed to enjoy attacking prostitutes, gays and so … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hernán Lara Zavala‘s Península, Península [Peninsula, Peninsula]. This novel, set in the mid 1800s, concerns a native uprising in Yucatán, a result of the mistreatment of the native population by the whites. Lara Zavala tells his story using himself (we learn about his writing process and thoughts) but … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Daniel Sada‘s Casi nunca (Almost Never), one of two novels by this Mexican writer translated into English. Sada was highly praised by Roberto Bolaño but, on the basis of this book, I am not sure I share his view. The book is quite simply a sex comedy. Demetrio … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Eve Gil‘s Tinta violeta: Sho-shan segunda temporada [Violet Ink: Sho-shan second season]. Gil has called this novel, and others she has written, mangic realism, as manga/anime features very much in the story. Eve Gil’s youngest daughter has Asperger’s Syndrome, as does the heroine and part-narrator of this novel … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Claudia Marcucetti Pascoli‘s Heridas de agua [Wounds of Water]. This is a quirky novel about Mexican history and politics, with some of the narration by a mill, where much of the action is set, and a series of ghosts. Gioconda Cattaneo de González Núñez, born in Naples, marries … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Luis Jorge Boone‘s Las afueras [The Outskirts]. Boone is a Mexican writer, mainly known for his poetry and short stories (one collection has been translated into English) but this is his only novel, not translated into English or any other language. It does not really have a plot, … Read more