Carlos Fuentes Books

Excerpts from Robert Coover's original review published in the New York Times November 7, 1976:

"Terra Nostra" is a colossal 350,000-word opus, a kind of panoramic Hispano-American creation myth, spanning 20 centuries (more, if you count the Greek and Egyptian mythologies that help to feed it) and embracing virtually the whole of European and American (especially Mexican) culture and civilization.

If "Terra Nostra" is a failure, it is a magnificent failure. Its conception is truly grand, its perceptions often unique, its energy compelling and the inventiveness and audacity of some of its narrative maneuvers absolutely breathtaking; the animated paintings, the talking mirrors, the time machines and metamorphosing mummies, the fusion of history, myth and fiction, the variations on themes and dreams, the interweaving or rich, violent, beautiful, grotesque, mysterious, even magical images--not without reason has this book been likened to a vast and intricate tapestry.

Achieved or not, there are too few writers around even willing to risk the impossible, and none I know of who so intimately activates the otherwise dead space between page and reader.

I read this book a while back in a Spanish Literature class. I absolutely loved it, it made me think about so many imigration issues that I had not even known existed before. This book is written as a novel, and a novel with a purpose at that. If you are against immigration of the Latin Americans into the USA, then this book may be the one to get you to understand that they are real people and not just percentages and numbers leading to American job loss.

Carlos Fuentes has a point in writing this book, it seems many reviewers haven't understood that, or they don't agree with him. That is fine, it is fine to disagree. But the way this book is written it does deserve a full 5 star rating. Give it a try.

Tedious novel in the form of nine linked stories shows Mexican life from multiple angles, none too flattering. The crystal frontier of the title is, of course, the U.S.-Mexican border; what matters here is less the border as geopolitical fact and more its impact on the Mexican psyche. The author aims his barbs at both sides of the border; there's little surprising here except perhaps for the portrayal of a disdainful Mexican upper class that couldn't care less about how the other half lives or whether it lives or starves. Book clubs will find this a useful tool for stirring up discussion on the illegal drug and immigration issues whether they read through to the end or not; those who do will be rewarded with a chapter written half in normal prose and half in surreal fragmentary lines of poetry, the effect of which is not unlike sitting through a Tarkovsky double-feature.

Carlos Fuentes is a major author in Mexican literature, with notable successes in history and fiction. In this book of 266 pages, he introduces us to the lives of a spectrum of persons living on both sides of the Mexican Border, particularly with Texas. He speaks with authority about the historical injustices involved in the American conquest of Texas, the War on Mexico, and our continuing hostile dependency on each other. The Americans need cheap labor and the Mexicans need jobs. In nine vignettes (chapters), he gives us a glimpse into the lives of various persons on both sides of the border. The Mexicans come North to go to school legally or to do menial work illegally or legally. The message in this book is quite clear. We want the Mexicans when we need them to do tasks cheaply that our own labor force will not do. We do not want the Mexicans when they become dependent on us and stress our social system for such things as health care or education. Carlos Fuentes points to the type of economic slavery that this creates, not much better than the era of slavery which Abraham Lincoln fought against. Fuentes achieves some balance in showing also the internal corruption of Mexico, and the many ways that they miss opportunities to improve themselves. The vignettes are funny, sad, passionate, and sometimes lacking in clear focus. Some characters fade into and out of various chapters creating a fabric of impressions about the life on the border. The reader has to relax and let the images flow past, with the poetic inserts by Fuentes about the various conflicts. This is clearly not his best book but in some ways it perhaps reveals more of his own most heartfelt conflicts which accumulated while he spent many years as a child and young adult in the USA. It is a particularly good book to read while you are traveling near the Mexican border and can get your own impressions of this SCENE.

Whenever I travel to a country, I like to take along some fiction written by someone from that country to read while I'm there. So, for my first trip to Mexico, Fuentes seemed like the logical choice, and since I tend to enjoy short stories, this "novel in nine stories" seemed to fit the bill. However, for the most part, I found it both thematically and stylistically underwhelming, rather tedious, and it didn't give me any new insights into the dynamic and complex relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. The nine pieces are very tangentially connected to Don Leonardo, a rather generic shady, wealthy Mexican businessman who exists at one end of the socioeconomic spectrum. He's able to move easily across the "crystal frontier" between Mexico and the U.S. -- whether by flying first class to New York or being chauffeured to El Paso in his Mercedes.

In "A Capital Girl", a beautiful girl from Mexico City with few prospects finds security with her godfather Don Leonardo, and although she marries his son, she becomes the old man's mistress. Surely this is allegorical, although I'm not quite sure what to make of it. In "Spoils", Juan Zamora is able to attend Cornell Medical School through the machinations of Don Leonardo. While there, he explores his homosexuality and unable to reconcile his identity, flees back home. "Spoils" is in some ways the most fantastical and enjoyable of the stories, as an eminent Mexican food critic sits discovers a Mexican genie in a bottle of salsa. However, it's simultaneously a tediously diatribe against American food (which I'm not particularly a fan of either) which gets all too shrill.

"The Line of Oblivion" is an ineffective rambling stream of consciousness monologue from a wheelchair-bound old man at a border protest. "Malintzin of the Maquilas" is probably my favorite segment of the whole book, as it is the most direct and apparently "realistic" of the lot. It follows a young woman who works in a border factory assembling television sets, and her relationships with several coworkers and a feckless boyfriend. It's more compelling than the others because the socioeconomic themes feel more at home in this particular setting, with these characters. Unfortunately, it's also marred somewhat by a predictable (and unnecessary) bit of melodrama at the end.

"Las Amigas" is simply a terrible story about the relationship between a very wealthy and a very racist elderly Chicago woman and her Mexican maid. It's really, really bad, but not quite as ridiculous as the title story, "The Crystal Frontier". This is about a hardworking, solid Mexican man forced to take a job as a contract window washer in New York in order to earn a living. There, he experiences an incredibly cheezy moment of "connection" with a typical American businesswoman who's working over the weekend. They kiss through the glass -- it's so awful it beggars belief. "The Bet" stands a little removed from the rest of the book, as it chronicles the relationship between a Mexican tour guide and a Spanish woman he meets and falls for, while also telling of a time from the past when he and his friends used to pick on the town's simpleton. The final story, "Rio Grande, Rio Bravo" attempts to bring together the book's themes (and some of the characters) in a climactic nighttime border crossing but collapses in ridiculous bloodbath involving neo-Nazi skinhead bikers!

My main disappointment with this book is that I didn't feel like I learned anything or gained any perspective. The storytelling is pretty awkward for the most part, and the translated prose felt affected and pretentiously overwritten. There are some interesting characters who are brought to life (at least on the Mexican side, every single Anglo in the book is either an out and out racist or subconsciously prejudicial), but the situations there are put in are often too artificial. The next time I look for a book my a Mexican writer, I think I'll try and find something by someone much younger and closer to the ground -- despite the evident good intentions there's an air about Fuentes' writing which makes him seem utterly removed from the plight of people he's trying to write about in most of these stories.

Anytime you write a bunch of short stories and try to thread them together with a cameo of characters from previous stories you're going to get into trouble. Because that's what it ends up being. A bunch of short stories that is said to comprise a "novel". It's hard to remember who's who from one story to the next because you've only been exposed to the characters for a short glimpse.

"The Crystal Frontier" is an unimaginative attempt at metaphor concocted by Fuentes to symbolize the frontier between Mexico and the United States. That boundary is not only the physical presence of the Rio Grande River but also of the differences between cultures.

The character that threads the stories together is a powerful Mexican businessman named Leonardo Barroso whose main export to America is cheap labor. He is introduced in the first story, called "A Capital Girl" in which he sets up his bookish son to be married to a beautiful girl. He also sets her up to be his mistress. Like a demented Amelie, Leonardo has a direct or indirect impact on all the short stories that follow. I guess it has something in common with chaos theory, but instead of a butterfly causing a hurricane, here we have a money grubbing exploitive Enron type affecting lives that he knows nothing about.

A few of the earlier stories are interesting and good. "Pain" is about a doomed love affair between two medical students, one of which got a scholarship from Leonardo. "Spoils" was a great story about a famous food critic and chef who offers his philsophy of why America is obese. It is also in that story that the book starts to destroy itself for me. Fuentes starts coming in through his characters about how America stole half of Mexico and about how we are inferior to the europeans in culture. It is in this story that Americans begin to be stereotyped as ruthless buzzards that are eating off the flesh of Mexico. I won't get into a rant just yet.

The rest of the stories in the "novel" run the gamut from average to poor and some are just downright an affront to the intellegence of a brain dead squirrel and are unreadable. Two of the most awful are the short story the book was named for, "The Crystal Frontier" and the last story in here, called "Rio Grande, Rio Bravo". "Frontier" is about a Mexican who is a complete failure in his hometown who is contracted to work in New York. His work is to clean the windows of an immense glass skycraper. While he is cleaning he notices a woman working, not knowing that she's there on a Saturday to get away from her domestic problems. There's this whole big moment where they basically fall in love just looking at each other straight out of a harlequin novel. It was just so cliched and awful.

For sheer Ed Wood sorriness "Rio Grande" takes the cake. All the characters in the earlier stories are brought together in an episode centering on an illegal crossing of Mexicans into Texas. Here we have the cliched white border guard who never goes out in the sun because he's afraid of tanning and showing the darkness inherit in his genes and who is sort of a closet Adolph Hitler. We have his subordinate, an American of Mexican descent, who is in a cliched scene where he confronts an illegal alien and is engrossed in a loving hug with him. Let's not forget the arrival of a Nazi skinhead motorcycle gang who proceed to slaughter the Mexicans right on cue. Oh boy. The horror. The horror. This book is so ludicrous it makes me sick. Oh, it is also interspersed with a Neruda-wannabe poem recounting Mexico's history.

I will soon be donating this book to my local library. Fuentes' prose is overblown and pompous. He tries so hard to be a poet but it can never be. It says on the back of the jacket that he is Mexico's greatest novelist. I weep for Mexico. I agree that America takes advantage of Mexico but Mexico also takes advantage of us. It's a cycle that has benefits and drawbacks but I think both countries ignore the problems. Sometimes I don't understand why Mexico has never been able to get its act together and why there even has to be the problems we have. Fuentes seems to place most if not all the responsibility on the US. He does place some blame on Mexico itself when he states that "whoever said Mexicans have the right to be well-governed?"
Obviously he likes the politics in his country enough to be an ambassador to France for it. And I have a lot of suspicion for a man who "champions the poor" when he divides his time between Mexico City and London. It must be rough trying to get by on the little amount of money he makes.

I agree with A Reader's opinion. It is ambitious mentioning the past of Indios, Holocaust, etc, but it is to difficult, complicated and symbolic in a way.

I haven't read this book yet, I just bought it but regarding the review about the "boring pop art and classics" style, I think it is important to notice that maybe this book fits more in the 60's style just because it was written in the 60's, 1967 to be accurate!

Although this book earned the Seix Barral award, it is poor compared to other works of Fuentes. A failed attempt to make a novel with many significant levels. A lenguage experiment that results awful. It might have been interesting in the sixties, but thirty years later is not worth it. A novel that won't stand the test of times.

The Chihuaha ghost story was wonderful. Some of the latter stories were gratuitous in the repulsive sense.

Carlos Fuentes pone su sello muy peculiar de juntar la ficcion con la realidad en estas maravillosas narraciones

no se porque, pero siento que para su personaje del vampiro se ha de haber inspirado en algun conocido politico

Generalmente el lugar común es denostado como herramienta narrativa, es el camino fácil a seguir por el autor cuando, agotada la imaginación, recurre a la imagen más obvia para describir un personaje, hecho o paisaje, encontrar en un texto frases como "negro cual ala de cuervo", "dientes como perlas" o "labios carmesí" es una señal de alarma que advierte al lector acerca de la bien de la pericia con el lenguaje del escritor o bien de la capacidad del mismo para conceder cierta inteligencia a sus lectores.
Sin embargo, hay una definición más amplia, Carlos Fuentes la empleó en Geografía de la novela, en ella se refiere al "lugar común" como un sitio de encuentro, zona donde se le da la oportunidad al espectador de reconocer el mensaje a través de tópicos ya antes tratados, con la novedad de la perspectiva personalísima del autor. La entrega editorial más reciente de Fuentes (Inquieta compañía, Editorial Alfaguara 2004) es un lugar común, seis relatos donde revisa e intenta mexicanizar mitos como fantasmas, ángeles, la bella durmiente e incluso Drácula.
En Inquieta compañía es posible encontrar el mejor y el peor Fuentes, escritor al que resulta difícil juzgarlo por sus logros ya que se da por sentado el lugar que ocupa en la literatura mexicana, bastarían tres libros para establecerlo en el canon nacional (Aura, La muerte de Artemio Cruz y La región más transparente), tanto por sus aciertos como por sus excesos.
Los aciertos son a los que ya nos tiene acostumbrados Fuentes, una prosa clara y directa que da en el blanco especialmente cuando se torna sensual y describe el acto amoroso, es el caso de El amante del teatro, relato donde con una sólida referencia a la obra fílmica de Jean Cocteau, se narra las consecuencias del paso por el paraíso durante el sueño y el despertar del protagonista con una prueba de haber realizado ese viaje, una flor que no se marchita.
En los relatos La gata de mi madre y La buena compañía se sirve de historias de fantasmas para sostener lo siguiente "...en México, a pesar de todas las apariencias de modernidad, nada muere por completo. Es como si el pasado sólo entrase en receso, guardado en un sótano de cachivaches inservibles. Y un buen día, zas, la palabra, el acto, la memoria más inesperada, se hacen presentes, cuadrándose ante nosotros, como un cómico fantasmal, el especto de Cantinflas tricolor que todos los mexicanos llevamos dentro...", y Fuentes abre la puerta al pasado sin superarse a sí mismo, con textos que supeditan la anécdota a la tesis, a intentar desentrañar el misterio de una fe nacional en la que se supone que se siguen adorando dioses prehispánicos ocultos tras el cuadro de la Virgen de Guadalupe; relatos de final abierto que supeditan la lectura a la aceptación de la generalización, un retrato de la mexicanidad para consumo en el extranjero, mercancía para la tienda de mexican curious.
Debe ser sumamente difícil superarse a uno mismo después de escribir Aura, Fuentes no lo consigue con los relatos incluidos en Inquieta compañía, a diferencia de sus obras mayores, en la brevedad de estos textos resalta el talón de Aquiles de este autor: el oído, un sentido que todo parece captarlo, los sonidos de la vida moderna impuestos a un pasado que no termina de irse, con el defecto de que en la traducción, en la escritura, el narrador siempre es Fuentes, siempre masculino y siempre dicta cátedra ante un auditorio dispuesto a creer que México es así como él lo cuenta, sin importar, por ejemplo, que la voz narrativa sea femenina, los intentos de transcribir un lenguaje coloquial se estrellan en modelos narrativos acartonados, el empleo de modismos fuera de moda permiten adivinar un autor lejos de la calle y de las voces que pretende retratar, los personajes hablan con la conciencia plena de ser siempre algo más, conscientes de representar otra cosa su habla se torna discurso. Contraste con la capacidad del autor cuando se demora en describir el acto amoroso o la apariencia física de sus personajes, como en La bella durmiente.
Inquieta compañía, como los libros más recientes de Carlos Fuentes (Instinto de Inez, La frontera de cristal) es un libro para seguidores, se requiere ser fan para no abandonar la lectura de textos como Calixta Brand, de un tiempo a la fecha, al menos en sus libros, el discurso que intenta representar lo mexicano se repite en estereotipos y generalizaciones que a pesar de la fluidez narrativa no dejan de sonar acartonados. No es el mejor Carlos Fuentes, sin embargo, los fans de este autor hemos de encontrar placer en la revisión que el autor hace de la leyenda de Drácula en la novela corta incluida en este volumen: Vlad.
La pericia como escritor de Fuentes se encuentra toda en esta nouvelle, consigue trasladar a Vlad Tepes a la Ciudad de México y actualizarlo rindiendo un homenaje a Bram Stoker, elaborando un Drácula que si bien contiene toda la crueldad que le valió el apodo de El Empalador, en una vuelta de tuerca sorprendente resulta víctima de la inocencia; si por algo vale la pena Inquieta compañía es por esta narración, como fan me doy por satisfecho.

Carlos Fuentes nos regala una mirada a un futuro no tan lejano, desde la perspectiva de los círculos del poder, y especialmente de la política mexicana. Pero va más allá. Es una mirada que se puede extrapolar a las distintas formas del poder político en Latinoamérica, sus intrincadas relaciones, la traición de guante blanco, la hipocresía soslayada.

Un mundo donde incluso la virtud pública y la ética, representadas por Séneca, esconden bajezas personales, miedos y temores. Los diversos relatos son un reflejo de vidas reales, de seres humanos, no de figuras "inmaculadas e intocables".

El recurso de las "cartas" intercambiadas entre los distintos personajes es una apuesta arriesgada, que en sí no da un sustento mayor a la historia (gatillada por un contexto geopolítico y una argumentación tecnológica que hace perder un nivel de credibilidad), que puede confundir por el grado de detalle difícil de encontrar en el género epistolar, pero que es marginal frente a la fuerza de los personajes, los relatos y las relaciones.

Un aspecto interesante son las referencias a las teorías políticas de base. En eso, Carlos Fuentes se da ciertas licencias para destacar sus profundos conocimientos de la teoría política.

Un libro muy recomendable.

This book seemed like nothing more than a weakly masked excuse for Mr. Fuentes to show off his political knowledge and to voice his own political views. The plot was weak at best and the style was absurd.

What I am talking about is that the book is written as a series of letters back and forth from the characters of the story. Maybe this sounds like a clever idea, but the problem is he had no idea how to pull it off, but tried it anyway. The majority of letters are completely unconvicning as letters. In order to make up for the fact that the book contains no direct narrative or dialogs, he has the letter writers describing events in a style and level of detail that would never occur in an actual written letter. This includes telling the letter recipient of conversations by including the word for word dialog along with various literary embelishments, and providing historical background that the reader of the letter would not have needed, obviously to give the reader of the book that back ground. He should have just written it in the normal way and it wouldn't have had the absurd effect that it did.

Finally all of the characters wrote in more or less the same style. While they possessed diferent sets of values and intentions, they all seemed to have about the same personality (perhap that of Mr. Fuentes?).

Worst book I've read in years.

El tema de la última novela del escritor mexicano, Carlos Fuentes, sin duda es apasionante: Como represalia al rechazo del gobierno mexicano a la política exterior norteamericana, el gobierno estadounidense "accidentalmente" deja a México sin sátelite de comunicación, así en pleno año 2022, el vecino al sur de la frontera queda incomunicado sin teléfonos ni Internet, regresando al siglo XIX y al furor epistolar de personajes tan maquiavélicos que harían quedar a los de Relaciones Peligrosas de Laclos, como la Caperucita Roja y Peter Pan, con el agravante de que no están tratando sólo de pasión sino de poder, en esta correspondencia está en juego la sucesión a la presidencia mexicana, y a todos los bienes, riquezas y traiciones que ella conlleva.

Diversos personajes entre ministros, consejeros, ex presidentes, secretarios, jefes de policías, queridas, se cartean los unos con los otros como si fueran señoritas del siglo XIX, para expresar sus emociones y también sus ambiciones. Se tejen artimañas, complots, asesinatos, se declaran odios y deseos carnales sin ningún pudor, y aunque a veces el tono de las cartas es excesivamente narrativo lo cual rompe el efecto de género epistolar, las triquiñuelas políticas de los remitentes son una radiografía perfecta de la historia contemporánea de latinoamerica.

as usual, Fuentes plays the "every-man" of Mexican letters. He writes a fast book with anecdote with the intent of selling issues fast. A quick buck is not always a good one: same for a good BOOK.

Carlos Fuentes, along with Octavio Paz is considered to be one of the literary giants of contemporary Mexico. Old enough to have lived through the PRI's (Mexico's governing party)stronghold on Mexican politics, Fuentes shares his insights and expounds on such diverse topics as the mythology of Pre-Columbian Gods to modern Christianity, all the while tying everything into an historical description of Mexico and it's ruling party. He touches upon La Malinche and Cortes as the parents of modern Mexico. He discusses NAFTA and the future of Mexico including President Zedillo's influence on Mexico and it's international impact. The reading, at times can become a bit dense and esoteric but for anyone interested in the politics of Mexico, with an historical perspective, will find this essential reading. In order to understand the present and future, a solid understanding of the past is needed, according to Fuentes, as he covers all the major time periods of Mexico's past. This book is especially crucial to understanding the impending changes that may be brought about with the election of the countries first non-PRI president in the countries existence. Fuentes contends that the authoritarian government of modern Mexico is linked to the Aztec administrative structures established centuries ago. His writing style is spellbinding and you feel as though a professor is imparting some of his knowledge. According to Fuentes, we must heed Gellner's warning from his book Reason and Culture. "We cannot escape a contingent , history-bound culture, and we caannot vindicate it either". Fuentes has hopes for democracy in Mexico and just maybe with the demise of the PRI, his dreams, and the Mexican peoples may be realized.

This is a wonderful introduction to Mexican history, from the Conquest to the Zapatistas, from a writer almost more comfortable with poetry than prose. Fuentes is the rare intellectual who also speaks out for justice; he recently called upon the Mexican government to stop the militarization of Chiapas and to hold open peace talks. Every American should know at least as much about Mexico as is in this slim and easy to read volume. Salud!

Carlos Fuentes always entertains his readers, sometimes he is more entertaining than others, unfotunately this novel falls into the other category as it is not one of his best works but good nonetheless. However early Fuentes(written in 1967) reveals glimpses of the brilliance that is his mastery of the written language and knowledge of history and philosophy. Ever the observer of his own novels, often in the form of the unknown narrator, Carlos Fuentes looks upon his written creation from afar like a God overseeing his children. Fuentes invokes his trademark rants about Mexico's modern condition juxtaposed with comparisons to the tragic brilliance of it's past and how this past(the conquered nation) has created a future shrouded in skeptcism of it's rulers and a unknown place in the modern world. The novel is like a road movie where the action and dialogues are between people thrown together by fate , each character with different baggage that they want to leave behind in their quest for a new future. Fuentes uses the characters in the novel to display his knowledge of European and Mexican history, sharing his viewpoints in the guise of the characters, sometimes advocating a point only to make the reader think outside of the box. Four people travel in Mexico in a VW for some misadventures.Didn't everyone travel in a VW in the sixties? Franz, the German, allows Fuentes to reveal his thoughts on the holocaust and nazi Germany with flashbacks of Mendelssohn, German expatriates luring in their new found Argentina hideaways with mugs of beer and sausages with mustard and sauerkraut. His girlfriend Isabel or Lizzie as she is often called when not referred to as "pussycat" is the liberated woman who is always looking for something new. The other woman is Elizabeth or Beth who is madly in love with the Mexican Javier who is to wrapped up in his own unsuccessful life to be bothered with her. Javier is older now and reflecting on his ill fated accomplishments. This cast of bohemian vagabonds are as diverse and unlikely a pairing to be on the road together that one wonders how can they stand each others company. That is the beauty of the writting, it is the perfect avenue for an array of thoughts and musings. They are all on the road to find their nirvana like many young people did in the sixties so in that regard it is a nice portrait of life on the road to discovery in the sixties. Carlos Fuentes appears late in the novel as Freddy Lambert, the genius who moves his characters like puppets on a string through the storied history amidst colorful characters like the Dragoness, Morganna , the White Rabbit and others through the dark alleys and streets of Mexico for some good laughs and thought provoking literature. Recommended for a portrait of Carlos Fuentes early on in his brilliant career.

This is a strange, rambling, but entertaining pastiche which is characteristic Fuentes. Even his best works are uneven, and this novel is decidedly so; but Freddy Lambert's narrative drama is sometimes splendid. The plot concerns a group of friends who trade various ideas and histories with one another (as well as sex) on a long journey into a metaphorical past. On the way, there are long asides regarding the conquest of Mexico, fascism, and literature. All goes well until the conclusion: Fuentes inverts the novel by repeating its major incidents with a set of different (and symbolic) characters, in a sequence which is neither insightful nor interesting. In a way, the novel is a very good summation of its author: the man who said "I am abundant," in reference to his virility has always had more ideas that he can edit.

This is a book about remembering. The protagonist is always looking back to the moments in life that changed his perspective. Here is stated the eternal conflict of the innocence of women, which bring us to the anthropological view of the first couple in history. Is it a revenge what women do doing with men? Why are they so difficult to understand? A crystal seal is the connector and symbol of two distant worlds and a third one, the memory of the protagonist. Undoubtly we find a pretty interesting but difficult novel as the new proposal that Carlos Fuentes give us in Instinto de Inez.

I have to start by saying that Fuentes is one of my favourite authors, and I usually enjoy his books, because they immerse me in a parallel world, where nothing is what it seems and yet I recognise everything.
Having said that, I also have to say that Instinto de Inez is not one of his greatest works. It is confusing, the characters are very shallow and unbelievable, and the stories seem to have no beginning and no end... which is sometimes good, but it doesn't work in this case.

I also have to say that Fuentes still writes beautifully, he is a virtous writer and his choice of words is exceptional, but all in all, I wouldn't reccommend this book unless you are a true fan; but if you are just getting to know him, please read Aura, magical realism at its best!(...)

Not one of the "cameos" in this book is more that a page or two or (rarely) three. Many are less than one page. After a while, this book becomes simply frustrating; lacking depth, completeness and continuity. I found it monotonous and superficial.

Five stars-- this book entertains as well as educates even if the education is mostly on a superflous level.

While on bed rest with one of my pregnancies, one of my girlfriends loaned me this. Like Kirkus Reviews indicates, it is full of triavialities and stupid tidbits. But what fun they are to read! No, I couldn't call up my girlfriends and gossip about these things-- not many 25 year olds know a lot about Gloria Swanson or have heard about the movers and shakers of two generations ago. It was fascinating to read of someone's life while in the midst of the people who were defining her era (including Fleur Cowles, herself.) Her contemporaries were true stars, people whose influence is still looked to by the flash-in-a-pan celebrities of today. She dined with Royalty when they were still powerful and knew people who had affairs that would make Bubba blush, but had enough class to be discreet about them.

From someone who lives on "the other side" I cannot help but wish I had some of this woman's problems and scrapes, not to mention her panache at dealing with my own! Martha Stewart, on gracious living, doesn't hold a candle up to Fleur Cowles and for that matter-- I don't think that anyone does or ever will!

Mexico is the major character in this first novel by Carlos Fuentes. It helps to be enamored of Mexico or interested in the history and politics of Central and Latin America. It's a hard read; I found it a rewarding, often entertaining and above all enlightening one. By the way, the original Spanish title is "La Region Mas Transparente," quite different from the English translation.

Considered by many to be Fuentes' all-time masterpiece, Where the Air is Clear (1958), his first novel, takes you on a roller-coaster tour of post-revolutionary Mexican urban history. It's all there, from roughneck taxi drivers and prostitues trying to make their daily bread, to bored members of a fading aristocracy, of which only the double-barreled names remain. The novel's diverse characters meet and unmeet in a bizarre range of social situations, ever-observed by the Spanish-Indigenous hybrid Ixca Cienfuegos. Cienfuegos, a type of Greek Chorus character who watches the ups and downs of the novel's cast like a mad-scientist doing an experiment, doesn't hesitate to drop in for a chat to the characters, provoking them to pour out their hearts in sometimes tedious monologues. If you have a basic grasp of Mexico's history you'll understand this novel better, although if you don't know the history, a stack of not too subtle symbols will help you out. (A young member of a once aristocratic family looks at herself in a mirror, while Vivaldi plays on a scratched record in the background. That kind of thing.) Don't take this novel to the beach, it ain't a beach novel. Argentine writer Julio Cortazar, in a letter to Fuentes after reading the book, summed it up: ``You've given in to the magnificent sin committed by so many first-time novel writers..you've put a whole world into 500 pages.'' A rare Latin American urban epic, this book is certainly worth reading for anyone with an interest in the Mexican psyche. If you want to see how the thinking behind Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of Solitude would work, applied to a TV mini-series, and have a few days to spare, give it a go.