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Title: Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela ISBN: 0-14-026621-6 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I do not agree with Vince
Comment: I do not agree with you teh review given by Vince Cabrera. First of all, although the Laberynth of Solitude is indeed a great book. I consider that Octavio Paz enhanced Los de Abajo. Tell me if I am wrong, but many folkloric characteristics of mexicans are brightly depicted in Los de Abajo. For instance, you may see that macho man behavior in every protagonist of the story; the fact that for many people the mexican revolution was a disoriented fight, and even the bad words that are used...
I think this is a very good book. However, I do not recommend it to everyone because understanding it, fully, requires a little bit of mexican cultural immersion to know more deeply what they are talking about. Oh yeah, and interest fact is that one of the protagonist of the story has a MANY similarities compared to Mariano Azuela, many people that this book was something lik eis autobiography. (although he does not explicitely says so)
Rating: 5
Summary: My two cents
Comment: More than a review this is a comment to those who wrote reviews before me.
First of all, this is NOT a history book. If you're interested in learning about the Mexican Revolution pick up a history book.
Second of all, you didn't get the point. It's not about the life of rural Mexico, or how people lived, or how they lost their ideals. It's about joining "la bola" the mass of people fighting for no particular reason. The "campesinos" didn't really join the fight because they believed they were getting land and freedom, they joined because they believed in their leaders, joining the fight for the love of their "jefe" or simply to join "la bola".
I'm sure many of you will disagree with me, and I'm sure there were exceptions to what I'm saying, but I'm only commenting on what Mariano Azuela was trying to get across; don't forget, Azuela fought in the war.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Comment: This is quite a good Spanish-language novel about how war changes people.
The characters, simple hill folk, are slowly but surely sucked up into the Mexican civil war rapidly becoming more and more callous toward the very people they are supposed to be representing.
They become the stuff of legend but along the way they betray every one of their ideals, falling in with murderous and deranged fellow-travellers until they finally become practically undistinguishable from the Federales they have set out to defeat.
"Los De Abajo" is rather vague on historical detail and there is practically no attempt to show the reader "the big picture" or the background to the war, but in a way, this doesn't really matter. This is a book about ALL wars. The powerful live off the powerless and the poor are murdered and downtrodden no matter who is in power.
It SOUNDS like a pretty good read, and it is. The only problem I have with this book is that I'd already read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" where the subject of war and the way it corrupts is given a much better treatment.
On the positive side, where "One Hundred Years" is concerned with the one character, "Los De Abajo" has a lot more "vignettes" showing the common people and their attitude toward the civil war. The writer also has a good ear for dialogue (although at times, the poorer characters are a bit hard to understand). The descriptions of the revolutionary armies, gaudy, barbaric and bloodthirsty but so very much alive are also quite good.
All in all, "Los De Abajo" is a good if somewhat bitter and depressing book which could have been better, but it's still well worth reading.
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Title: La muerte de Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes ISBN: 0140255826 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: El laberinto de la soledad by Octavio Paz ISBN: 0140258833 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, Margaret Sayers Peden, Margaret S. Paden ISBN: 0802133908 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 1994 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Los pasos perdidos by Alejo Carpentier ISBN: 0140261931 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel García Márquez ISBN: 843760494X Publisher: Ediciones Catedra Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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