Description
This landmark novellaโone of the central texts of Mexican literature, is eerily relevant to our current dark timesโoffers a childโs-eye view of a society beset by dictators, disease, and natural disasters, set in โthe year of polio, foot-and-mouth disease, floods.โ A middle-class boy grows up in a world of children aping adults (mock wars at recess pit Arabs against Jews), where a childโs left to ponder โhow many evils and catastrophes we have yet to witness.โ When Carlos laments the cruelty and corruption, the evils of a vicious class system, his older brother answers: โSo what, we are living up to our ears in shit anyway under Miguel Alemรกnโs regime,โ with โthe face of El Senor Presidente everywhere: incessant, private abuse.โ Sound familiar?
Woven into this coming-of-age saga is the terribly intense love Carlos cherishes for his friendโs young mother, which has the effect of driving the general cruelties further under the readerโs skin. The acclaimed translator Katherine Silver has greatly revised her original translation, enlivening afresh this remarkable work.
Woven into this coming-of-age saga is the terribly intense love Carlos cherishes for his friendโs young mother, which has the effect of driving the general cruelties further under the readerโs skin. The acclaimed translator Katherine Silver has greatly revised her original translation, enlivening afresh this remarkable work.
Battles in the Desert (40th Anniversary Edition) by Jose Emilio Pacheco, Katherine Silver (Translated by)