Author Fuentes's Book
Reviews
Aura
An unemployed and intellectual young man, Felipe Montero, finds a job which fulfills his economic needs: an old widow is looking for someone to transcript, make grammar corrections and edit the diaries of her late husband, a military man. Felipe moves to the widow's mansion to live there for a while and he meets a caretaker named Aura. Passions arise between the two as Felipe progresses in his work, and mysterious events (noises, appearances) make Felip...
The Crystal Frontier
In this novel made of nine short stories, the Barroso family dominates commerce along the Mexican border with the US. The leading character, Leonardo Barroso, has made a fortune out of this, and we see how much his doings have affected the life of Mexicans. One character goes looking for a job and suffers harrassment from his employers, another one tries to get into the US with the help of the 'espaldas mojadas' (wet backs) and is killed trying. Finally,...
The Old Gringo
Ambrose Bierce was a famous American writer who in real life disappeared around the time of the Mexican Revolution. In this novel, he goes as an old man to Mexico, with his ultimate goal of dying there. ("To be a gringo in Mexico, ah, that is euthanasia," he says.) Although he has his writer's credential, he seeks out a revolutionists' encampment in Chihuahua in order to join the army, rather than just reporting the story, like other Americans who went ...
