Obras reunidas II. La capital mexicana. (Collected Works 2: Mexico City)
Reviewed by María Elena Cruz, New York City -- Críticas, 1/15/2008
Fuentes, Carlos.
ed. by Julio Ortega. Mexico/U.S.: Fondo de Cultura Económica. 2007. 593p. ISBN 978-968-16-8392-4. $40. FICTION
This is the second book in Fondo de Cultura’s project of compiling all of Carlos Fuentes’s works into thematic volumes. Subtitled La Capital Mexicana (“The Mexican Capital”), the volume includes one novel, La region más transparente (Where the Air Is Clear) and one book of short stories, Agua quemada (Burnt Water). Originally published in 1958, La region is considered by many Fuentes’s masterpiece and is undoubtedly the work that made him famous. For the first time, this novel dealt with Mexico’s post-revolutionary reality and explored the difficulties of defining what Mexico is as a nation and as a collective idea. It depicts Mexico City as a living entity that, given its diversity, is impossible to pin down. Agua quemada, published in 1981, succeeds in exploring the complexity of life in Mexico City through four stories that expose the social ills that plague it, including violence, poverty, and prostitution. What makes this volume special, besides its providing a thematic common denominator, is the introduction by Carlos Monsiváis, a prominent essayist and expert on Mexico City’s history and Mexican popular culture. Pedro Ángel Palou’s epilog to La region and Steve Boldy’s introduction to Agua quemada offer further insight into one of the greatest Latin American writers. This volume, and the entire collection, is essential for all libraries and bookstores.
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