En esto creo. (In This I Believe)

Reviewed by Mar�a E. Cruz, New York City -- Críticas, 5/15/2008

CLASSIC RETURNS
Fuentes, Carlos.
Mexico/U.S.: Alfaguara: Santillana. 2008. 365p. ISBN 978-970-58-0087-0. $19.99.
ESSAYS

REVIEWED WITH:
Cantar de ciegos.
(To Sing of the Blind)
Fuentes, Carlos.
Mexico/U.S.: Alfaguara: Santillana. 2008. 232p. ISBN 978-970-74-90178. $16.95.
STORIES

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Fuentes’s La región más transparente del aire (1958; Where the Air Is Clear), Alfaguara is reprinting 34 of the author’s works with a new format and under Fuentes’s supervision. Originally published in 1964, Cantar de ciegos (To Sing of the Blind) is an anthology of seven short stories, some of which are considered Fuentes’s best works. “La muñeca reina” (“The Queen Doll”) is a poetic narration about a man haunted by his childhood memories of a beautiful girl he used to play with at a park. He decides to look for her with the hope of a romantic encounter now that both are grown up, but he finds out that she died as a girl, and the story turns surreal when he realizes his parents have erected a shrine to her. Meanwhile, En esto creo (2002; In This I Believe) is a collection of essays about what Fuentes considers to be most important for him. Organized like a dictionary, this book contains Fuentes’s deepest thoughts and memories about friendship, family, God, love, Kafka, Mexico, the Quixote, and more. The essays, beautifully written in Fuentes’s characteristic poetic prose, each gives some insight into his life. Alfaguara´s project gives the books a much needed makeover; however, these new editions do not add any analysis or introduction to Fuentes’s writings (as does Fondo de Cultura’s compilation Obras Reunidas I: Fundaciones mexicanas). This new collection also includes two books, Cuentos naturales and Cuentos sobrenaturales, reorganizing Fuentes’s best short stories into “realistic” and “surreal” tales. The second contains three stories that have never been published in an anthology. Other books in this collection published earlier this year are: Gringo viejo (1985; The Old Gringo), La cabeza de la hidra (1978; The Hydra Head), La frontera de cristal (1995; The Crystal Frontier), and La región más transparente (1958; Where the Air Is Clear). This collection is highly recommended for bookstores and general fiction collections; academic libraries may prefer editions that provide critical insight about Fuentes’s prolific works.