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Rating: 
Summary: A Little Gem
Review: A wonderful, engrossing, stylishly written, suspenseful, compact gem of a book. But after reading it, I was shocked to find the average customer rating to be 3 stars. This was based on just 2 reviews, one giving it 5 stars and the other 1 star. I suggest that an average rating not be given when the number of reviews is so small, where the effect of just one negative review (which I find in this case to be completely unjustified) can be devastating and misleading to potential readers.
Rating:
Summary: Gringo Viejo- Carlos Fuentes
Review: An absolute gem of a book. Fuentes manages to transcribe the imagined fate of a renowned American writer in the vast and culturally distant Mexican desert into a tale of breathtaking astuteness and insight. By concentrating on the inner struggle faced by three characters all at vastly different stages of turmoil and decay in their respective soulful ventures. Fuentes manages to incorporate the wide ranging animosity and ignorance with which the Gringos and the Mexicans view each other. Acutely emotive without being overly indulgent he takes us to the dark recesses of the multi faceted characters dreams and memories. Far from being two dimensional pawns in his pocket as the unobservant Jim Carr believes, the three main characters inculcate and yet struggle to expand on the learned views they have been disposed to concerning at differing times their comrade, lover and enemy. There is no fanciful happy ending, nor is there unnecessary despondency. Instead Fuentes makes the reader question his or hers own view concerning death, travel and ones place in a world seemingly full of contradictions. An absolute must read for anyone striving to understand ones quest for glory and also what is is like to be bound by ones innate duty.
Rating: 
Summary: diverting speculation
Review: Goodbye, if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico--ah, that is euthanasia! -Ambrose Bierce in a letter to a friend In 1914, the great American journalist and short story writer Ambrose Bierce, age 71, traveled to a Mexico that was in the midst of Revolution and promptly disappeared. He thereby fulfilled the dark prediction above and provided one of the great literary mysteries of the 20th Century. In The Old Gringo, Carlos Fuentes offers his take on Bierce's fate. An "Old Gringo", carrying just a couple of his own books, a copy of Don Quixote, a clean shirt and a Colt .44, joins a group of Mexican rebels under General Tomas Arroyo. In turn, they meet up with a young American school teacher named Harriet Winslow, who was supposed to tutor the children of the wealthy landowner who illegally holds Arroyo's family property. The three become enmeshed in an unlikely romantic triangle, which necessarily ends in tragedy. Fuentes uses the story to explore a plethora of themes, some of which I followed and some of which I could not. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the degree to which it reflects Latin American obsession with the United States, an obsession which it must be admitted is met by only a fleeting interest on our part. Fuentes and the tragic chorus of Mexican characters elevate the tale of the Old Gringo to the status of myth; ironic, since Bierce is barely remembered here, but then one of his themes is that we are a people without memory, while the very soil of Mexico carries memories. It all adds up to a diverting speculation about an interesting historical puzzle, but I'm not sure that the story will bear all of the psychological and political weight that Fuentes loads upon it. GRADE: C+
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing story
Review: I've always wondered what happened to Ambrose Bierce. He's one of my favorite short story writers -- his war stories are pretty hard to beat and his satires are the epitome of sarcasm. Given my love of Bierce's work, I had to read Carlos Fuentes's novel which weaves a story around Bierce's trip to Mexico to fight alongside Pancho Villa. The story centers around the Old Man or Old Gringo (who is not openly identified as Ambrose Bierce until the end) and his relationship with a young single American woman, Harriet, and General Tomas Arroyo. Harriet is a frustrated, emotionally lost woman who has accepted a job tutoring children at a hacienda. When she arrives at the estate, it has been abandoned. Almost immediately, the estate is commandeered by Tomas Arroyo and his band of rebels. Old Gringo (who has absolutely no fear of death and, as a result, performs impressive acts of bravery) has asked to join Arroyo's band. The Old Man has conflicted, confused feelings for both Harriet and Arroyo. To him, they are his daughter and son. At the same time, he desires Harriet and desires death even more. (...). All is told in stream of consciousness narration. Fuentes has a way with words and is terrific with character development. The story is very, very slow-paced and the end is abrupt and disappointing, but reading it is still fun because the words are so poetic. Harriet's stream of consciousness is unsettling to say the least. I wish Fuentes had put a little more Bierce into the character of the Old Gringo...but, hey, Old Gringo went to Mexico to lose himself, so the vague characterization serves a purpose. Over all, the story is a nice fantasy.
Rating: 
Summary: Fuentes sleepwalks to disaster
Review: It's like Fuentes wrote "The Old Gringo" in his sleep. Or maybe something was lost in the translation. But I couldn't think of a worse way to commemorate the memory of Ambrose Bierce than this book. Bierce was the proud and cantankerous alcoholic Civil War writer, famous to his contemporaries as the author of the "Devil's Dictionary." More famous to us as the author of "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge." By any standards, Bierce is a cynic and hard-nosed realist. Here, for example, is the "Devil's Dictionary" entry for "Laughter": "An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable." In "The Old Gringo," Fuentes imagines what happened to Bierce when he disappeared in Mexico during the revolution around the turn of the 20th century. In the book, Bierce is an old tough guy who can shoot pesos in midair, and who seeks his death at the hands of Pancho Villa, the infamous Mexican bandit. In addition, there's a young American schoolteacher to woo, an angry young rebel general, and lots of booze and spicy food. And lots of Freudian sex (as the schoolteacher pretends her lover is her father). And the whole thing is written in poor stream-of-consciousness style. Bierce must be writhing in his grave. Read "The Death of Artemio Cruz" for Fuentes' work of genius. "The Old Gringo" misses its mark.
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Summary: Fuentes sleepwalks to disaster
Review: It's like Fuentes wrote "The Old Gringo" in his sleep. Or maybe something was lost in the translation. But I couldn't think of a worse way to commemorate the memory of Ambrose Bierce than this book. Bierce was the proud and cantankerous alcoholic Civil War writer, famous to his contemporaries as the author of the "Devil's Dictionary." More famous to us as the author of "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge." By any standards, Bierce is a cynic and hard-nosed realist. Here, for example, is the "Devil's Dictionary" entry for "Laughter": "An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable." In "The Old Gringo," Fuentes imagines what happened to Bierce when he disappeared in Mexico during the revolution around the turn of the 20th century. In the book, Bierce is an old tough guy who can shoot pesos in midair, and who seeks his death at the hands of Pancho Villa, the infamous Mexican bandit. In addition, there's a young American schoolteacher to woo, an angry young rebel general, and lots of booze and spicy food. And lots of Freudian sex (as the schoolteacher pretends her lover is her father). And the whole thing is written in poor stream-of-consciousness style. Bierce must be writhing in his grave. Read "The Death of Artemio Cruz" for Fuentes' work of genius. "The Old Gringo" misses its mark.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite possibly the worst book I have ever read
Review: No plot...hard to understand...a total snore fest...If u care about whoever Carlos Fuentes is writing about...go ahead, read it...but don't blame me if you fall asleep...horrible...horrible
Rating:
Summary: Gringos who know Mexico should read this book.
Review: The fate of Ambrose Bierce may fascinate literate Americans, but this novel sure won't. Fuentes is on auto pilot, reprising all the tricks that have worked for years and meanwhile the three main characters never move past being two dimensional cliches. One bonus, however: a scene that is a sure nominee for the annual Bad Sex Writing awards.
Rating:
Summary: I'll Never Eat Guacemole Again.
Review: Usually things I read don't bother me, no matter how absurd or disgusting they are. I'm an English major, and I've read enough to not be shocked by much. But then there comes The Old Gringo. What shocks me about The Old Gringo isn't really the events of the plot. As far as a story goes, this is just pretty dull and wouldn't offend. The writing, however, is shocking. I don't know if it's the translation or what, but there is some really absurd writing in here. The guy actually wrote the following image (I'm recalling this sentence, but I know this is still pretty accurate): "Arroyo's testicles were like furry little avocados." This isn't even the dumbest image in the book. The sex scenes throughout are similarly hilarious. Fuentes writes half of the book about sex, and the terms he describes it in are either cliched or are as laughable as the avacado image.
Anyway, I'm giving this book two stars because, even though the writing made me cringe when I read it, it makes me laugh now. There are probably a few things in the book that are profound, too. But I generally can't remember them for all the absurdity throughout.
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