The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories

Rating:
Summary: must have
Review: "The vintage book of Latin American Stories" is a must have. Ever story in this book deserves individual praise. There are a couple of stories that stand out above the others.

One of these stories is "The Aleph" by Jorge Luis Borges. In this story, Borges tackles the concept of "the Aleph" which is perceived as everything that exists as well as everything that does not. It opens the mind to the perception of human knowledge and the concept of knowing "everything."

Another great story in this book is "Blow up" by Julio Cortazar. His style of writing captivates the mind even when the story is about a photograph. But the story is not just about the photograph but also about the emotions and actions in and behind the photograph.

Although these two stories alone are worth more than the value asked for book, another story that deserves to be mentioned is "Luvina" by Juan Rulfo. The descriptive qualities shown by the author are extraordinary. The way the town of Luvina is described actually reconstructs the town in the readers mind. Whether that is good or not is an open question.

The rest of the short stories are just as valuable as the mentioned. The book is a really must have.

Rating:
Summary: Most certainly 'vintage'
Review: These stories are a good start in learning about the Latin American story-telling tradition.

Rating:
Summary: Lost in the translation
Review: This book is an eclectic collection of surrealistic short stories. Many of the stories have an odd, nightmare-like quality to them. The language does not flow like in most short stories, and this may be a problem intrinsic in reading a story that has been translated. It takes considerable effort to get through these stories.