The Donkey Inside (Armchair Traveller Series)

Rating:
Summary: Great reading and a start for "realismo mágico"
Review: Bemelmans' account of his trip to Ecuador in the 30's is not only very readable material, amusing and instructive, but can be considered the first example of what we now call "magical realism."

His narrative of his multiple encounters in South America as the second world war was developing in its initial stages clearly exemplifies the difficulties for reality to adapt itself to a fast changing world.

Much more than a travel book, "The Donkey Inside" (forbidden in Ecuador when it first appeared there, back in 1941) is also a powerful tool to understand a very conflictive period in that country's history.

Pedro Saad Ecuadorian Historian