Years With Laura Diaz Pa - Softcover

Fuentes, Carlos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156007568 ISBN 13: 9780156007566

Publisher: Harvest, 2001

Synopsis

A radiant family saga set in a century of Mexican history, by one of the world's greatest writers.

Carlos Fuentes's hope-filled new novel sees the twentieth century through the eyes of Laura D'az, a woman who becomes as much a part of our history as of the Mexican history she observes and helps to create. Born in 1898, this extraordinary woman grows into a wife and mother, becomes the lover of great men, and, before her death in 1972, is celebrated as a politically committed artist. A complicated and alluring heroine, she lives a happy life despite the tragedies and losses she experiences, for she has borne witness to great changes in her country's life, and she has loved and understood with unflinching honesty.

In his most important novel in decades, Carlos Fuentes has created a world filled with brilliantly colored scenes and heartbreaking dramas. The result is a novel of subtle, penetrating insight and immense power.

About this title

Review

A millennial novel with centennial breadth, The Years with Laura Diaz follows one woman through the 20th century in Mexico, witnessing its political upheavals, technological advances and bitterly uneven social and artistic progress. Born on her grandfather Don Felipe's coffee plantation at Catemaco in 1898, Laura knows both the privilege of wealth and its limitations. Her parents, Leticia and Fernando, live apart, prudently waiting until Fernando can support his family in the larger town of Veracruz.

In Veracruz, Laura finds a focus for her own youthful longing after the death of her half-brother Santiago, whose clandestine aid to the anarchist-syndicalists led to his execution. She embraces the revolution, and, hoping to avoid the fate of her virgin aunts, marries a solemn, dark-skinned, working-class hero. "The active life was preferable", Laura concluded at the ripe age of 22. For a woman, inevitably, this means "a life committed to another life". A daughter, a wife and then a mother, Laura is more or less dragged along by history. Eventually she must sacrifice not only Santiago but her own son and grandson to the violent game of musical chairs that is Mexican political life. Perhaps because of the almost laughable instability of power in Mexico, Fuentes is compelled to devote much of his narrative energy to explaining the rapid changes of guard--presidential assassinations succeeded by coups followed by questionable elections.

Given the time span and the gravity of occurrences this epic covers, it is no surprise that the character of Laura often seems to stand still while events and people move around her. Because of this, perhaps, The Years with Laura Diaz is not the clearest articulation of Fuentes's historical vision, nor his most moving work. Its emotional power is cumulative, however, and few readers will be able to put the novel down after the first 100 pages. --Regina Marler

Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvest
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0156007568
• ISBN 13: 9780156007566
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528