Items related to The Years with Laura Diaz
The story of Laura Diaz, following her life from 1905 to 1978, and filled with the sounds and colours, tastes and scents of Mexico. We see Laura as she grows into a politically committed artist who is also a wife and mother, a lover of great men, and a complicated and alluring heroine.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of 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.
Review:
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
"A masterwork imbued with historical anecdotes, mystical imagery and revelations about human existence ..."-Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Reading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . .."-The Denver Post
"Fuentes's style has never been so sharp. Characters, settings and circumstances are vividly defined . . . engrossing in content, illuminating in context."-The Miami Herald
"Reading this magnificent novel is like standing beneath the dome of the Sistine Chapel. . . .."-The Denver Post
"Fuentes's style has never been so sharp. Characters, settings and circumstances are vividly defined . . . engrossing in content, illuminating in context."-The Miami Herald
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherFarrar Straus Giroux
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0374988366
- ISBN 13 9780374988364
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
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