Description:
These virtuoso stories by the great Chilean writer show passion and politics, hope and disillusionment in the New World, ranging from the Conquistadors to the present day and from Santiago to New York and California.
Brief description: DONALD L. SCHMIDT (1941-2009) enjoyed a long and prestigious career as Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at the University of Colorado at Denver. His translations include short works by Antonio Skármeta, José Agustín and Augusto Salazar Bondy. He co-edited José Agustín: Onda and Beyond (1986) and published many articles on Spanish American narrative and drama.
Review Quotes:
"Skármeta [is], in the best sense, a celebratory writer....The stories themselves constantly affirm the pleasures of living in a painful world with your eyes wide open."
THE INDEPENDENT, London"The best stories in this interesting collection from one of Chile's top writers depict the paranoia of day-to-day life under the Pinochet regime."
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER"In his fiction, Skármeta attempts what history has not yet been able to do in the contested reality of Chile: bring together the fragments of the country. He consistently tries to merge experimental linguistic structures, sophisticated literary elaboration, with earthy, everyday creativity of ordinary people."
THE VILLAGE VOICE"In Skármeta's stories there is the same radiant humanism that characterises his novels... and his depth of insight into the brave stamina of his own people.... [Whether set in Santiago, New York, Portugal, San Francisco] his writing is the human being's "journey towards his own roots, which are in no other place than right there, beneath the soles of your damned shoes" - and it throbs with a love of life and people."
MORNING STAR, London"Drawing on Hemingway and Steinbeck, Skármeta has created a perfectly balanced collection of stories whose beauty lies in their ability to transcend the merely parochial: ...the Chilean experience does not intrude upon the universal themes.... The transition from Conquistador to present-day poet is effortless.... These are the best stories I have read for a very long time."
CITY LIMITS, London"An off-the-wall collection of short stories by an exciting Chilean writer, grappling with issues ranging through family, relationships, nationality, and the experience of being an alien.... Fresh, urgent and pacy...."BRITISH BULLETIN OF PUBLICATIONS ON LATIN AMERICA