The Death of Artemio Cruz

by Carlos Fuentes

Book Overview

As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed and, in dreamlike flashes, recalls the pivotal episodes of his life. Carlos Fuentes manipulates the ensuing kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon memory, from Cruz's heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution, through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy death. Perhaps Fuentes's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374531803
• ISBN13: 9780374531805
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

The out-of-print version is BETTER

If you love literature then let me suggest that you purchase the "out-of-print" translation from one of the third party sellers. I read this book in a class and half the class read the older translation, the other half the new one. We voted hands down for the older translation. The new translation is good, but it simplifies a lot of the text and is mising the flair and use of complex figurative language of the older version.

Make it Work for You

The book was beautifully written, the plot was interesting, and the character development went above and beyond most books. So why is there such controversy over this book? Well it is easy to say, this is not your cruise vacation book to read while laying by the beach. The first chapter will have you kicking and screaming for anything tangible to grab onto. The only person in this book you have to guide you is Artemio Cruz, who is sharing with you his memories. However, he isn't always the most stable guide. Half the book he is on his deathbed rambling, switching tenses and narratives. So that is the first warning. However if you are willing to invest some time, you can find an entire new meaning to life within this book. If you can't invest the time, go out and rent Citizen Kane, you'll get the gist in about two hours, rather then the month minimum you'll need to get this book. Even after rereading it, the book leaves dozens of pieces in the book isolated and unconnected. (In fact we never how Artemio gets from being 13 to 23, and if you read the book you'll know why this is important and frustrating). So what does this book have to offer besides several headaches and why in the world did I give it five stars? Well I could throw a lot of pretty adjectives out at you, but I won't. I will tell it to you simply. This book makes you think. And not in the painful way. If you fight this book, you will never get it. If you embrace it, even in it's most challenging passages, you will be opened to a whole new world of ideas. Ideas about memory, desire, life, death, and our place within society are embedded in this story. Bottom line: This story is like an excavation site waiting to be dug up, hidden with endless treasures. If you are willing to put in the time, you won't be disappointed. If that sounds like too much work, move right along then.

Excellent

The book truly is a beautiful piece of literature. As with any book of its stature, one must force themself to look past the plot-- an attempt to do so will end in frustration and ambivalence. The book examines the complex life of a corrupt Mexican elite during the time of revolution. However, it does not attempt to create sympathy for Artemio but rather casts a great critique on the overall mechanisms of judgement. The book is very honest, and Fuentes does not hesitate to confuse the reader. The reader below who says the book made him realize his taste is better than that of his professors is obviously trapped in adolescent frustration and ignoring the intent of the novel. Do not read this for plot. Although at times the action is exciting and suspenseful, any attempt to read for plot will result in confusion and frustration. The book is not easy to read. Ultimately, however, the experience proves to be more than worthwhile.

A masterpiece to remember

As an intersection of two major themes - the illusion of independence pictured in a faint bourgeois environment (Las Buenas Conciencias, 1959) and the nightmare of transculturation in contemporary life (La Región Más Transparente, 1958), La Muerte De Artemio Cruz (1962) rebuilds mexican history on the ruins of individual and social consciousness. The protagonist (the "yo" instance) is led to seek the truth in his own past, while the voice of memory ("tú") recalls the origins of a betrayed revolution ("él", the stream of historical action) and gives the dying man the last chance to imagine how things might have been from another point of view: the wish of community, a future raised by plural needs and dreams - "nosotros". From the epigraphs to the end of the novel, death and memory join forces to restore that manifold identity, stifled by Artemio's overwhelming projects. The physical death of Artemio corresponds to the rebirth of mexican history as a social body made of facts but also of feelings and emotions, concealed under the rough mask of authority. Throughout the text the feminine figures accomplish this mission as well, reflecting, like mirrors (so often mentioned in this book), the reality Artemio wants to deny. Four women - Regina, Catalina, Lilia y Laura - symbolize different periods of Artemio's life strongly attached to main revolutionary commotions (from the beginnings to their later political and economic metamorphose). In each one of them, financial ascent and physical/moral degradation are but one painful and irreversible process. All these symbolic elements converge to the final scenes: the fulfillment of collective destiny in the death of his son Lorenzo; the recognition of social fountainhead through the analogous images of Artemio's mother, Isabel Cruz, and the mythical representation of La Chingada. At the end, the two most important moments of Artemio's life stick together: his birth and his death. All the lapse between these extremes is a synesthetic confluence of multiple perceptions, where past and future switch sides, creating what Jacques le Goff called "the ontological rule of historicity": the rescue of memory as freedom.

Obra Maestra

Esta novela fue mi introducción a García Márquez...su eso de adjetivos, impresionante...la historia, dios mío!