Where, Carlos Fuentes asks, is a modern-day vampire to roost? Why not Mexico City, populated by ten million blood sausages (that is, people), and a police force who won't mind a few disappearances?
Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012) was one of the most influential and
celebrated voices in Latin American literature. He was the author
of 24 novels, including "Aura", "The Death of Artemio Cruz", "The
Old Gringo" and "Terra Nostra", and also wrote numerous plays,
short stories, and essays. He received the 1987 Cervantes Prize,
the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.
Fuentes was born in Panama City, the son of Mexican parents, and
moved to Mexico as a teenager. He served as an ambassador to
England and France, and taught at universities including Harvard,
Princeton, Brown and Columbia. He died in Mexico City in 2012. The
author of more than a dozen novels and story collections, Carlos
Fuentes is Mexico's most celebrated novelist and critic. He has
received numerous honors and awards throughout his lifetime,
including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize and the Latin Literary
Prize. Included among his books are "Terra Nostra, Where the Air Is
Clear", and "Distant Relations".
The noted Mexican author provides a modern update of Dracula in which the Count moves to Mexico City in search of fresh blood. A lawyer has been assigned to find Vlad a very special home with tunnels, drains, and blacked-out windows. The attorney's wife locates the perfect house...and discovers some horrifying information about their new client. There is a satisfying mixture of old-world descriptive writing and contemporary horror-listeners will never look at a squirrel the same way again-and reader Robert Fass does an expert job of keeping the sometimes clunky narrative from overpowering the truly gut-churning terror. The ending is unexpected; credit goes to Fass for keeping readers guessing right up to the very last sentence. VERDICT Recommended for large public libraries and academic collections. ["For those who like the gothic or who are diehard Fuentes fans, go for it, but for others it may be more appropriate to pay him a fitting tribute in light of his recent passing by rereading some of his classics (The Death of Artemio Cruz or Old Gringo) and pass on this one," read the review of the Dalkey Archive hc, LJ 7/12.-Ed.]-Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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