The Book of Lamentations (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) [Mass Market Paperback]

Rosario Castellanos (Author)

Book Description

Series: Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin | Publication Date: August 1, 1998

A masterpiece of contemporary Latin American fiction, Rosario Castellanos' Book of Lamentations tells of an uprising of Mayan Indians in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Based on episodes from actual Mayan uprisings in 1712 and 1868, the novel merges a wealth of historical information and local detail into a vision of the nature of oppression that is universal in scope.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thirty years before the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas brought this little-known corner of Mexico to the world's notice, Mexican author Rosario Castellanos created a similar rebellion in her 1962 novel The Book of Lamentations. Castellanos has framed her story, which is set in the 1930s, around an actual 1860s uprising of Maya Indians against the Chiapan white ruling class. History and fiction meld seamlessly, mainly because conditions in the Chiapas Castellanos knew as a child hadn't changed much in the intervening 70 years; as late as the 1920s, impoverished Indians still served as mules, carrying white landowners strapped to their backs.

The book's title is apt; Castellanos casts an unflinching eye on the effects of oppression, ignorance, and misery. The central characters, motivated variously by desperation, superstition, or ambition, may not be admirable, but they are all too human. In the end, a rebellion culminating in the grisly crucifixion of a child is doomed to failure. Although The Book of Lamentations is not a pleasant book, in an age where history seems increasingly to be repeating itself in Asia, in the Balkans, in Mexico, and elsewhere, it is a deeply instructive one. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

A classic of Mexican literature since its publication in 1962, this historical epic appears in its first English translation with fortuitous timing. It takes place in the impoverished southern Mexican state of Chiapas, where, since 1994, Mayan rebels known as the Zapatistas have won sympathetic media attention for their grievances against the Mexican government. Castellanos (1925-1974) takes events that occurred in 1712 and 1868 and resets them in the 1930s to create a complex tale of race, class and gender. Constructing an entire provincial society, she portrays macho landowners, exploited Indians, submissive wives, misguided politicians and corrupt religious officials clashing with one another and among themselves in a thirst for power. At the center of the landowners' elite circle is political aspirant Leonardo Cifuentes, who incites fear and hatred of the Indians, claiming they pollute the region's civic, moral and religious values. The indigenous community, long abused by the landowners, revolves around Catalina, an ilol, or prophet, who instigates a rebellion when she creates a cult around three stone idols. The major confrontation occurs at Easter, when indigenos crucify a boy conceived in a rape of a young Indian girl by Cifuentes years before. The novel features intriguing interior monologues and indirect discourse, but the third-person omniscient narration doesn't quite unite the many characters and plot lines or satisfactorily compress the immense volume of historical detail into digestible form. Still, this is an always panoramic and often moving novel that brings Mexico's turmoil to complex, tragic life. (Dec.) FYI: In 1974, Castellanos was electrocuted while trying to plug in a lamp in Israel, where she served as Mexico's ambassador.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Open market ed edition (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014118003X
• ISBN-13: 978-0141180038
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A shocking, enlightening novel of an uprising in Chiapas., January 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of Lamentations (Hardcover)

I have just had the pleasure of reading one of the most exciting and challenging books that I will read this year, and it's only January. The book is titled The Book of Lamentations and it was written in 1962 by the now deceased Rosario Castellanos. It has only recently been translated by Esther Allen, for reasons that are now completely obscure to me, since after reading it, you'll wish you could have read it years ago.
This book is ostensibly about a fictional uprising in Chiapas that took place shortly after the land redistribution attempts by the PRI were begun in the 1930s. But to see it as only that is to miss the deeper levels of the book. It is also about the inherent inequalities of perception that challenge us, both from within and without our social groupings.
The main conflict is over the role of the government in overseeing the destruction of the fincas in Chiapas. When the agent of the government arrives to redistribute the land back to the peasants and destroy the system that always left the Tzotzils of the region overworked and permanently impoverished in their villages, he encounters the entrenched resistance of the landed Ladino gentry.
Meanwhile, in the villages of the countryside, where the Indians live, there is a religious revival, and not of Catholicism, but of the pagan religion that has never been fully destroyed in the area. This part of the book appears to be based on an episode in the Yucatan uprising of the 1850's, but is actually a deeper analysis of the role of the directly inspired mystic as a critique of the established traditions.
When the Indians finally begin their revolution, it is started by one of the most shocking events in the book. Yet, with the author's skill and courage at facing the event, one does not cringe or turn away from it, but acknowledges it in the same way that the engineer who witnesses it does: "more out of fascination than of fear."
The book examines closely the role of religion in fostering and in destroying revolution. Near the end, the book contains a conversation between the atheist governor of the region and the archbishop. While one might hope for a longer, and more full description of their conversation, the episode rings true, as we always wish for more answers in these areas than we can get.
The book holds no character up for esteem, all are there for your perusal as they are. If you are looking for a hero you will not find one here, it is populated by real people with the real faults and weaknesses that we all have.
If, on the other hand, you want to read a book that carries with it a timeless quality, one that will challenge you and force you to come to terms with the ethical ambiguities that plague us all, this book will dominate your thoughts for some time after you have put it down

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History as Poetry, August 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of Lamentations (Hardcover)

Those who did not learn from the cenruries-old history of the Chiapas are now repeating it.The book is depressing and disturbing, because the outcome will not change - especially since the latest revolt has been preempted by socialist/communist rebels. The case for the Chiapas Indios seems hopeless, now and in the future. The poetry brought to this account is overwhelming. Everything comes alive, stark and brilliant. It is sad that the author had to die so young. In reading the book, it helps to know some Spanish. A glossary at its end could be helpful.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fiction of magical realism and mystical poetry, May 26, 2009

By 

Luca Graziuso (NYC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Book of Lamentations (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the masterpieces of Latin American fiction. The plot tells of the uprising of the Maya Indians in the Southern MExican state of Chiapas. The book adopts a panoramic sqweep of a Diego Rivera mural weaving together dozen of characters, plot lines, and perspectives in a tour-de-force of narrative structure that builds to an inexorable conclusion as unflinching as it is devastating. Based on episodes from the actual Maya uprising of 1712 and 1868 - transposed in time to the 1930s - the novel merges a wealth of historical informantion and local detail into a vision of the nature of oppression that is universal in scope. As the New York Times Book Review noted of Rosario Castellanos (who was killed in car accident while serving as Mexican ambassador in Israel in 1974: "As a Mexican woman raised to submission, Castellanos understood the psychology of the reluctant or self-defeating rebel, or the victor who sides with her tormentor. There's nothing forces in the parallel she draws between oppressed woman and oppressed races. It's all part of an ugly social nexus she unravels in fluent, decorous prose. Castellanos wrings poetry from a local rumor, in scenes that achieve the mystical, tormented quality of Spanish paintings of the crucifixion." Here we have a book of genius: calling her the Mexican Garcia-Marquez is not a stretch in the least.