Christopher Unborn (Picador Books) [Paperback]

Carlos Fuentes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 1990 | Series: Picador Books

This is the story of the observations of Christopher, still unborn in his mother's womb, who has been conceived so that he can be entered for the great Christopher Columbus prize for being the first child born on 12 October 1992, the anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a return to the broad, densely populated narrative characteristic of his early work, Fuentes brackets this account of Mexico (and the U.S.) in the near future with the conception and birth of its narrator. Christopher's story begins with his parents copulating on the beach on Epiphany in 1992, hoping their offspring will win a national contest by being the first child born on Columbus Day, the 500th anniversary of the European discovery of America. An omniscient, participating Christopher tells of a highly diminished Mexico (Yucatan has been sold to Club Mediterranee), so polluted that excrement rains on the beach where he is conceived. With nearly every stylistic device known to modern fictionists, Christopher-the-foetus observes his parents, uncles, maiden aunts, national leaders, tourists, rock musicians, and recounts outrageous incidents, past and present, that defy summarizing. Will Christopher survive them? Will Mexico? Should he want to be born? Despite the wealth of ideas and hilarious inventions (all superbly translated by MacAdam), Fuentes refuses to make a story out of any of this. His novel aggressively advances an esthetics that goes beyond modernism to a kind of deconstruction of events, insisting that the truth of life lies in its circular, spiraling subjectivity. Though witty, erudite and incisive, Fuentes cannot overcome the storytelling obstacle he has willfully set up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"In Christopher Unborn, Carlos Fuentes has imagined the worst for his country's near future, but he's done it with such humor, verve, invention, erudition and baroque whirligig plotting that the result is a vital, hopeful book, a great salvage operation in the trash heaps of Western culture, Spanish literature and Mexican history." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books Ltd (October 12, 1990)
• ISBN-10: 0330315641
• ISBN-13: 978-0330315647
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,563,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fuentes at his most fun and prescient, January 9, 2004

By 

Sean Francisco Smith "New York Jazz MythMaker" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christopher Unborn (Hardcover)

Currently on a Fuentes kick, I picked up Christopher Unborn. Although written in the 1980's about 1992, Fuentes is completely on target in his subject matter, and his Makesicko of 1992 looks a lot like today.
You will read this and recognize american liberals and conservatives, southern mexican secessionist sympathizers, leftist ideaologues, mall shoppers and reality tv "celebrities" all captured and satirized perfectly. I read this book with a sardonic smile not thinking of the past, but of today.
The man's a genius, and any book of his is worth a good read, but underneath the narrative is a lot of fun. Of the 3 novels I have read, I get the greatest sense that Fuentes truly loved his characters, flawed and cracked as they are.
Some of it is challenging, but Fuentes always is, and usually working through the challenges is highly rewarding.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, July 9, 2001

By 

Enrique Torres "Rico" (San Diegotitlan, Califas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Christopher Unborn (Paperback)

This book was written on the eve of the 500th year anniversary marking the fateful encounter between the Spanish Euoropeans and the various indigenous groups of the Americas. Not so coincidently, the prolific, briliant writer Carlos Fuentes sets the circumstances to this novel to coincide with the event. The premise for the book is a contest being held in Mexico with a great prize offered for the first born child on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival. The child is Christopher, the narrator of the novel who makes shrewd observations about the world he will be born into, all from the comfort of inside his mother. This allows Fuentes, the author, to rip into all of the ills of modern Mexico with his usually witty and sharp use of lanuage. A master at manipulation of common laguage, he changes the words to fit his vision. Several examples of how he changes words are Mexico City to Makesicko City, Kafkapulco, Quasimodo City, Samsaville, Huitzilopochtliburg or President Dangerous Dickson before the Watergate Waterloo, blockabulary for vocabulary,Califurnace, PornoCorno, Coca-Culo and Acapukelco(or did I make this last one up?). However this is nothing compared to the daggers Christopher throws at everything from the devastation of the earthquake and the aftermath, the PRI, Mexican history and all it's tragic consequences including the massacre at Tlateloco, the narco-polices ties to the narco traffickers themselves and in short, all is fair game for Fuentes via his narrator Christopher. His observations on popular culture include everything from Lennon to Lenin to Boy George. It is a scathing, passionate view of the world Chistopher will enter. Christopher contends his nine months inside his mother are when his life began and this comfort and fear of what is out there make the narration a brutal, wry, cynical commentary. The satirical view is enhanced by a cast of characters who all are part of the make up of a world Christopher will inherit. The action of the novel is a backdrop for a political campaign and all it's cast of characters both for and against.Some of the names of these politicos and associates are Deng Chopin, Hipi Toltec, Fagoaga, Matamoros Moreno, Robles Chacon and D.C Buckley just to name a few. Coming in at over five hundered pages it is no easy read but totally enjoyable. The literature flows beautifully, creating images as only Carlos Fuentes can. As one of the preeminent writers of our times, Fuentes unleashes a novel for the times that will be reflected upon years from now as a masterpiece marking the collision of worlds that occurred five hundred years ago. This is an excellent book for educators at the AP level in high school or college to use for a literature class or to supplement a history course. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Mexico and it's contemporary literature.

3.0 out of 5 stars Props for Creativity, May 17, 2011

By 

StephanieS - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Christopher Unborn (Latin American Literature Series) (Paperback)

This book is certainly not like anything you have read before. It is funny, uncensored, and political all at the same time. Before reading, it is cleverly drawn out that the table of contents is divided into 9 chapters, each with at least 8 sub sections. The novel begins with an introduction of the world through the point of view of an unborn child, which is why I believe Fuentes chose to outline his book this way. I found it difficult to stick to the timeline and stay on track with everything Fuentes had to say. Also, I found myself reading with google.com at hand, because I had no idea what any of these political references were- example: PRI. Even though it maybe hard to follow, Fuentes brilliantly keeps the reader engaged by using grotesque language and scenery. This is in fact what keeps people reading and turning the page, to know what's going to happen next. I don't think I would recommend this book to another person, but if you had to read it, it's a good read and there are worse books out there. All in all, it is a very creative and interesting book. You just need to read it to understand what I mean.