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Inez

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Carlos Fuentes has written a brief, poetic elegy to love and classical music in his latest novel, "Inez".I have translated it into farsi and it is released just today,May 10th 2003. It weaves together three tales, a love affair spanning decades between Mexican diva and the famous European conductor Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, that briefly mirrors the political chaos of the the 20th Century; the other, the love affair of two prehitorian Europeans somewhere along the coast of Ice Age Europe, thousands of years ago,The last one is combination of Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz and other classical operas of history.It is under tyhe influence of Maria Calas the Greek diva aca La triviata. This terse tale is among the finest examples of recently published literary prose that I've come across and translated into Farsi.I have tried a lot to find a contact address of Carlos Fuentes but in vain.Please read it and enjoy the Novel and help me with an address of the Mastero.

If you're a fan of Carlos Fuentes' early novels, like "Aura" and "The Death of Artemio Cruz," then you are bound to enjoy "Inez," (in Spanish, "Instinto de Inez"). In this, his latest book, after "The Years With Laura Diaz," the author returns to the magical world of fantasy, and to some of his favorite themes: creativity and time.

Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, a dynamic and celebrated symphony conductor, reflects back on his life, at age 93, and realizes that only death awaits him. These reflections reveal his great passion for one woman, and for music. They also disclose the conductor's view of the world, and destiny, as he confronts death. "El muerto no sabe lo que es la muerte, pero los vivos tampocos" ("The dead don't know what death is, but neither do the living"). The past holds for him the memory of his love for the red-haired, dark eyed Inez. Gabriel has a shimmering glass seal, a mysterious object "sufficient unto itself." This seal might bestow upon its bearer the ability to see past, present and future, to hear music of impossible beauty, and to read unknown languages. The maestro hopes to find, in the crystal seal, the impossible reflection of Inez and a return to a time when they were together - to transcend time, distance and space through their love.

The crystal also provides the link between two intertwining stories - that of Atlan-Ferrara and his memories, and a parallel narrative which records Inez' dreams - a poetic love story telling of the first encounter in human history between a man and a woman. "Inez" is an extraordinary tale which contrasts love and obsession, life and death, male and female.

Alan-Ferrara encountered Mexican opera singer, Inez Prada, three times over the course of his lifetime. The first time was during the 1940 London blitz. This was when he initially heard her sing. In 1949 they met again in Mexico City. She had become a renowned diva. Atlan-Ferrara had moved-up in his career also, and was now one of the world's most important orchestra conductors. Their last meeting took place in London, 1967, when the conductor decided to break all the rules of traditional opera. Each time they met they were performing Berlioz's opera, "The Damnation of Faust." It is "the opera that permits me to travel in time...," Fuentes said in an interview. "It is Berlioz who invents this original dissonance, this extraordinary mystery of the origin of music and the origin of voice."

Fuentes also stated that Alan-Ferrara is "modeled on one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the Romanian Sergiu Celibidache." The young Mexican soprano, Inez, Fuentes says was inspired by the legendary Maria Callas.

Margaret Sayers Peden's translation is excellent and captures Fuentes' language as well as any translation could.

Carlos Fuentes, probably Mexico's greatest living writer, is the author of more than twenty books and has received many awards for his accomplishments as a novelist, essayist, and commentator, among them the Cervantes Prize in 1987. Major themes in Fuentes' work are the power of fantasy, national identity, and the promise and failure of the Mexican revolution. Fuentes has frequently been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. His father made him read Mexican history when he was a boy, which Fuentes saw as a history of crushing defeats, especially when compared with the United States. "I learned to imagine Mexico before I ever knew Mexico," he once said.
JANA

I've read nearly every book wrtten by Carlos Fuentes and found ths one to be great but not his best. Somewhere between great and mind blowng would be more accurate. I only wish it were longer. Carlos Fuentes , the master story teller never fails to produce works that will stand the test of time as great literary pieces. Written in a short story format the story is nonetheless epic. Fuentes manages to use language to carry you beyond the incidents you are reading about , he opens up your mind to possibilities through his use of passages that are fluid streams of thought. There are several good customer and editorial descriptions of the actual storyline but suffice to say that Fuentes goes out of bounds , beyond the limits and back as he interweaves a story with another, carrying you through a time machine tunnel where the light you see is your own thought process being ignited. His concepts are relatively simple in comparison to some of his other works but there is always so much more to a Fuentes book. This is a book that is best enjoyed read over a short period of time, a few hours, a day or a weekend to become completely engulfed in. I read this over a few hours sessions in the Baja California desert where there were few interruptions or distractions. This is an excellent short book in a long list of great Carlos Fuentes novels. This story is a gripping fantasy and an emotional rollercoaster that is beautifully written, and highly recommended.

This slim volume is well-described in the editorial reviews; I feel no need to repeat that information. The strength of this novel is in its power to force reflection - on the nature of art (music in general, the role of the musician/conductor in particular), the relationship of human passion to art, and the relationship between man and woman. The first switch in stories, from that of the conductor to the ice age lovers, leaves the reader momentarily baffled. At the first return to the contemporary story, however, the interrelationships become clear. Thereafter, the structure of the novel seems natural. At the novel's end, the reader is left with many unanswered questions which in this case leads to a desire to reread, picking up interrelationships not noticed in the first reading.

This is not a "perfect" book but it is well worth your time.

I read this short, enigmatic novel, "Inez" by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes because it draws heavily upon one of my most beloved works of music, Hector Berlioz' "The Damnation of Faust". Berlioz called this work a "legende dramatique". It is usually performed as a concert opera. It is based upon Goethe's Faust, with a text by Berlioz himself. It tells the story of an aging scholar who sells his soul to Mephistopheles to win the love of the beautiful Marguerite. At the climax of Berlioz' opera, Faust is driven off on horseback to hell to the sound of a furious "hup-hup" while Marguerite is saved and goes to heaven. In his book,Fuentes makes a great deal of the "hup-hup" of Faust's fateful journey.

Fuentes's novel tells the story of a 93 year old conductor Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, who has spent much of a long career conducting this masterwork of Berlioz. The opera is intertwined for Ferrara with his love for a great Mexican singer, Inez Rosenzweig who adopts the stage name Inez Prada. Ferrara and Prada see each other at three widely-spaced times in their lives, the first in London during WW II, (when Inez is a fledgling but strong-willed singer, only 20 and a virgin) the second in the early 1950s (when Inez dismisses a lover from her apartment to receive Ferrara) in Mexico and the third in London in 1967. During the first meeting Prada rejects Ferrara as a lover but becomes infatuated by a young male friend who appears in a photograph with Ferrara. Ferrara walks away from her, and the picture of the young man mysteriously disappears from the photo. During the second meeting Ferrara and Prado consummate their love but do not otherwise pursue their relationship. Prada marries briefly. During the third meeting the couple reminisces while Ferrara oonducts a version of Faust with Marguerite in the nude. The two never see each other again. Ferrara has a mysterious crystal he received from Prada and, he believes, it allows him access to the past and the future. As an aged man of 93 conducting Faust for the last time, his thoughts are on Prada.

The Prada-Ferrara story is juxtaposed against an even more enigmatic tale involving a man named Neh-el and a woman named Ah-nel. This story is set in primordial time as the first love between a man and a woman as they separate themselves from the other animals. Their story involves tenderness, lust, incest, and the change from a matriarchial, egalitarian society to one based upon patriarchy.

The Faust-Marguerite, Ferrara-Prada, Nehel-Ah-nel relationships all involve the mysterious nature of love and sexuality between a man and a woman. They also involve the ability of music to capture this relationship and to transcend it. (The Nehel -- Ah-nel relationship involves the tale of a primitive silver flute which plays music never since heard.) The strongest scenes in this novel are those that are closest to Berlioz' music, that capture its romantic passion, and that illustrate Ferrara's life-long obsession with the score. The book includes extended discussions of the power of music and difficult reflections on the nature of male-female relationships. There is also a great deal of fantasy in the book as it concerns the mysterious crystal and the early relationship of Neh-el and Ah-nel.

This is a moving but obscure novel. Those fascinated with the book should explore for themselves Berlioz' flamboyant and passionate setting of "The Damnation of Faust". Berlioz' "legende dramatique" is readily available on many fine CD sets.

Robin Friedman

Carlos Fuentes has written a brief, poetic elegy to love and classical music in his latest novel, "Inez". It deftly weaves together two simple tales: one a tempestuous love affair spanning decades between Mexican diva Inez Rosenzweig and the famous European conductor Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, that briefly mirrors the political chaos of the last half of the 20th Century; the other, the love affair of two Paleolithic Europeans somewhere along the coast of Ice Age Europe, tens of thousands of years ago. This terse tale is among the finest examples of recently published literary prose that I've come across.

I have always been a fan of Carlos Fuentes and other novelists writing in Spanish. This book does not disappoint, even tho it is short. It's beautifully written, with language that evokes a dream. The stories of the old man, Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, looking back on his life and his love of a woman, Inez Prada, intertwine with that of a pair of lovers in ancient times. Overlaying it all is music - mostly that of Berloiz and his "The Damnation of Faust" - but also other music, the original music that man made when he was learning to talk. The beauty is marred by the evil things men do - the London Blitz in WWII and violence in the ancient time. But the scars on the earth can be healed - as Atlan-Ferrara says, "Sing until the bombs of Satan are silenced."

I read this book a couple of years ago and really really love it. The story stays with you.... Fuentes is an amazing writer.