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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnifecent saga of epic proportions,
This review is from: The Years with Laura Díaz (Hardcover)
In 1999, he came to Detroit to begin filming a TV special on the famous twentieth century Mexican muralists. However, looking at one of the works, he finds himself captivated by a woman in one of the murals who seems eerily familiar before he realizes that she is his famous great grandmother, Laura Diaz. He begins to think about the life and loves of Laura. Born in 1898, her lovers include Communists and other activists before she marries and has children. She watches as male members of her extended family die during the constant years of turbulence shaking her country. She becomes friends with some of the artistic elite and ultimately becomes one of them as a renowned photographer. As Mexico lives and dies with each new tremor, so has Laura Diaz. Renowned author Carlos Fuentes has written his best work to date with the incredible THE YEARS WITH LAURA DIAZ. The story line centers on the life of the title character, but actually serves as a backdrop to the bigger mural of twentieth century Mexico. This entertaining, dark, but powerful novel provides an enlightening look at the nation and its people rarely seen in a novel. Senior Fuentes deserves awards for this classic biographical historical fiction. Harriet Klausner
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Skim the middle and you'll love it.,
By Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Years with Laura Díaz (Hardcover)
Carlos Fuentes' most accessible novel in many years uses one woman's life to encompass a massive chunk of 20th century Mexican history. Fuentes manages to place Laura Diaz at almost every important cultural and political event between 1905 and the 1970's-from pre-revolutionary hacienda life, through the building of Mexico's union movement, to the Spanish Civil War, and the massacre of students at Tlatelolco on the eve of the 1968 Olympics. This might seem like a stretch. Come on, how likely is it that any one person would manage to fit all that in as well as love affairs, a teeming family, and a friendship with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera? Not likely at all, but Fuentes' has created a rich and readable novel, filled with many characters who exist mainly to express a political point of view but who are complex and interesting people nonetheless. The first part of "The Years with Laura Diaz" works especially well, recording Laura's early years as the granddaughter of German immigrants living in the coastal state of Veracruz and the kind of life enjoyed by the families of landowners. Her marriage to a union organizer who takes her to post-revolutionary Mexico City puts her in the heart of a society recreating itself. No one writes about the Mexican capital like Carlos Fuentes, and Mexico City in the 1920's through the 70's springs to life in all its glories and maddening confusions. There is a lot of politics, which unfortunately causes "Laura Diaz" to bog down as her cipher of a husband stirs an alphabet soup of labor unions and political parties. It's interesting if you know Mexican history, but I can imagine it's pretty incomprehensible if you don't. (The fascinating thing is that during this period following the Mexican Revolution, labor was delivered to a political party and not the communists, thus putting an end to the possibility of government/labor conflict for once and for all, or at least until that party was voted out of office seventy years after it was first voted in.) But once you get past that, you'll be glad you stayed with the novel to its mysterious and elegant end.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Years With Laura Diaz are magnificent!,
By
This review is from: The Years with Laura Díaz (Hardcover)
This is a novel of great depth, written by a man who has lived his life observing, thinking, asking questions, considering and writing. His great talent lies in speaking for many: for fathers, mothers, sons, lovers, passionate revolutionaries and for each of us.The Years With Laura Diaz, is as great a mural and testament, and as real and colorful as the Diego Rivera mural that graces its cover. Just as the great mural tells the history and stories of a people, so this magnificently written work shows us the colors and contrasts that richly color our world. Do check out our Guest Reviewer Deborah D/M's full review.
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