Battles in the Desert (40th Anniversary Edition)

This landmark novella--one of the central texts of Mexican literature, is eerily relevant to our current dark times--offers a child's-eye view of a society beset by dictators, disease, and natural disasters, set in "the year of polio, foot-and-mouth disease, floods." A middle-class boy grows up in a world of children aping adults (mock wars at recess pit Arabs against Jews), where a child's left to ponder "how many evils and catastrophes we have yet to witness." When Carlos laments the cruelty and corruption, the evils of a vicious class system, his older brother answers: "So what, we are living up to our ears in shit anyway under Miguel Alemán's regime," with "the face of El Senor Presidente everywhere: incessant, private abuse." Sound familiar?
Woven into this coming-of-age saga is the terribly intense love Carlos cherishes for his friend's young mother, which has the effect of driving the general cruelties further under the reader's skin. The acclaimed translator Katherine Silver has greatly revised her original translation, enlivening afresh this remarkable work.

Author: Jose Emilio Pacheco
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Published: 06/01/2021
Pages: 48
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.18lbs
Size: 7.09h x 4.33w x 0.32d
ISBN: 9780811230957


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2021
Shelf Awareness 06/18/2021

About the Author
Pacheco, Jose Emilio: - José Emilio Pacheco (1939-2014) is one of Mexico's foremost poets, novelists, and essayists. A lifelong resident of Mexico City, Pacheco has been a guest lecturer throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain. Some of Pacheco's best known collections of poetry include Miro la tierra (which documented the Mexico City earthquake), El reposo del fuego, Fin de siglo y otros poemas, Arbol entere dos muros/Tree between two walls, and Selected Poems. His No me preguntas cómo pasa el tiempo was awarded Mexico's National Poetry Prize.Silver, Katherine: - Katherine Silver's award-winning translations include works by María Sonia Cristoff, Daniel Sada, César Aira, Julio Cortázar, Juan Carlos Onetti, and Julio Ramón Ribeyro. The author of Echo Under Story, she does volunteer interpreting for asylum seekers.