Reviews

Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias

junyan's review

5.0

The reason why I love this book is quite the same (but more) as why I hate the old man and the sea.
神作！前部分讲述不同时代不同家族不同个体的故事，结尾部分世界线收束，一切是宿命。喜欢能感受自然的力量，感受人类顺应自然的力量的作品。讨厌老人与海和喜欢玉米人是相同的理由。

zajorino's review

5.0

Incredible, but dense book. I highly recommend the critical edition which is almost necessary for understanding the countless layers of mesoamérica myth and sources that fill the story. Take your time with it and you won't be disappointed. A definitively important read for those looking for a crash course in Guatemalan history/myth.

sophiaxlm's review against another edition

4.0

一种“危地马拉民俗故事”的感觉，《爱药》好像有点这本书的影子，不过也可能是因为类似的叙事结构和可类比的文化背景。危地马拉印第安人自认是“玉米做成的”，那些“用玉米做买卖”的行为，“就等于买我们身上的肉”，殖民者自然不这么认为，于是战争发生了，一边用刀枪，另一边用刀和咒语。一位酋长死于阴谋后，接下来的几个故事像是在跳跃着介绍印第安人的风俗与日常生活——萤火法师用诅咒之火杀死一队军人、邮差送信途中在山间化成了他的护身神（一条野狼）形态之类（土法炮制的药品和新鲜烹饪的食物都被描写得汁水四溢、热辣鲜咸）。几个故事的主角最后竟被凑到了一起，促成了个有点理想化的结局，这倒是有点出乎意料。

beerqueer91's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

ewynn610's review against another edition

1

yanina's review against another edition

5.0

Amo este libro. Amo su complejidad, la historia, los giros, la escritura... Es uno de mis favoritos, sin duda.

sarahjsnider's review

5.0

This novel reads like an epic poem. The text is a bit dense at times, but once I found the rhythm, I found it beautiful with touches of humor and heartbreak.

jayeless's review against another edition

I can't fairly rate this, so I won't try. I'm not going to try reviewing it in Spanish either, even though I read it in that language. Or, you know, tried to. This novel is written in very idiosyncratic language, full of archaisms and (I assume) indigenous words. At the back of my Kindle edition was a glossary taking up 6% of the book (i.e. 26 pages), which gives me the impression that the language isn't easy for the majority of native Spanish speakers, either. Unfortunately, there are no actual links to the glossary from where these words appear in the text, making it a massive ordeal to check them – and if I had, it'd have taken me way longer to read this than two months, I can tell you. It seems that Amazon's pulled the book from sale since I bought it two years ago (although not from my library, evidently). I really hope they pulled it to fix this.

I am really not sure how this vibrantly non-standard Spanish was translated into English, but I guess I'd like to see. My university library theoretically has an English translation of this, and I went looking for it when I was about one-tenth of the way through this and realising I just could not understand it. Evidently the uni lost it because it wasn't on the shelf. So, I struggled through… and while I guess my Spanish got some good practice, I can barely tell you anything about this book that isn't in the Wikipedia summary of it. I can tell you about some of the language use, I guess…? Like once it used the verb "parlar" and I went on a great bout of research to discover what this word was doing in Castilian (the answer: it's a borrowing from Occitan, but in Castilian refers specifically to speaking indiscreetly, or in an otherwise mischievous manner. but it's very uncommon). I don't really remember quién parlaba o porqué, though. You see? I didn't absorb much of anything.

So… while this seems like a very interesting book to me… I did not gain anything by actually reading it and I really wish the English edition hadn't been out of print for decades. If I ever get my hands on one…