Reviews

Strong Wind by Miguel Ángel Asturias

plumillalectora's review against another edition

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2.0

"La hora del hombre será el "viento fuerte" que de abajo de las entrañas de la tierra alce su voz de reclamo, y exija, y barra con todos nosotros...".

Posiblemente podría reducir la novela a esa frase de la novela. "Viento fuerte" juega con este fenómeno meteorológico que lo arrasa todo, en una novela sobre la lucha de los pequeños productores de banano contra la Tropical Platanera, la mayor empresa de distribución de frutas. La eterna batalla del productor y el distribuidor, que intentan bajar los precios hasta límites que los grandes dinamitan a los pequeños.

El estilo de la novela es ciertamente complejo y rebuscado, como muchas de las novelas latinoamericanas de ese tiempo, pero la edición de Drácena es fantástica, con una introducción perfecta para comprender mejor el contexto de la historia y con multitud de anotaciones a pie de página para comprender el léxico.

Aun siendo una historia que me interesaba de inicio, no conseguí engancharme del todo con la historia ni con los personajes.

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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2.0

This rating reflects more of a “me problem” than anything else. After reading Prisión Verde by Ramón Amaya Amador I had some expectations about this banana republic call out book and was thoroughly disappointed bc I wasn't expecting the magical realism here and it was a little jarring and hard to take in. Unlike Prisión Verde, which is almost a chronicle of the daily green prison and told through the eyes of all the levels of plantation workers and their families, and chronicles their misery and painful lives with vibrant realism, Viento Fuerte is like experiencing a high fevered, malarial dream. There are time jumps, drifting, incoherent moments but beautiful, and repetitive for effect, language and phrases. I'll be honest and say that most of the points and key instances in this book were lost to me bc it was too florid. I wish we had learned more about the plantation natives bc as descriptive and dreamy as the writing is here it lacks humanity, which may have been the point, or not, idk. Maybe on a second read I'll appreciate it more but for now, I'm annoyingly befuddled.

bookandcat's review against another edition

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3.0

This shows life in the banana republic of Guatemala pre-1950, and the deep dependence between the United States economy and the lives of workers in Latin America.

The issues IN this translation are more important than the issues WITH the translation.
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