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anxious_bibliophile's review
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The moral of most Hispanic stories: take care of your elderly or else you'll ended up tormented and likely in hell.
sandy_reads_books's review
I ended up reading this book because of a class assignment which is kind of sad because my mom had showed it to me a few years back and I really should have read it, but in any case I’m still glad I finally did. I admittedly only read the English parts because I was scared my academic Spanish wouldn’t hold up to an older and more dialectic Spanish, but maybe that would be something worth trying in the future. I found it interesting to see and try to understand both the Spanish and Native influences and I think it would have been nice to see those Native influences have more of a prominent role. It felt to me based on the introductions and the stories themselves that this book wishes predominantly to hold up Spanish traditions.
In regard to the stories themselves, it seems strange now to read fables and folk tales in the context of what storytelling is considered to be in mainstream media. In truth since I have not read or interacted much with material or literature from this area I don’t really know how it compares. It does remind me however of Arabian Nights of which I have read some for fun. In this way the stories are very similar in that they share similar messages, center on a very similar masculine perspective, and engage with similar character types. I did feel annoyed as I did with Arabian Nights in how women are portrayed and not really allowed the space to be the main character except for the story Fabiano and Reyes which was nice to read amongst the other stories. It was interesting to see the stories’s attitudes toward religion and I also was especially interested in the stories where Death is a character.
I’m not sure I really have anything profound at all to say about these stories but it does leave me curious about who is/was allowed to be a storyteller, who the specific storytellers of these stories were, what stories from a non-male perspective might have looked like, how these stories currently impact this area’s cultural literature, and what those current stories are.
In regard to the stories themselves, it seems strange now to read fables and folk tales in the context of what storytelling is considered to be in mainstream media. In truth since I have not read or interacted much with material or literature from this area I don’t really know how it compares. It does remind me however of Arabian Nights of which I have read some for fun. In this way the stories are very similar in that they share similar messages, center on a very similar masculine perspective, and engage with similar character types. I did feel annoyed as I did with Arabian Nights in how women are portrayed and not really allowed the space to be the main character except for the story Fabiano and Reyes which was nice to read amongst the other stories. It was interesting to see the stories’s attitudes toward religion and I also was especially interested in the stories where Death is a character.
I’m not sure I really have anything profound at all to say about these stories but it does leave me curious about who is/was allowed to be a storyteller, who the specific storytellers of these stories were, what stories from a non-male perspective might have looked like, how these stories currently impact this area’s cultural literature, and what those current stories are.
mozzysticks's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
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