Mexican Bigshot's Life Reflects Times

The violent society of Mexico in the 19th century witnessed a bloody revolution. This revolution, like many others, devoured its dreamers and hopers. It was eventually co-opted by the most violent and least idealistic types, who arranged Mexican society to their benefit. Although the common man also derived some advantages, for the winners, especially as the century wore on, material comforts like goose neck stuffed with pork-liver paté and damask armchairs in a huge living room seemed more important than social justice. The ruthless grab for power proved to be a successful gambit for them. Artemio Cruz is one such successful individual, determined to rise to the top by taking advantage of every opportunity presented by the tides of war and political intrigue.

The narrative of this novel has a backward-forward nature, with wordy lyricism interspersed with terse action sequences. The dwelling upon illness, decay, and death places this novel at the opposite end of the literary continuum from the quiet, spare prose of Japanese author Kawabata Yasunari. It is a novel of bright colors and intense feelings, where the author thrives on vocabulary and the effect of the words themselves. The novel contains ultimately surprising revelations that continue until the very last pages. Artemio Cruz desires power for its own sake and will stop at nothing to acquire it. Fuentes peels back layer upon layer of the character, delving deep into his psyche to explain why.

THE DEATH OF ARTEMIO CRUZ is a highly intellectual and cleverly-constructed novel that is not easy to read. It encapsulates 70 turbulent years of Mexican history, from 1889 to 1959, and is also a poetical and psychological study of an individual. Fuentes gradually and subtly reveals everything. You meet a dying man on his last day and, through flashbacks, come to understand who he is - cruel, cynical, lucky, devastated - and how he destroyed those around him while keeping them loyal through money and power. Although basically an unattractive personality, Artemio Cruz is not a monster. He has considerable similarity to people you know, perhaps even to yourself. The times made him what he was. Fuentes has written a masterpiece, one of the great novels of the 20th century. If what I have written intrigues you, be sure to read it.

A book that you feel you must read at least twice in order to be able to express an opinion. It is a very difficult read, extremely dense. The passages in which Artemis Krous addresses himself in the face of his death are shockingly of admirable literary quality. However, the narrative passages that related to his past, I often felt that they dragged on more than they should and could have been significantly shorter.

This book presents a unique challenge to the reader. The complexity of its content requires careful and repeated study. The way the author constructs the story and the use of language are both remarkable. Yet, the length of some of the past-related sections can make the reading experience a bit tiresome.

Despite its flaws, this book is still worth reading for those who are willing to invest the time and effort. It offers a deep exploration of themes such as mortality, identity, and the human condition. It forces the reader to think and reflect, and in doing so, it enriches our understanding of these fundamental aspects of life.

This is a very good story with a unique narrative and excellent translation.

The book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style and has a distinct narrative.

The story is about Artemus Crowe's life, told from three perspectives (I, you, he). "I" is the present tense narrative when Artemus Crowe is in a state of excitement. "You" is a timeless narrative where it seems Artemus looks inside himself from the outside, sees things, and has a kind of limbo state. "He," who actually tells the story, is Artemus's past. Through the memories in the "you" part, we go back to the past and tell Artemus's past.

The core of the book and Artemus's life can be regarded as a "revolution." Artemus, an ordinary native-white-skinned nobody, turns into a big capitalist and politician during the story.

Almost the course of his life can be regarded as similar to the course of a revolution, from the idea to the realization and then to the decline.

There is also a very good love plot in the story, which is excellently paid off.

The portrayal of the characters is good.

*

The cover design is ridiculed.

# Not a Fan

Sincerely, I didn't like it. And yes, I understand what this very modern novel represents for Latin American narrative. But I just didn't like it. I believe that even if I had read it in college, I still wouldn't have liked it. I liked the theme and the whole idea of telling the life of Artemio Cruz from the present to the past (as if it were the end, development, and beginning, like an involution of life). However, I didn't like the style or the prose. It is something very diffuse for me. Many passages seemed irrelevant to me. It was very boring for my taste. Well, yes, that's it.

Junto con Aura, lo que más me ha gustado de Fuentes es una obra que tiene una gran atracción. Es como una especie de reescritura de "Ciudadano Kane" pero con un toque mexicano. Se centra en los últimos pensamientos de un cacique de la revolución, lo que permite una profunda disección de cómo se llega al poder en México. Además de ser un análisis fascinante, es una novela divertida de leer. Es experimental, pero sin caer en lo obtuso que me pareció "La región más transparente". Tiene un excelente ritmo narrativo que mantiene al lector emocionado y disfrutando en cada página. Es una obra que combina la profundidad intelectual con la entretenimiento, lo que la hace una joya literaria que no debe perderse.

**"The Death of Artemio Cruz" - A Complex Tale of a Man's Life and Mexico's History**

What if they say that sleep is a small death and every human, before dying, thinks about their obsessions? I too, every night, without exception, think about a recurring subject before sleep; but I always try to approach it from a new way. I don't know how many ways I have gone so far, I haven't counted. I never had any interest in keeping count of anything. Maybe I thought everything would always remain the same; or maybe all these are just the result of a lazy mind and I am justifying it. I used to say that I think of you every night. At first, I wanted to write: Every night, without exception, I am occupied with a recurring thought. But I saw that in this way I am taking an objective position, or maybe someone will assume that the subject is something unpleasant; both of which are wrong. Because I voluntarily and willingly think of you and you are not at all an unpleasant subject. There are many things in my life that directly remind me of you. For example, handkerchiefs. I think of handkerchiefs. If you were a handkerchief, how would you prefer to be used? Would you prefer to be wiped in the small nose of a beautiful girl rather than being stuffed in the pocket of a man's coat?

The book "The Death of Artemio Cruz" is a Surrealist novel about 20th-century Mexico, seen through the eyes of Artemio Cruz. Artemio Cruz is a man whose impending death gives him the opportunity to look back on his past and relive the days of his prime. He is the illegitimate son of a young, handsome, and wealthy landowner. The young man abuses Cruz's mother, who has been widowed young. After the birth of the child, the mother, who has been beaten and mistreated, is forced to leave the ranch. Cruz is raised by his uncle Lorenzo.

After Lorenzo's death, Cruz joins a revolutionary movement that aims to take the land from the rich and distribute it among the peasants. Cruz's first love, Regina, is thrown into prison by the opposition forces. This event has a great impact on Cruz's personality and actually shapes his destiny. In 1919, General Porfirio is defeated and the country is plunged into a perpetual and bloody chaos. When Cruz is imprisoned and sentenced to death with a young officer named Gonzalo Bernal, he obtains valuable information about the personal life of this man. Cruz manages to escape himself but does nothing to save the officer who is about to be executed by a firing squad. With the information he has obtained and with his strength and cunning, he forces Catalina, Gonzalo's sister and the daughter of a wealthy landowner, to marry him without love. Since in Mexico women are not allowed to own property, after the death of Catalina's father, Cruz inherits all the family's wealth in a short time and becomes a very rich man.

Cruz soon increases the family's wealth through fraud and violence. He buys a newspaper in Mexico City and uses the power and tribunals at his disposal to expand his illegal wealth. He uses this newspaper to eliminate business rivals and undermine foreign politicians. Cruz also begins to mediate and facilitate corrupt business transactions to sell the country's natural resources to American merchants - of course, at a high cost.

Cruz sends his only son, Lorenzo, to Coquilla at the age of 12 to manage the family's properties. The main reason for this is his resentment towards Catalina and their son. Lorenzo, at the age of 17, full of ideals and determined to join the fight against the fascists, goes to Spain and is killed in combat. Now Cruz has only one daughter named Teresa, who is strange like her father. Cruz never stops betraying his wife and causing mental anguish to his daughter throughout his life. Even on his deathbed, he continues to torture them and lies to them about the location of his will. In fact, he has entrusted most of his wealth to his loyal servant, Padilla, and takes revenge on his family with this act.

The transformation of Cruz from a poor and idealistic youth to a corrupt and despicable middle-aged man, and the historical turmoil of Mexico, are the main themes of the novel. Perhaps this novel reflects Fuentes' belief that only those who die young or live in extreme poverty can maintain their idealism.

Fuentes uses metaphor and stream of consciousness like a poet in this novel. I deeply respect and admire Fuentes' creative technique and narrative style because in some ways, like the story of his novel, it is revolutionary. The change in the narrative voice between the first person, the second person, and the third person is bold and works well to keep the narrative line of the story alive. The reader really gets to know Artemio in the first-person narrative sections and the events become more vivid in the third-person narrative sections. The flashbacks fascinated me. Fuentes uses changes in time to serve the narrative, as he takes the reader up and down the life of his antagonist. He takes us from the terrible poverty of Cruz and his revolutionary adventures to the love affairs and bedrooms of his life. Cruz is an attractive literary character who has many human weaknesses, but because of Fuentes' narrative technique, he is portrayed in a believable way and even arouses the reader's sympathy in some places.

In the end, I warn that this novel is not easy. Only pick it up when you are sure that you enjoy reading modern narrative stories.

I listened to the book in audio format with the voice of Ali Doniv Sarvi and from Feedbooks by my friend Saeed _may his life be long_ during the compulsory walks at 7 o'clock on even days of the week. Thank you and more power to you :)

Yani, what can I say now about this book? I don't think we say enough about Fuentes, even if we say little. How is it possible, how can one write like this, how are these words found, how are they put together, how can everything a person writes be at the same time so lyrical and so epic? When I read such books, I really feel like I'm surrendering to a great power, the letters come and seep into every part of me, taking me over - and how I love this state! I loved you very much, Artemio Cruz. I loved his flaws, his wretchedness, his mercilessness, his wickedness, his regrets, his anger, his states of being in love, his authenticity - all of it very much. I loved this book that forms a circle starting with death and ending with birth. In some parts, I saw the footsteps, the first traces of the holy book called Terra Nostra, and I became very attached to the book. And I can't help but say what I say after every Fuentes book: I think he is the writer of the most extraordinary love scenes ever written in literature. He mixes the passionate and intimate moments of human bodies, the pornographic and the erotic in such a strange way and writes so touchingly and so realistically that every time I'm at a loss for what to do out of admiration. Carlos Fuentes, I don't have the words to describe the passion I feel for you. None.

One of the top ten Latin American books I have read is truly a remarkable piece of literature.

It takes the reader on a captivating journey through the rich and diverse landscapes, cultures, and emotions of Latin America.

The story is filled with vivid descriptions that bring the settings to life, making you feel as if you are right there in the heart of the action.

The characters are well-developed and complex, each with their own unique personalities and motives.

The author's writing style is engaging and流畅, drawing you in from the very first page and keeping you hooked until the very end.

This book not only provides an entertaining read but also offers valuable insights into the history, politics, and social issues of Latin America.

It is a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the beauty and complexity of this fascinating region.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of literature.

**Preface**: The book "The Death of Artemio Cruz" is one of the trilogies of the Latin American revolution by three authors, namely Yosa, Marx, and Fuentes. In fact, these three authors decided that each of them would write a book about the events in Latin America, and Fuentes wrote "The Death of Artemio Cruz".

I really liked the book. It is told from three perspectives: me, you, and him, and it tells the life and death of Artemio Cruz, a former revolutionary and current capitalist.

The only problem I had with the book, and I think it mainly stems from this, is that some parts that are written in English are presented in a kind of "Spanglish", and in my opinion, it would have been better if they were translated into English and finally read in the appendix.

Overall, however, it is a good translation, and I also recommend it to you.

P.S: The book needs serious editing.

**Conclusion**: You rest with your eyes closed, but still you see, still you desire: because of the desire to bring, because in this way, with the memory of the things you desired, you will do it yourself: in the past, in longing, you can do everything your heart desires yourself: not in the future, but in the past.

It is the memory you desired that has been fulfilled:

Live in your memories, before the work passes from work, before the turmoil passes something to memory.

**Conclusion**: All that is, all his love, is hidden in the body of that woman, a woman who is everything herself.

That body was not his: Regina had found another for him, had read him from himself with every caress, his body was not his own, it belonged more to Regina.

In that childhood that is born on the ground, it drinks the earth, it separates from its origin, and today it reaches its goal, today that death makes the origin and the goal one, and the sharp sword of freedom falls between the two.

Artemio Cruz is a complex and dynamic character who shapes and reshapes himself in parallel with revolutionary Mexico.

He is not an idealistic revolutionary; rather, he is a provincial cacique and a capital magnate.

At every moment, he risks his life without considering how he will be judged by his family or friends.

His actions are driven by his own desires and ambitions, as he navigates the ever-changing political and social landscape of Mexico.

Artemio Cruz represents the contradictions and challenges of the revolutionary era, where power and wealth were constantly up for grabs.

His story is a reflection of the larger historical context in which he lives, and serves as a reminder of the sacrifices and struggles that accompanied the pursuit of change.

Overall, Artemio Cruz is a fascinating and multi-faceted character whose life and experiences offer valuable insights into the nature of revolution and its impact on individuals and society.

Artemio Cruz lies in his deathbed at the hospital. He is a tough man, advanced in age, who has lived a full life. The author describes this life in the third person. This man was born in very harsh conditions, which we learn about almost at the end of the book. He grew up, fought in the Mexican Revolution for those who believed there should be a redistribution of land to the poor, but ultimately became a cruel exploiter. He married the sister of a comrade who died simply for money and property. This transformation follows him in other aspects of his life where he cheats, steals, corrupts, and exploits his old comrades and eventually even beats his own children. However, he still has a conscience, which mainly finds its voice towards the end. It speaks to him with "You... You who did all these things, now these will happen to you...". And finally, the greatest punishment for Cruz is his ability to see, hear, and convey to us all that happens during the last 12 hours of his life. With "I... I am helpless in a bed, above me doctors, priests, clerks with the will, my family who hates me... All are waiting for something, demanding something from me."

This book was not what we call love at first sight. It requires a lot of work, a lot of attention, a lot of patience. But when you give it all these things, it draws you in. Should I start with the discovery of the three-person narrative, which is the most unique and difficult I have read? Should I talk about Fuentes' writing, which turns the author into a supreme poet with somewhat allegorical images that leave you speechless? Should I mention the way thoughts flow on the page like a river, often incomprehensibly? I would say that these points that make it difficult for the reader in this very demanding book are ultimately also its most enchanting. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the disposition and patience to let it in. From there on, it will leave you speechless.

"It will pass, it must pass. But there is so little time, why don't they let me remember? Yes, when the body was young. Once it was young, it was young. Ah, the body is dying in pain, but the brain is flooded with light. They are separating, I know how they are separating... "

"I don't know... I don't know... If this is me... If you are this... If I am all three... You... I carry you inside me... And you will die with me... God... This one... I carried him inside me and he will die with me... The three... Who spoke... I will carry him inside me and he will die with me... Alone... "

It could have been a great poem or a profound philosophical essay on life. Instead, it is an epilogue. A deathbed rattle.

We usually appreciate something when we lose it. How much more so when that something is our very own life, as in the case of Artemio Cruz.

During the last hours of Artemio Cruz, his life passes before his eyes like a flash, dimmed by the approaching death. With the same speed, we also follow the more recent history of Mexico.

The peculiarity of this deathbed rattle is its narration, where the "I" alternates with the "you" and the "he". Carlos Fuentes writes in the first person singular ("I"), as Artemio Cruz on his deathbed, in the second person singular ("you"), as a strict critic of the mistakes in his life, and in the third person singular ("he"), as the narrator of the main stages that marked the protagonist.

The story of Artemio Cruz is read in one breath, just as it seems to have been written, like a man who is dying and manages to taste, smell, hear, feel and see his own life.

PS. The novel can be accompanied by the sounds of the rusty Americana of Castanets or Woven Hand, with alternations from "Delirium Cordia" by Fantomas.