"Artemio Cruz's Death" is one of the best examples of the stream of consciousness in Latin American literature. Most of the novel consists of the inner and mental dialogue and the description of the narrator's state. His mind is constantly in a state of flux, depicting the events related to the Mexican Revolution and how he drifted away from his dreams. Some parts of the novel criticize the Catholic Church's ideas, which consider the search for truth and justice as a kind of ingratitude and say that one should be content with what exists because life is short and one should not pursue lofty ideals. In this novel, Carlos Fuentes not only criticizes the situation after the Mexican Revolution but also criticizes the conservative ideas of the Catholic Church.

This work provides a profound exploration of the human psyche and the social and political context of the time. It shows how the past haunts the present and how people struggle to come to terms with their experiences. The use of the stream of consciousness technique adds a layer of complexity and authenticity to the narrative, making the reader feel as if they are inside the protagonist's mind.

Overall, "Artemio Cruz's Death" is a remarkable work of literature that continues to be relevant today. It challenges our assumptions and makes us think about the meaning of life, the role of the church, and the consequences of revolution.

I don't know... I don't know... whether that is me... or you were him... I am myself in any case... you... I have you within myself and you will die with me... God... he... I had him within myself and he will die with me... three people... who said... I... I will have him with me and he will die with me... only

from the text of the book-


Another masterpiece of Foennts...

This passage seems to convey a sense of confusion and existential pondering. The narrator is unsure about their identity and the nature of their relationships. The repeated phrases "I don't know" and "will die with me" emphasize the uncertainty and finality that pervades the text. The reference to three people and the idea of having someone within oneself add an element of mystery. It makes the reader wonder about the significance of these individuals and the connection they have with the narrator. Overall, it is a thought-provoking and somewhat enigmatic piece that leaves room for interpretation and further exploration.

Seventy-one-year-old Artemio Cruz is on the verge of death.

He is an extremely wealthy and powerful individual, having been made ruthless, godless, and corrupt by his difficult childhood and his experiences as a soldier during the Mexican revolution. During this time, he cheated death several times and endured and committed betrayals.

After the revolution, through corrupt dealings and the use of force for self-aggrandizement, he amassed great wealth. Now, he owns vast tracts of land, numerous companies, a newspaper, and is a major political figure in his own right.

He has a wife and a daughter whom he despises and knows despise him in return. His wife blames him for the death of their only son, who died fighting in the Spanish civil war, perhaps attempting to emulate his father's (fraudulent) heroics during the Mexican civil war but unable to replicate his survival. Artemio Cruz truly loved his son. He also had another love: a prostitute whom he kidnapped during the civil war and later fell in love with. He treasures the memory of her because it was a love bestowed upon him when he was still a nobody.

It is unclear what has afflicted him. Perhaps it is a stroke, cancer, or a combination of both. Artemio Cruz hears, recalls, and vaguely sees images. But he is in pain, unable to speak, and immobilized. Maybe it is due to the premise of the plot, or perhaps it is the author's style, but this book seems to exist in a state of perpetual delirium, like the mutterings of a brilliant poet with a high fever, hovering between life and death, and describing fleeting glimpses of heaven and hell.

A Warrior's Wish
A Look at "The Death of Artemio Cruz" by Carlos Fuentes

Whenever you pick up a book by Fuentes, you must know that you are likely to deal with the Mexican Revolution and the critique of its aftermath. This revolution is different from other Latin American revolutions. Seeing the bloody history of Mexico through Fuentes' eyes is a special and poetic experience. "The Death of Artemio Cruz" can be regarded as an experimental novel. A novel that deals with a part of Mexican history from Fuentes' perspective. Some people consider "The Death of Artemio Cruz" as a stream of consciousness novel, but this view, according to the common definitions of this perspective, cannot well introduce the form and perspective of the work. Fuentes wrote this novel in 1962, the same year he started writing "Aura" (his most famous work in Iran). "The Death of Artemio Cruz" is Fuentes' most famous novel in the world, a novel that made him global and introduced Fuentes to the world with this work.

The structure of this novel is in the form of inner monologues along with a third-person perspective (in the form of I, you, and he). Throughout the novel, we accompany the seventy-year-old protagonist who is on the hospital bed and requests that a taped recording of his words and conversations be brought to him and played. At times in the story, this seventy-year-old protagonist, who is Artemio Cruz, falls asleep, and we witness his inner dialogue with himself and the sounds he makes and the memories he recalls, which take us back to his past. A time when he was a colonel in uniform in the sweltering heat of the Mexican Revolution and the civil war, fighting on the side of the forces of Venustiano Carranza against Francisco Pancho Villa. The narratives are presented in the form of his inner monologues or in the second person, and a personal voice from outside or inside him speaks and advances the story. Artemio Cruz is not a completely positive hero in the sense of a white character, nor is he black. We get to know him in all his aspects as a human being, from his sincere loves to sleeping with a prostitute, from his loyalty to his cunning and sacrificing his dreams for his own survival.

As mentioned, Fuentes wrote this novel in 1962, the year he began writing "Aura" and five years later, in 1967, he wrote another novel called "The Skin of Man" which won the Biblioteca Breve Prize from Barcelona. This book, according to critics, is his greatest work. These works are very similar to each other in terms of structure and content. Fuentes writes in a part of "The Death of Artemio Cruz":

Faces are inherited, kind and strange and aimless faces, aimless in the sense that they do everything today, they say everything today, they are in the present and present in the "present": they say "tomorrow" because tomorrow is not important to them: you are the future without having a future, you spend today thinking about the future: they are tomorrow because they only live today

This paragraph defines the content and essence not only of "The Death of Artemio Cruz" but also of many of Carlos Fuentes' novels, that the present is important and we should live in the present, that yesterday, tomorrow, and today are one (something that we can feel well in the novel "Aura"). Or elsewhere in the novel, we read that our view of the past is like our view of a star, the glow of that star照亮 our present world, although that star may have died billions of years ago.

Carlos Fuentes deals with the subject of hope in an article titled "How I Wrote Aura". Perhaps this key word is the essence and summary of Fuentes' world view. Like existentialists such as Buddha, Fuentes knows the sufferings of man and also the movements and actions of man as a result of his hope. He uses this well in explaining the eroticism and sexuality of his works. He believes that the attraction of a man to a woman and the need of a woman to a man are due to their hope for each other and their movements are due to that hope. Something that, if it goes away, if it disappears, those movements and those actions, especially and perhaps the sufferings resulting from them, will disappear. Artemio Cruz is no exception to this rule. A seventy-year-old man who is now on the bed and in agony, dealing with the search for his past hopes, hopes that are no longer or are no longer like the past.

Artemio Cruz is dying and he begins to recall the moments that explain why he has become what he is.

It is a complex narrative,穿梭于过去与现在之间, that manages to show not only the life of this character but also the fragments of Mexico's history in the first half of the 20th century.

Regarding the writing itself, it is easily evident why Fuentes is always placed alongside García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Donoso, and Cortázar. Both in the beauty and the care of his prose, as well as in the unconventional structure of his novel.

The only flaw of this novel is that there are some episodes that are exceptionally well-written and narrated, while there are others that are just good. The above makes the reading feel a bit irregular, and at times, the rhythm is lost. Perhaps it is a cost of having an unconventional structure.

Despite this minor flaw, the novel remains a remarkable work that offers a deep and engaging exploration of a character's life and the historical context in which he lived. It is a testament to Fuentes' skill as a writer and his ability to create a vivid and unforgettable world on the page.

The Death of Artemio Cruz, a literary masterpiece by Carlos Fuentes, was published in 1962. It holds a significant place as a classic and a milestone in both Mexican and Latin American literature. This book delves into the Mexican Revolution, a topic about which I have little knowledge. I firmly believe that if I wish to fully comprehend the story, I will need to reread it someday. There is an abundance of content to learn and assimilate, and I suspect I may have overlooked a great deal.

The story is narrated by the protagonist, Artemio Cruz, who lies on his deathbed, reminiscing about the events of his life. His family is gathered around, eager to listen to his tales and gain a better understanding of him. A priest is also present, offering the last rites and hoping for a deathbed confession. To further complicate matters, his personal secretary is there with audiotapes of some of Mr Cruz's dealings, which reveal his life mired in corruption.

As a young man, Artemio Cruz was naive, innocent, and open. However, as life became increasingly difficult, especially during the war, he grew more cynical. This cynicism ultimately led to his involvement in corruption. Eventually, he became a politician, a tycoon, and a journalist, but he was far from a nice man.

The power of this book lies in the meandering nature of the narrative. Cruz endures a prolonged death and shares the unreliable account of his life. This is significant and powerful due to the ephemeral and untrustworthy nature of memory. Coupled with the fact that this man has no real inclination or propensity for honesty, we are compelled to question his version of events.

Years have passed and millionaire Artemio Cruz recalls his entire life on his deathbed.

Death is not always easy and is always terrifying until his face is not revealed, but it is especially difficult when looking back, he only sees revolution, blood, tears, loss of money, wasted love...

Beside him is his family, which tries to comfort him but does not think about your physical and spiritual condition, but rather how to get your inheritance...

What will be ahead? Perhaps a painful illness... That which Carlos Fuentes describes so vividly...

La Muerte de Artemio Cruz = The Death of Artemio Cruz, Carlos Fuentes

The Death of Artemio Cruz, written by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes in 1962, is a significant work in the Latin American Boom. It tells the story of Artemio Cruz, a complex and corrupt figure who has been a soldier, politician, journalist, tycoon, and lover. As he lies on his deathbed, he recalls the events that have shaped his life, from the Mexican Revolution to the development of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. His family gathers around, eager to know the location of his will. A priest administers the last rites, hoping for a deathbed confession and reconciliation with the Church, while Artemio has obscene thoughts about the birth of Jesus. His private secretary arrives with audiotapes of his corrupt dealings, many of which involve gringo diplomats and speculators. Throughout this sordid tale of betrayal, Cruz is acutely aware of his failing body and his intense attachment to the sensual pleasures of life. Eventually, his thoughts fade away, and he succumbs to death.

This novel has been published in Iran under different titles, such as "مرگ آرتیمو کروز" and "مرگ آرتمیو کروز". It has been translated into Persian by Mehdi Sabahi and Mehshid Zargham. The book is considered one of the best examples of the stream of consciousness genre in Latin American literature. A large part of the novel consists of the inner thoughts and dialogues of the narrator, as he reflects on the events of the revolutionary era and how he drifted away from his own dreams. The novel also critiques the Church's ideas, suggesting that the search for truth and justice is a kind of ingratitude and that one should be content with what exists, as life is short and one should not pursue lofty ideals. Carlos Fuentes, in this novel, not only criticizes the post-revolutionary conditions in Mexico but also the outdated ideas of the Church.

Ay Dios mío, at times I don't even know how to begin to give my opinion. But let's see, first things first. What is this book about? On his deathbed, Artemio Cruz dedicates himself to remembering parts of his life that start to present him to the reader not as a great man, but as an antihero, a revolutionary, chauvinist, and coward who ends up being'successful' and yet, life escapes him.

There are many interesting things in the novel. The main one is undoubtedly the way the story is structured. Circular narration and in three different persons: thirteen chapters divided into three parts (he, I, you) and starting with him dying and ending with him dying. I think it has been an incredible way to tell the story because by the middle you still don't fully know what is happening, with various comments made by his wife and daughter in the'supposed' present. Especially his childhood, which you basically know towards the end. The protagonist is also very complex. He is not a character you get attached to and I think to a certain extent he manages to evoke contradictory feelings, between contempt and pity. The truth is that there is still a certain misogynistic tone as in most of the works of the time, but I know well that I shouldn't think of them as in the 21st century. The point is, it's recommended and I loved it.

This book was quite good. At the beginning, it wasn't very easy to keep track of who was who in this story. It's a book that progresses by jumping between four or five different time periods. Moreover, the author, without any prior introduction or providing background, talked about the characters as if we already had an opinion about them, so I struggled for the first fifty or sixty pages. But over time, I got used to this way of narration.

The reasons for Cruz's change were not very well explained. The psychological or material reasons for the transition from a revolutionary front to a landowner front were left out. However, if we consider the last 25 - 30 pages of the book, we can see that it is emphasized that Cruz was already a character who squeezed the life and drained the water out of it because of the blood he already carried. (I really loved the last thirty pages, the pages that returned to Cruz's childhood...) That is, no matter what, there is an emphasis in the book that he would still be such a strong and powerful character. Also, I sensed a belief in the author that people's'selves' would come out in every way. When it became clear what kind of a person Cruz's father was, we also started to perceive the ideas of 'cycle' and 'blood/self'.

A solid knowledge of the Mexican Civil War should be obtained beforehand for this book. Neither the characters are explained nor the slightest historical background is given. In short, it's like saying 'you should know'. A Mexican and I must be perceiving this book very differently.

"Ludivinia, I'm trying to remember how you were as a child," he continued. "I loved you then. When a mother is young, she loves all her children. As we get older, our minds fade more. No one has the right to be loved without reason. Blood ties are not a sufficient reason. The right reason, the one who is loved without reason, is deceived."

The passage about light and time on pages 295 - 296 is also excellent. Since it would be too long, there is no need to quote it. Buy the book and read it.

Page 230

There is always something that remains outside the painting table. Because the world that is drawn within the frame of the table must be pulled out and expanded. It must be full of other colors, other people, and other perspectives. Because it is with the help of these hidden parts that the painting takes shape and exists.

In fact, the elements outside the painting table play a crucial role in enriching and completing the painting. They bring in new vitality and diversity. Just like in real life, the things and people around us also have a profound impact on our growth and development. We should not only focus on what is within our immediate sight but also pay attention to the broader context and the hidden elements that may influence us.

By expanding our视野 and being open to new experiences and perspectives, we can better understand the complexity and beauty of the world. We can draw inspiration from the outside and use it to create more wonderful works of art or achieve greater success in our lives.

When I went to this book, I had no acquaintance with the font Fountains at all. And I must say that it was the most different book I have read and I haven't read a book similar to this so far. It is a book full of complexity and inner dialogues and one of the representative examples of the stream of consciousness.

Perhaps at the beginning, you may want to hit your head against the wall because of all this complexity. But when you move forward, the author gives you some clues that can make the identities of the characters clear and get out of the confused state. It was the first time that when I found the answer to my question on the following pages, I would go back and read that part again. It is a book full of details that you must have a pen in hand and keep taking notes beside the page. It is a difficult book and very challenging. In many places, I was annoyed by the non-linear and emotional narration because I didn't understand what was what. What is this narrative style? Maybe you think that with these interpretations of the book, I didn't like it! But you are wrong. I really liked it and I must say that I loved it and I can even say that it was excellent.

Well, let's get to its story and see what it is about. This story is defined from three perspectives. I, you, we.

"I" is Artemio Cruz on the verge of death. "You" is the narrator from the future.

"We" defines the general course of the story from the past to the present. The parts that the narrator "you" tells from the future are more different from the other parts. Because just as the future is vague and intertwined, this part is also narrated unclearly and gently.

Artemio Cruz was a revolutionary character during the Mexican civil war and went until the end of the guerrilla war but survived (how he survived is dealt with in the story). Gradually, this revolutionary character, with the use of land reforms, becomes the replacement of the village landlord and gradually enters the representation of the parliament. With the use of rents and obtaining rights that he knew were for himself, he reaches a position where he forgets his revolutionary dreams and patriotic spirit and turns from a revolutionary into a capitalist.... This story and the character Artemio Cruz represent the Mexican revolution, which started with excitement and enthusiasm from the beginning and is drawn to degradation, annihilation, and death with the passage of time and the distancing from its dreams.

*You will live seventy years without realizing it. You will never think that blood flows in your limbs, your heart beats... The activity of these organs is not due to your thought. You know that you breathe but you don't think about it because this act is not related to your thought. You don't show any concern for all these and you live... and you attribute the activity of your organs to themselves. Until today. Today, these involuntary activities in you make you think... The organs rebel against you because your promise is that instead of living, you will become aware of life. The victory of the organs.

*Left behind from the funeral to the present, left behind from the snow and the sun that buried it, left behind from its open eyes that the birds ate, something worse is also there. That you cannot remember him, that you can only remember him through his photos and the things that are left of him in the room and his books that he has written something on the margins. But from what can you smell the smell of his sweaty tension? Where can you find the color of his skin? Finally, until I don't see him and don't feel his smell, I can't remember him.

*You only discover the secret when your eyes are closed forever.

I wanted to give it 4 stars but I saw that it is cowardly not to give 5 stars to such a wise book.