Neruda's Canto General is a poetic retelling of the history of South and Central America from the late pre-Columbian era to the middle of the twentieth century. The book is set up like a novel, with chapters and subheadings, a straight-line narration, and a cast of characters. Neruda's communist ideology is visible throughout the work and is a major theme. Canto General leaves the reader with an interesting impression of American history seen through the eyes of the impoversihed people of South America, as well as an idea of how third-world communists perceive reality. This is truly an excellent work, and should be read by everyone.

This is one of Neruda's greatest books. It is a jorney through the history of the American Continent, from its creation, to its conquest until the present day. Most readers will know it from its chapter 'Hights of Machu Picchu' but it is certainly more than that.

It is a review of 500 hundred years of history, of war, of love, of betray. Obviously the book is a reflection of Neruda's left wing inclination, but that only adds to the book.

In Chile and other parts of Latin America this book is called "The American Bible" and it truly is. Along with Residencia en la Tierra, it is probably Neruda's finest. And is probably the book in which Neruda became what he though his role as a poet ought to be "a voice for all who had no voice".

If you must read only one book from the Modern Latin American Literature (and this certainly would be a great mistake, if not a crime), then it should be this one. Canto General is a single poem, and yet it is a collection of poems. It is a historical epic, a social analysis, a political pamphlet, and a love sonnet. It is a song of Love and a song of Revolt, a personal song as well as a universal one; a song which whispers tenderly in your ear, and a song that screams against injustice with a loud forceful voice. It is Pablo Neruda's song and it is Chile's song, but it is truly America's song, North and South.

Written in Neruda's lyrical and mellifluous style, Canto General speaks with passion, lucidity, and even premonition of the heavy burden of social injustice and the brutality of tyrannical rule. But it also speaks with overflowing sensuality of love (for women, for the people, for his country). It would be unconscionable not to absorb and understand this book in its social and historical context, yet it would be a great mistake to view it uniquely as a political work of expression.

Read it to understand the Americas. Read it to revel in the beauty of its language. Read it to feel proud and to feel ashamed, to laugh and to cry. Read it in English (good), in Spanish (much better), or even in French (why not?)

I first read Canto General in French at the age of 15. I may since have forgotten some of the words in this book, but its impact and its spirit will probably remain with me for the rest of my life....

this masterpiece should be required reading for everyone. no film will ever do this book justice. the complexity of the characters, the wonder of the stories, all add up to the best reading. if you can read it in Spanish, even better, but this is probably the best translation available. part 2 is not as good as part 1, but it is the best conclusion possible to the adventures of the hidalgo from la mancha...but even if u read only part 1, it still is very enjoyable. every page is funny, every adventure relevant. this book is the first of the modern western novels, and still the best.

This translation of Don Quixote fearlessly brings everyday language, bawdiness, and poetry to the timeless tale. Although the choice of using current slang may be a controversial one for some readers, it succeeds in giving the story an immediacy and restores the humor that was missing from more genteel translations. The novel is interesting because the two parts, written at different points in the author's life, have distinct styles and narrative structure. Just when the reader begins to fear that the plot will involve an endless string of ill-fated choices on the two protagonists' part, the second half of the novel introduces some devilish supporting characters to stir up trouble. Although this edition of the novel is nearly 1000 pages long, the chapters fly by quickly.

The phrase 'ahead of it's time' is such a cliche that I tend to avoid it all together. Unfortunately, when trying to describe Don Quixote, no better phrase comes to mind. Written in the 1500's, this book is perhaps the first modern comedy. In Don Quixote's squire, Sancho Panza, you'll find traits later used in the ingenius Dickens' character Samuel Weller (Pickwick Papers) some 300 years later. And the craft of the language used by the translator of this new edition, along with their reassuring preface, gives me the impression that very little was lost in this translation, or at least this translation loses the least of other translations.

This book, which is a little over 1000 pages (though heavily laden with appendixes) is a great read, and the only complaint I have is the clumsy handling of the translator's notes. There is a lot of Latin quoting in the book, along with references to other chivalric novels, and rather than simply supplying a foot note, they've decided to place all of these in the back of the book, which add a lot of page flipping and unnecessary interruptions to your reading if you want to know and understand everything that's happening. Hopefully in the next edition of this translation, they will correct this. I gave this book 5 stars because it's such an excellent book in itself excellently translated, that I decided it more than worthy of the rating, but if the lack of foot notes bothers you, you may want to disqualify it.

Marti was a prodigy, a genius, yet he is little known in the U.S. either for his prose or poetry. Those who have heard of him may associate him with Radio Marti or know him as a Cuban revolutionary.

While this beautifully rendered translation includes a broad spectrum of Marti's works, some not previously translated, his descriptions of America in the latter half ot the nineteenth century are by themselves sufficient reason to buy this book.

Marti, coming from a different culture, sees things about America that we do not, and he describes them with a passion lacking in the reportage of his North American contemporaries.

Here at last--in English--is a comprehensive selection of Martí's writing, translated by a masterful hand. It leaves all other attempts at this task far behind. Esther Allen meets the challenges of Martí's exuberant and complex style with extraordinary success. This book will be a landmark text for college courses on Martí as a Latin American and Latino writer, and is an excellent introduction for the general public. Bravo to all involved in this effort to bring Martí to American readers!

The Cuban character, as it turns out, is not so much a development of the post-Castro trauma in which so many Cuban-Americans live but rather the expression of a deep and inescapable sense of exile. In this gorgeous, captivating translation of Marti's writings--some appearing in English for the first time--this 19th century journalist and poet is truly the epic voice of the Cuban people, articulating their pathos and homesickness in his dispatches from New York, putting his finger into the wounds of their suffered humanity in his poetry and travelogues. An elegant, profound picture of the Cuban soul, long before the Ilan Gonzalez events cast such an unfriendly light upon it.

Every student of Latin American literature should read this book, which is the most compelling critical perspective in the field today.

Don Quixote is a timeless classic which revolves around the adventures or misadventures of a hopeful knight-errant in an era where chilvary no longer exist and the age of knights gone.

Miguel de Cervantes was born in the middle 1500s Spain in the city of Toledo. Later in his life he served his country by participating in the military for approximately five years. On his return to Spain he was abrutly captured by a Turkish fleet. Cervantes lived in slavery for five years before his family raised enough ransom for his return. It was after his military years that Miguel de Cervantes created his most famous works, "Don Quixote".

"Don Quixote" is a funny, witty story that is a joy to read. A downside is that its older writing language could make reading rather tedious at times and difficult to understand. Other then this little flaw, "Don Quixote" is a great story that needs to be told. It is amazing how Miguel de Cervantes pokes humor at the human soul with his dipiction of the irony of a knight-errant who has devoted his cause to love even though chilvary is dead and true knights gone.

Don Quixote is Alonso Quixada, an aging country gentleman of some means who spends his days, as his niece describes it, "reading much and eating little." One day he impetuously decides to become a knight-errant--champion of the oppressed and savior of damsels in distress. He announces to the dismay of his household that he is now to be called Don Quixote of the Mancha and begins making preparations for a journey of great adventure.

Accompanying him on his quest is Sancho Panza, a dimwitted village peasant who agrees to become Quixote's faithful squire in return for the promise of an island when their adventures are through. Together they roam the Spanish countryside in search of chivalrous deeds to perform.

Early in the journey, Quixote meets a young peasant woman named Aldonca. In his imaginary world she becomes Dulcinea del Toboso, his beloved lady fair. From then on he strives to win honor in her name and become worthy of her love.

The story follows the misadventures of Quixote and Panza as they encounter rogues, scholars and noblemen along the way. Among these nobles are the Duke and Duchess who entertain themselves by making sport of and mocking the two men. Throughout it all, Quixote's family and friends seek to bring him home safe and sane.

The book is a classic and a joy to read, everyone should read this utterly delightful book. About the translation: this is a top-flight translation for sure and since the translator is british the language does have a british flare to it at times, e.g. "bloody hell!". While I personally prefer to Raffel translation, you can't go wrong with this quality production. Buy this now!

In the months that have passed since the publication of RGE's monumental book on Cuban baseball history the nature and value of his work has slowly come more clearly into focus. The dedicated scholar-author is to be praised for his valuable contribution in providing rich detail on the early years of Cuban baseball not found in other English-language sources. But as David Skinner has pointed out in a recent on-target review in the scholarly journal NINE (Canadian Scholars' Press), Professor Gonzalez has throughout engaged in a good deal of mythmaking of his own. While RGE provides many delighful nuggets about early Cuban baseball and Negro league barnstorming on the island, and while he also does service for monolingual baseball enthusiasts by translating into English accounts and statistics from early seasons heretofore found only in Spanish-language books like those of Raul Diez Muro and Angel Torres, Skinner emphasizes rightly that there are many shortcomings in PRIDE OF HAVANA as a comprehensive history of Cuba's national pastime. RGE's heavy anti-Castro's politics causes him to lace the 40s and 50s era "Golden Age" with a thick coat of unwarranted nostalgia (baseball was actually near its death-knell in Cuba at the time), to dismiss the exciting and competitive brand of Cuban League baseball played after the revolution as totally worthless and unworthy of detailed chronicle, and to ignore the crucial fact (which should be central to any comprehensive history of island baseball) that the sport has only been national in its scope in Cuba after 1962 (the professional league which ended in 1961 was restrict to the city of Havana). Skinner's review also underscores other shortcomings: facts of Negro League barnstorming in Cuba are often presented without documentation and sometimes even inaccurtate; abilities and accomplishments of recent defectors and Cuban-born major leaguers are highly exaggerated (especially the claim that one-dimensional slugger Jose Canseco is perhaps the best-ever Cuban born player, rather than Martin Dihigo or Tony Oliva or Luis Tiant Jr.); legitimate island stars like Omar Linares, Jose Ibar and Jose Contreras are taken lightly because "they have not played against major leaguers," and the outright dismissal of the past forty years of Cuban baseball development (about one-third of the time frame covered by the saga of Cuban baseball) undermines any claim for a full-scale comprehensive history of the subject. THE PRIDE OF HAVANA has its many merits. But if one wants to see the true coloration of RGE's approach and discover what is missing in this rather incomplete history of Cuban baseball, an excellent start is David Skinner's perceptive review (NINE, Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2000).

This book filled many voids for me with regard to the history of Cuban baseball. It is especially good in discussing the heyday of Cuban baseball in the twenties and thirties. Like one of the other reviewers, though, I was dissappointed that the author did not discuss baseball since the revolution in greater detail.

I loved this book! From the very beginning Gonzalez Echavarria had me smelling the air in a Cuban baseball satdium and feeling the tension in the crowd as the pitchers winds up.

But what this book truly delivers, is a history lesson to those who think they know Cuban baseball, which has often been "presented" through American eyes (such as PBS specials or even through Ken Burns' documentary on Baseball).

Cubans not only exported baseball through Latin America, but because of the paradox of the intense Cuban racism at the amateur level and integrated leagues at the professional level, many young black Cuban players found fame and fortune in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other places (including the Negro Leagues in the US), while many US professional Negro Leagues got to play alogside white US teammates in professional Cuban teams. Even the virulent Ty Cobb!

It also tells the stories of Cuban legends - such as Adolfo Luque - who played in the US Major Leagues in the 20's through the 60's - both as pitcher and manager in a time when white Cubans were allowed to play US professional baseball while their talented black countrymen couldn't.

This is a must read - from a Cuban perspective - for fans of baseball - not just Cuban baseball!

There are too many stories here that can not be called great literature. Latin American writing is better than this! This anthology does it a great disservice.