A beautiful interpretation of pivotal Central American history told through contemporary illustration and language.
An illustrated retelling of the Mayan K’iche’ peoples’ text of creation.
This reimagination of the seminal text of K’iche’ mythology is the latest of many books by Latin American literature scholar Stavans, ranging from the history of Spanglish to studies of Gabriel García Márquez and Octavio Paz. Stavans’ work is “not a translation...but a recalibration” of the Popol Vuh, a text originally transcribed by Father Francisco Ximénez de Quesada, who arrived in today’s Chichicastenango, Guatemala, in 1701. Ximénez recorded the oral stories of creation told by the K’iche’ (or Quiché) people in phonetic Latin, which he then translated to Spanish. Stavans’ English translation attempts to modernize the language so that contemporary readers may slip into this mystical landscape of jungles and volcanoes, jaguars and feathered serpents, coyotes and people made of corn. Salvadoran illustrator Larios provides lush images to accompany stories of the Earth and the underworld, Xibalba, and the animals and gods that inhabit them. Magical capes, heads made of squash, flower-collecting ants, and messenger owls all turn the tides in K’iche’ history. Most important are Junajpu and Ixb’alanke, the hero twins, who avenge the deaths of their father and uncle by challenging the gods of the underworld to a ball game. The myth ends with the arrival of the bearded White man, which King Q’uq’umatz foresees in fear: “There will be blood running through the rivers. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers shall perish.” There are as many gods as in Greek or Roman mythology, and a list of characters is provided to guide the reader. Still, it may be difficult to grapple with the profundity of these stories without some knowledge of the history of the region.
A beautiful interpretation of pivotal Central American history told through contemporary illustration and language.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63206-240-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Restless Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A modern day fable, with modern implications in a deceiving simplicity, by the author of Dickens. Dali and Others (Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 138), whose critical brilliance is well adapted to this type of satire. This tells of the revolt on a farm, against humans, when the pigs take over the intellectual superiority, training the horses, cows, sheep, etc., into acknowledging their greatness. The first hints come with the reading out of a pig who instigated the building of a windmill, so that the electric power would be theirs, the idea taken over by Napoleon who becomes topman with no maybes about it. Napoleon trains the young puppies to be his guards, dickers with humans, gradually instigates a reign of terror, and breaks the final commandment against any animal walking on two legs. The old faithful followers find themselves no better off for food and work than they were when man ruled them, learn their final disgrace when they see Napoleon and Squealer carousing with their enemies... A basic statement of the evils of dictatorship in that it not only corrupts the leaders, but deadens the intelligence and awareness of those led so that tyranny is inevitable. Mr. Orwell's animals exist in their own right, with a narrative as individual as it is apt in political parody.
Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1946
ISBN: 0452277507
Page Count: 114
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1946
Jonathan Livingston Kitty, it’s not.
A lonely postman learns that he’s about to die—and reflects on life as he bargains with a Hawaiian-shirt–wearing devil.
The 30-year-old first-person narrator in filmmaker/novelist Kawamura’s slim novel is, by his own admission, “boring…a monotone guy,” so unimaginative that, when he learns he has a brain tumor, the bucket list he writes down is dull enough that “even the cat looked disgusted with me.” Luckily—or maybe not—a friendly devil, dubbed Aloha, pops onto the scene, and he’s willing to make a deal: an extra day of life in exchange for being allowed to remove something pleasant from the world. The first thing excised is phones, which goes well enough. (The narrator is pleasantly surprised to find that “people seemed to have no problem finding something to fill up their free time.”) But deals with the devil do have a way of getting complicated. This leads to shallow musings (“Sometimes, when you rewatch a film after not having seen it for a long time, it makes a totally different impression on you than it did the first time you saw it. Of course, the movie hasn’t changed; it’s you who’s changed") written in prose so awkward, it’s possibly satire (“Tears dripped down onto the letter like warm, salty drops of rain”). Even the postman’s beloved cat, who gains the power of speech, ends up being prim and annoying. The narrator ponders feelings about a lost love, his late mother, and his estranged father in a way that some readers might find moving at times. But for many, whatever made this book a bestseller in Japan is going to be lost in translation.
Jonathan Livingston Kitty, it’s not.Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-29405-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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