Best latin american literature books according to redditors
We found 20 Reddit comments discussing the best latin american literature books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 20 Reddit comments discussing the best latin american literature books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Please, please, please don't suggest anything by Coelho to anyone. He's one of the worst writers in America. If you think Coelho is good it's because you haven't read anything of what Latin America has to offer, so let me drop some titles for you:
And that's just to name a few. The titles lead to the Amazon pages.
Ps. If you want the books to read in your Kindle or something, PM because I know a guy and can pass you the file.
While I appreciate the completeness of that collection, I much prefer the translations in Labyrinths. It's amazing how much difference the translation makes in the reading experience.
I'm going to recommend a couple of pieces of good historical fiction (two novels and a film).
First, El Siglo de las Luces, by Alejo Carpentier. Amazing novel. In the more concrete sense, it follows several Cuban elites as the live and travel around the Caribbean, France, and Spain, during the French Revolution and in view of its impact on the Caribbean (such as the Haitian Revolution). It is based on a good bit of historical research, with amusing tidbits like how Barbados has a tombstone dedicated to one of the last Palaiologos (last Byzantine dynasty), who ended up as a priest, dying in a quaint town in the middle of the Caribbean. The most interesting part is how Carpentier attempts to understand the real life figure of Victor Hugues; a French Revolutionary who begins as a firm Jacobin but is able to survive and even thrive despite the Revolution steadily turning to the right and against all his original ideals. Really well done attempt at a psychological study of how people's minds change during revolution. Also a really cool portrait of late 18th century Cuba, for those interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Explosion-Cathedral-Alejo-Carpentier/dp/081663808X/ref=sr_1_1/180-1048995-7027924?ie=UTF8&qid=1449859433&sr=8-1&keywords=explosion+in+the+cathedral
Another novel, The War of the End of the World (also translatable as 'War at the Ends of the Earth'), by Vargas Llosa. It is a 200+ character historical novel following the seemingly self-contradictory rebellion in Canudos, in the impoverished North East of the country. The book is a great study not only in what happened in Canudos but also how people attempt and fail to understand contemporary events. It is a study in how everyone was blinded by their own ideological presumptions about what was going on in Canudos and interpreted it however they wished; as a Revolutionary uprising of the people, as a backwards reaction of the clergy, and the misguided fanaticism of the uneducated.
http://www.amazon.com/War-World-Mario-Vargas-Llosa/dp/0312427980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449859745&sr=8-1&keywords=war+of+the+end+of+the+world
Film wise, I'd suggest Fernando Pérez' master work El Ojo del Canario (Eye of the Canary), about the early years of José Martí. Martí is famous for reorganizing the Cuban independence movement from exile and dying in combat shortly after the second independence war was ignited (1895). This film follows his early years (12-16) when he began to glimpse the injustices of the Spanish regime, began his own pro-independence newspaper (at 16) and was sent to forced labor camps where he was on the verge of death before having his sentence commuted to simple exile instead of brutal work in the quarries. The film is also highly important in contemporary Cuba since its release less than five years ago, since it has important sections where democracy and the importance of standing up for what is right are portrayed in obvious allusions to contemporary Cuban politics. The part where Martí goes on a rant against the repression of his free speech make me, as a Cuban American, get goosebumps everytime. The idea that this was filmed, produced, and shown in contemporary Cuba hints at how censorship has diminished in recent years.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cuban-movie-Jose-Marti-El-Ojo-del-Canario-NEW-Cuban-DVD-/121287176231
For history suggestions, don't forget /r/history
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Looking quickly at their excellent reading/watching list, https://www.reddit.com/r/history/wiki/recommendedlist
I see this:
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Latin American/Caribbean History
General
South America
Central America
Dante is a pretty traditional part of the Western canon, but you can probably make the argument if you try.
Some other books to consider (and I'll even give you male protags):
(And I know you probably don't have time to read any/all of these before school starts, but they're good books to be aware of, and you should check them out if you can.)
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
Read these years ago, but they still resonate with me.
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Where There's Love, There's Hate by Silvina Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares (who has a couple great novellas worth checking out)
2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Bolaño also has The Skating Rink, although that one takes place in a fictional Spanish town.
The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin
Is this the book you would suggest https://www.amazon.com/Aleph-Other-Stories-1933-1969-Autobiographical/dp/0525051546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497812446&sr=8-1&keywords=norman+thomas+di+giovanni ?
First of all, I absolutely must also follow in Urbinsanity's suggestion of A.N Whitehead's 'Adventures of ideas' - it is a wonderful book.
I do not know of any 'defining book' on the study of ontology unfortunately, but I would also join in suggesting "Metaphysics an Introduction" along with bitemydickallthetime, given what I've heard on the book.
Also, I'd strongly suggest Process and Reality if you have a few years to spare, or Modes of thought if you have a few weeks (perhaps less!).
And for the more 'interesting'/'strange' stuff, I always go with Leibniz's Monadology.
Oh! and I don't know how well-corroborated this suggestion would be, but I have always found the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges to be ripe with notions strongly involved in metaphysics and ontology. Labyrinths is a great place to look in this regards - especially if you're looking for something a bit 'lighter' than direct works on ontology.
Jorge Luis Borges. He doesn't exactly write scifi, but his short stories' are very good. He is also very good at fitting big ideas into concise spaces, i.e. On exactitude in science
I think many stories in Labyrinths border on scifi, they just lack space travel and ray guns.
http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Melancholy-Whores-Gabriel-Marquez/dp/1400095948/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229871891&sr=8-1
perverted account of 90 year-old getting it on with 14 year old virgin. who's also a prostitute.
Ah, I envy you - I could never wrap my brain around anything related to language (had enough trouble learning Spanish!) and I'm sure I could have done more with my career had I been a bit better with it. In any case, to jump start your Nahuatl and help you better prepare for any future research you do, I suggest you think about buying this:
http://www.amazon.com/Codex-Chimalpopoca-Nahuatl-Glossary-Grammatical/dp/0816502455
Not only is it cheap and a native source but so does it offer a side-by-side comparison of the English translation and the source text; along with a great deal of information on language structure/symbolic references. While we're on the subject of Leon-Portilla, he also put out a book that contains a collection of poems from the Aztecs which are also in Nahuatl. Project Gutenburg should have some materials too - I found this after a quick scan:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21802
Good luck!
Red Sorghum by Mo Yan - brutal Marquez-esque magical realism during WWII-era China.
Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado - a gang of children and adolescents run rampant on the streets of Bahia, Brazil.
Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui - a really odd novel involving machines that can invade people's dreams. Very weird and fun.
Tombstone by Yeng Jisheng - the most thorough and brutal account you'll ever read of the Chinese Famine of 1958-62. Much talk of cannibalism and insect-nutrition charts.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Basho - it's both a collection of haiku by one of the medium's acknowledged masters and an idiosyncratic travel narrative of 1600s Japan.
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - a great first Marquez to recommend to people who don't yet want to take the One Hundred Years of Solitude plunge.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - one of the few books I've read more than twice.
The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie by Agota Kristof - a trilogy of short novels about distance and isolation in Europe during and after World War II. The three books form a narrative that contradicts itself, doubles back and retells events, and generally messes with your head until you're not sure what to believe.
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino - my favorite of Calvino's works. This is a collection of short stories about and narrated by heavenly bodies, mathematical formulae, supreme beings. They're basically cosmic fairy tales.
I have two books which I always tell people to read if they haven't. All Book lovers will enjoy them, so I hope you get to them even if I don't win (BTW: Thanks!).
First is: A Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has a great magical realism vibe, and is told backwards in time. Short, interesting and downright awesome.
Second is: The first book of the Kingkiller Chronicles, The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the beginning of a fantasy series that you will get sucked into. If you think fantasy is all rainbows, magic and faeries, this book will show you an entirely new dimension.
What a great reading list you have created so far, my book club will be happy to see all of this! Happy reading!
Also note that we have a mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/redditbostonbookclub
This is a more recent book so it's not on Gutenberg. Amazon.com for it here: http://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-Foretold-Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez/dp/140003471X/ref=la_B000AQ1JWC_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1367428835&sr=1-4
You're unlikely to find Ecuadorian authors that write in English. The history of our country and its analysis from an academic standpoint generally only interests Ecuadorians. Consequently, books written by Ecuadorians are in Spanish, and they are not translated. I'm sorry but I don't know any books which you could read. I think you should find books in English regardless of the nationality of the author. These two books seem like a good start.
I really appreciate the fact that you are trying to learn and connect with your heritage. Being a history bluff I love it when people are eager to educate themselves. Don't mind the ruder replies. If you can understand and speak Spanish, you are already halfway to fluency. Reading it is actually easy since words are read the same as they are written. If you want to improve your written Spanish, we could practice together. After that, you could read books about Ecuador's history by Ecuadorians in Spanish.
They're not for everyone. But they're good. My whole class read the Alchemist and while most people liked it, not a lot of them loved it. It completely changed my way of thinking and my life. But the story is a little boring. I'd reccommend Eleven Minutes as a first read. Or The Zahir or The Winner Stands Alone. Those are quite a bit more modern. I haven't actually read the Winner Stands Alone yet, but its actually set at the Cannes Film Festival.