The Orange Tree
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the five novellas that comprise The Orange Tree, Carlos Fuentes continues the passionate and imaginative reconstruction of past and present history that has distinguished Terra Nostra and The Campaign. From the story of Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean, to the fate of Hernan Cortes's two sons, to the destruction of the Spanish city of Numantia by the Romans and the annihilation of Hollywood by Acapulco, Fuentues couples the epic grandeur of the spiritual and the historical with the many pleasures of the flesh. "In The Orange Tree," he remarks, "I gather together not only all my most immediate sensual pleasures--I see, touch, peel, bite, swallow--but also the most primordial sensations: my mother, wet nurses, breasts, the sphere, the world, the egg." The result is a sensitive exploration of cultural conflict that is also a feast for the senses.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
These five bawdy, often tongue-in-cheek novellas seem at first to have little in common with the Mexican author's earlier work ( The Campaign , Terra Nostra ), but one finds similarities, particularly a focus on cultures in collision. ``The Two Shores'' describes the experiences of translators who compete for the attention of the conqueror Cortes. One is a shipwrecked Spanish soldier held captive by Aztecs, the other an Indian woman who becomes Cortes's mistress. Fuentes adds a twist to this tragic tale of betrayal and collusion--the soldier has fallen in love with Mexican culture and seeks to preserve it by feeding the explorer misleading information; the mistress is willing to destroy her native land in order to protect her own life. The less successful ``Sons of the Conquistador'' alternates narrators to provide a perspective on the fate of Cortes's two sons, one a legitimate heir, the other a bastard child. The hilarious ``Apollo and the Whores'' describes the death by heart attack--during a marathon copulation--of an aging movie star in Acapulco: the tale is dolefully narrated from beyond the grave. ``The Two Numantias'' is the bitter story of a Roman general's attempts to bring ``civilization'' to the ``barbarous'' Spanish. In ``The Two Americas,'' a 500-year-old Christopher Columbus encounters Japanese marketing men who are developing the mythical paradise of Antilia. While the quality of these narratives is uneven, Fuentes's technical prowess makes this collection enjoyable.
