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The Book of Embraces

by Eduardo Hughes Galeano, Cedric Belfrage (Translator), Mark Schafer (Translator)

4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 · rating details · 1,214 ratings · 121 reviews

Parable, paradox, anecdote, dream, and autobiography blend into an exuberant world view and affirmation of human possibility.

Paperback, 288 pages

Published April 17th 1992 by W.W. Norton & Company (first published 1989)

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Oct 27, 2012 Dina Nabil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pdf

دائما ما اردد ان تركيبه الكتب تماما كتركيب الدواء: هناك الماده الفعاله و هناك الاضافات التى عاده ما يكون هدفها الاصلى هو تضخيم الحجم ليس اكثر...نفس الفكره هنا فالكتب تحوى ذلك الماده الفعاله الصغيره و المؤثره كما انها تحوى كثيرا من "التحابيش" اللغويه و الدراميه

لكن ليس "كتاب المعانقات" ففيه هناك فقط تلك الماده الفعاله البارقه..لا مكان هنا للاضافات و التشبيهات الخاليه من التأثير فطريقه كتاب الكتاب نفسها لا تسمح بهذا النوع من الترهات...كتاب مركز فى معناه و ليس مغشوشا ثقافيا

يتنقل بك الكاتب كالفراشه م...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful! Here are some of my favourite quotes:
The big bankers of the world, who practice the terrorism of money, are more powerful than kings. They never dirty their hands. They kill no one: they limit themselves to applauding the show. Their officials, technocrats, rule our countries: they are neither presidents nor ministers, they have not been elected, but they decide the level of salaries and public expenditure investments and divestments, prices, taxes, interest rates , subsidies…They do...more Wonderful! Here are some of my favourite quotes:
The big bankers of the world, who practice the terrorism of money, are more powerful than kings. They never dirty their hands. They kill no one: they limit themselves to applauding the show. Their officials, technocrats, rule our countries: they are neither presidents nor ministers, they have not been elected, but they decide the level of salaries and public expenditure investments and divestments, prices, taxes, interest rates , subsidies…They don’t concern themselves with the prisons or torture chambers…although these house the inevitable consequences of their acts. ‘We are neutral.’ They say.

‘You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to know that no carpet can hide the garbage of memory.”

“On May 1st no one [seems to] remember that the rights of the working class did not spring whole from the ear of a goat, or from the hand of God or the boss.”

Arturo Alape tells me that Manuel Marulanda Velez was not the real name of the famous Colombian guerrilla. Forty years ago when he became a rebel, his name was Pedro Antonio Marin. In those days, Marulanda was someone else: dark skinned, huge, a bricklayer by trade, and left handed in his way of thinking. When the police beat Marulanda to death, his comrades got together and decided that Marulanda could not be allowed to die. They unanimously gave the the name to Marin, who has used it ever since. The Mexican, Pancho Villa also bore the name of a friend murdered by police.

“Across the TV screens parade the elect and their symbols of power. The system, which builds the social pyramid from the top down, rewards few people. Here are the prize winners: well manicured usurers, merchants of expensive teeth, politicians with growing noses and doctors with rubber spines.”

“ Blatant colonialism mutilates you without pretense: it forbids you to talk, it forbids you to act, it forbids you to exist. Invisible colonialism, however, convinces you that serfdom is your destiny, and impotence is your nature: it convinces you that its not possible to speak, not possible to act, not possible to exist.”

“The Japanese painter, Hokusai, changed his name sixty times, to celebrate each of his sixty births.” (less)

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Feb 11, 2013 Aziza rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

الكتاب جميل وعميق جدا
كنت اضحك كثيرا من سخريته المفرطة. نجمة ناقصة لان الجمال لايكتمل
لانني اختلفت معه في بعض النقاط .

وانا اقرأ كتبت بعض النقاط وهذه جميعها .. لم أُعُلّق على جميع النصوص
بعضها خانني التعبير والبعض الاخر اريد ان افهمه بشكل اكثر وهناك نصوص لا استطيع ادعاء فهم رسالتها

وظيفة قارئ: ما تقرأه سيكون بداخلك الى ان يتحول انت،
وظيفة قارئ٢: الوعي الذي يتسبب لك بمشاكل، الوعي الذي تحبه; ولا يهمك ما يأتي بعده
حدود الفن: اذا توقفت عن نقل الحقيقة، ستغرق ومن معك.
فن الاطفال الخاص: انت فقط تحلم!
الفن والوا...more

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May 30, 2012 La Mala rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

A lo largo de mi adolescencia - seguramente la época en que consumí , devoré y compré libros - tenía una tradición invernal : cada vez que visitaba Uruguay , Tenía que llevarme un libro de Eduardo Galeano . Así que pasaba largas horas de sábados y domingos recorriendo sin cansarme ni aburrirme un segundo , las interminables cuadras de la feria de Tristan Narvaja . No había nada mejor , nada más interesante ni emocionante que revolver las cajas , las mesas , buscando ofertas o libros escondidos ....more

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Oct 11, 2010 Ruth rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book of little political/personal/regional stories (actually they feel more like prose poems) side-by-side with these crazy recurring and transmuting illustrations that kind of make their own visual stories (I like the one of a cow looking up at some insects that are actually tiny helicopters & planes) about life and culture in the Americas. The titles vary from The Function of Art to The Culture of Terror to The Air and the Wind. You can just pick it up and read one or two of them...more

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Nov 24, 2008 Powells.com rated it 5 of 5 stars

"I write for those who cannot read me: the downtrodden, the ones who have been waiting on line for centuries to get into history, who cannot read a book or afford to buy one." Eduardo Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist whose works tread the border between poetry and historical narrative. The Book of Embraces is composed of nearly 200 vignettes, brief anecdotes an entire universe unto themselves. The breathtaking scope of Galeano's writing is unrivaled: he skillfully muses upon art, history, polit...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Inês rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

«Quando é verdadeira, quando nasce da necessidade de dizer, a voz humana não encontra quem a detenha. Se lhe negam a boca, ela fala pelas mãos, ou pelos olhos, ou pelos poros, ou por onde for. Porque todos, todos, temos algo a dizer aos outros, alguma coisa, alguma palavra que merece ser celebrada ou perdoada pelos demais.»
E esse é o motivo por que este livro tinha de nascer. Era bom demais para ficar esquecido numa gaveta, teria de ser celebrado e nunca nos perdoaríamos se não existisse.

"O Livr...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Carlos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Carlos by: Flávia

Lindo! Um dos meus livros e autores prediletos.

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Mar 12, 2009 Tait rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: flash, latin-american, literature, autobiography

Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces reads like a collection of politically charged fairy tales. He does this by drawing on the form, style, and tone of Aesop’s Fables (which was essentially the first collection of short short prose fiction) and inserting in moments of magic or myth at pivotal moments in his short narratives, such as the line, “he scoured heaven and earth in vain” (16) in the section The Origin of the World, the title of which also partakes and sets up this mythic scope. But w...more Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces reads like a collection of politically charged fairy tales. He does this by drawing on the form, style, and tone of Aesop’s Fables (which was essentially the first collection of short short prose fiction) and inserting in moments of magic or myth at pivotal moments in his short narratives, such as the line, “he scoured heaven and earth in vain” (16) in the section The Origin of the World, the title of which also partakes and sets up this mythic scope. But what really makes these fables is the use of historical peoples, times, places, and events as the backdrop for whatever magical event or effect Galeano is trying to get at. Often these historical events detail the terrible political realities of South America, but the horror is tempered through the magical moment, such as José Carrasco becoming a miracle worker after he is shot fourteen times in the head in Celebration of the Human Voice/ 3. These magic moments serve as indications of each vignette’s moral (as every fable has to have a moral), and for Galeano, the points that he is trying to make are about the intersection of language, art, reality, and politics. In short, Galeano’s lessons are about the power of language to create the world and keep it free. The story in The Function of the Reader/ 2, in which an army captain resigns after reading the oppressed poet César Vallejo, perhaps best highlights this theme of the power of language.

The use of historical events to ground the magical and moralizing elements allows these metaphors to become more real for us the reader (as is the function of magical realism), but there is also perhaps a reverse effect too which works against Galeano. By blending into an imaginative, magical sense of reality, these historical events also become less real, more figurative. Part of this might have to do with the 21st Century’s apathy towards images of violence, we are so attenuated to them in movies that the subtlety with which they are portrayed here looses a good deal of their intended horror. What we are left with, the most striking parts of the text, are the miraculous and whimsical non-real moments, though this might also be Galeano’s point, that the horrors of political reality are only real because they have been given power through language previously, power that can be likewise used to create beauty in the world.

Another reason however that I felt the vignettes were less powerful than they could be was that they were vignettes. Only in a few places, like the dream sequences, do we have larger narratives building from the separate and disparate historical events. But otherwise these events are isolated, and as such, can’t seem to add up to more than facets on Galeano’s ideas. They are too readily digested, where a longer narrative, or one with a more continuous structure might build up to a larger and more significant effect. If, as Galenao suggests, we can create reality through language, a fully crafted literary world, as one might find in a novel, might convey that idea on a much deeper level. Of course, if I had already written a trilogy of books on the history of the Americas, as Galeano did in Memory of Fire, I would probably want to move towards shorter disconnected forms as well!
(less)

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Jul 26, 2011 Beatriz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Un hombre del pueblo de Neguá, en la costa de Co-
lombia, pudo subir al alto cielo.
A la vuelta contó. Dijo que había contemplado desde
arriba, la vida humana.
Y dijo que somos un mar de fueguitos.
-El mundo es eso -reveló- un montón de gente, un mar
de fueguitos.
Cada persona brilla con luz propia entre todas las
demás.
No hay dos fuegos iguales. Hay fuegos grandes y fue-
gos chicos y fuegos de todos los colores. Hay gente de
fuego sereno, que ni se entera del viento, y gente de fue-
go loco que llena el...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Victor Acuña rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cuando uno tiene preguntas difíciles, revisa entre sus cajones por aquellas certezas por las que ha optado, conciente o no, pero que están ahí como ejes directrices para el provenir.

Eso es Galeano para mí, y eso ha sido este libro, que fue como otros un libro de cabecera en algún tiempo importante para mí. Que rayé en muros anónimos, que seguí profundamente, buscando los abrazos que prometía y que cumplió.

A veces cuando uno se encuentra con una pregunta difícil busca en sus cajones cargados de t...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this for a creative writing class. It was difficult to determine how to read it because of the unique style, but after listening to a lecture by him I wish I would have read it more slowly. I enjoy the unique writing style, after trying it myself for the class I appreciate his talent. This book is wonderful in the way it is part reporting, part creative non-fiction with personal accounts. If I could read Spanish it would probably be a more enjoyable read as this is a translation.

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Mar 31, 2013 Kareman Mohammad rated it 3 of 5 stars

أخيرا خلصت الكتاب ! فيه جزء كبير جدا ما الحكايات مملة وجزء عادي وجزء صغير رااااااااائع .
مما أعجبني ...

• حين يكون الصوت الإنساني حقيقيا , حين يولد من الحاجة إلي الكلام , لا أحد يستطيع أن يوقفه . حين يمنععنه الفم يتحدث بالأيدي والأعين بالمسام أو بأي شئ آخر . لأن كل واحد منا لديه شئ يقوله للآخرين , شئ يستحق أن يحتفي به الآخرون أو يصفحوا عنه
• ينبغي أن تبدأ حقوق الانسان في المنزل !
• أطفال التلفزيون الصغار مدربون علي مشاهدة الحياة بدلا من صناعتها !
• أصبح من غير الضروري لرجال الشرطة أن يحظروا الكت...more

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Apr 22, 2012 zozo added it · review of another edition

Shelves: متوقف

مش هقدر اعطيها نجوم حاليا

مقدرتش اكملها حقيقى ....ممكن العيب فيا انا كل الريفيوهات بتقول رائعه وخمس نجوم والأجانب بالذات

ممكن اختلاف اللغة والعيب فى الترجمة اللى فى جود ريدز

لو باللغة الاسبانيه مثلا أو الأنجليزية

ممكن لو مش العيب فى الترجمة ....يبقى العيب فيا أنا

مقدرتش أستوعب اللى عدد بسيط منها عشان أكون صريحة مع نفسى

تحضير رسالة ماجستير أبسط من فهمها

ممكن لو بالانجليزى عساى أفهمها

فشلت فيها ومش عندى استعداد أكملها حاليا

اعترف وأنا بكامل قواى العقلية

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Feb 11, 2013 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

" الإقتصاد يلعنهم ، الشرطة تطاردهم ، و الثقافة تنكر وجودهم "

في قصص قصيرة يتنقل بينها غاليانو بخفة تارة و ثقل تارة أخرى
يسخر من الانظمة الديكتاتورية من السياسة اللعينة و يصف الحالة الإجتماعية ، و المنافي
و الجدران اللتي تتحدث و تقول :
على حائط في ماساتيبي ، نيكاراغوا ، بعد وقت قصير من سقوط الديكتاتور سموموزا :
" رغم أنهم يموتون من الحنين فأنهم لن يعودوا مطلقاً " .

و لقد انشاءت مجلداً خاصاً بإقتباسات المعانقات .

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Nov 22, 2007 jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: translation

"I write for those who cannot read me: the downtrodden, the ones who have been waiting on line for centuries to get into history, who cannot read a book or afford to buy one."
Eduardo Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist whose works tread the border between poetry and historical narrative. The Book of Embraces is composed of nearly two hundred vignettes, brief anecdotes an entire universe unto themselves.
The breathtaking scope of Galeano's writing is unrivaled: he skillfully muses upon art, hist...more

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Jun 07, 2013 Ezequiel L.C. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Compilación de breves relatos, historias, observaciones, reflexiones y pensamientos del autor tocando temas tan diversos como entretenidos. Es un libro que tiene calle, poesía, crítica social, fantasía. En él podemos encontrar desde cuestionamientos vinculados con dios y la religión, hasta pequeños pasajes que se han convertido en canción como el caso de "Secreta Mujer" interpretada por Serrat. Libro completo y muy recomendable.

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Jan 03, 2013 Mohammed Yusuf rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

طابع الأفكار المتدفقة في الخيالية المحلاة بالسخرية.. يضفي نكهة أخرى للقراءة والإستمتاع في كتابات المثقف التحرري الأديب والحواري .. غاليانو
لكأنها دعوة لتنظر للتاريخ والفكر والمفكر اللاتيني قابعا تحت الاضطهاد خارجا إلى المنفى وعائدا منه
كتابات أصلت للفكر الإشتراكي والدعوة للحرية .. انفلات من ثقافة الوهم ومراجعات بين الوطن والحياة
كل هذا بصورة لا تملها في كتاب رائع لهذا اللاتيني .. غاليانو

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Jun 20, 2012 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Moving heart stories. About Latin America, about wars, about life in general. Some of them are positive, some of them are touching, some of them make you think... It is just another proof of Eduardo Galeano's hability to not leave you indifferent.

One of the quotes I especially enjoyed: "Socialism is the longest path to go from capitalism to capitalism"

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Sep 21, 2011 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Some of the most beautifully objective and yet dream-like visions of life i have ever read. Every other page is a story, and all together they make a life--not in the linear sense we expect a life to be read, but in the more honest, more real way that a life is experienced, a putting together of all the soul's pieces, as Galeano writes.

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Nov 14, 2010 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

La casa delle parole

Alla casa delle parole, sognava Helena Villagra, accorrevano i poeti. Le parole, serbate in vecchie fiasche di cristallo, aspettavano i poeti, per offrirsi a loro pazze di desiderio: volevano essere scelte. Pregavano i poeti di guardarle, di odorarle, di toccarle, di leccarle. I poeti aprivano le fiasche, assaggiavano le parole con un dito, e poi si leccavano i baffi, o storcevano il naso. I poeti andavano in cerca di parole che conoscevano e avevano perduto.
Nella casa delle...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays

A remarkable book for its structure and social commentary. Made up entirely of short anecdotes, THE BOOK OF EMBRACES is unified by voice (curmudgeonly, observant, funny) and by a sweeping critique of colonial culture, pop culture, dictatorships, and market-based economies. A thoughtful but quick read.

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Sep 16, 2009 Terri Kempton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Not only is this one of my all-time favorite books (filled with essays on life, love, oppression, politics, dreams, torture, survival, theology, and freedom) but it also has fascinating pen and ink drawings - a part of which is my new tattoo. A volume to read and reread constantly!

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May 18, 2009 Desertwoman rated it 4 of 5 stars

I saw this book and thumbed through it at a friend's home and had to go out and buy it.

It is an English translation of an originally Spanish written book that is a compilation of poems and short stories that have, in many cases, political overtones like so many Latin American writers.

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Sep 02, 2011 Rachel Ann Brickner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry, history, lyric-essay, memoir, favorites, experimental, read-in-2011

Just as amazing, if not more so, than I expected from all the recommendations I received to read this book. Galeano is one of those writers that makes me feel like anything is possible -- write what you like, what helps you tell the most truthful version of what you want to tell, and don't care about any of the rules.

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Mar 17, 2013 yasser rated it 2 of 5 stars

حسنًا، أنا قرأت النسخة المترجمة، التي بدورها لم تساعدني على الإستغراق في الكتاب و هذا ليس عيبًا في الكاتب.
كما أنها المرة الأولى لي التي أتخذ فيها من أمريكا الجنوبية وجهة لقرائتي. غاليانو جعلني سعيدًا بروحه الجميلة و نكاته الباردة/ المنعشة في آن واحد.

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Sep 12, 2012 Maddy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Galeano is a pure genius! The passages in this book are incredibly meaningful, and can be related to life today. His poetic way with words drew me in instantly. This was definitely a great book to start off my AP English class this year!

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Aug 02, 2009 Edmundo rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in the hallways of the Miami Dada public library around 1993 when "The System" and "The Culture of Terror" were meant to be the end of history. I have carried it with me sever since.

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Jun 07, 2012 Patience Blythe rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book reminds me of something. Maybe it is poems, or strange short stories read as a child. It makes me smile a lot. It makes me think about walking down dusty streets in magical places.

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Aug 07, 2011 Javier Saborido rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un libro que recarga las pilas, mirando al pasado para mejorar el presente y el futuro. Galeano demuestra una vez más que es un genio a la hora de unificar la estética con el realismo más duro.

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About Eduardo Hughes Galeano

Eduardo Hughes Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1986) and Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history.

The author himself has proclaimed...more

More about Eduardo Hughes Galeano...

Books by Eduardo Hughes Galeano

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World

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Quotes from The Book of Embraces

“Celebration of the Human Voice---

When it is genuine, when it is born of the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or anything at all. Because every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others.” — 19 people liked it

“Because every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others” — 11 people liked it

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