El hombre que amaba el sol

by Homero Aridjis

Every man has two names ¨Dthe first is given to him at birth, the second he chooses when he comes to know himself. Thus, Tom¨¢s is driven to adopt the name Tonatiuh, the n¨¢huatl word for Sun ¡°He who makes the day¡±. He feels that there is a burning sphere in his chest; that life is calling out to him. Through Tom¨¢s, Homero Aridjis guides us to the light, to the origins of life. Ancient cultures, revered wisdom, naguales (sorcerers), and pyramid secrets are some of the mysteries revealed in this novel. Description in Hay dos nombres en la vida de un el que le ponen cuando nace y el que se da a s¨ª mismo cuando sabe qui¨¦n es. Por ello, Tom¨¢s adopta el nombre del Sol en n¨¢ Tonatiuh, ¡°El que va haciendo el d¨ªa¡±. Tom¨¢s Tonatiuh sabe que en su pecho hay un disco ardiente; que la vida lo llama. Sabidur¨ªas venerables, antiguas culturas, naguales... tras los pasos de Tom¨¢s Tonatiuh, un mundo no evidente de misterios solares va relevando secretos en esta novela, donde hay tierras tan deforestadas que las mariposas deben posarse en el polvo y los rayos del Sol bajando por los escalones de una pir¨¢mide proyectan la sombra de una serpiente dorada. Homero Aridjis navega con sus lectores hacia la luz, hacia el origen.

Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

Homero Aridjis, a Mexican writer and diplomat, was born to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.

Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Federico Trejos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro es una cosa curiosa, ya que es sumamente topico, sobre el sol y toda su cultura y mitologia, partiendo de lo mexicano, principalmente. Tiene una técnica a la vez centrifuga y centrípeta, ya que parte del sol para abordar la vida de un elegido y otras derivaciones del individuo en una búsqueda y camino espiritual. Es a la vez sutil y claro, con imágenes hechizares y frases capciosas o curiosas. Es poesía en prosa. Muy diferente e interesante, como una obra surreal de Carlos Fuentes pero mas indígena en su raíz y manejo de sabiduría, modernista en su prosa.