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The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories
In The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories , Julio Ortega and Carlos Fuentes present the most compelling short fiction from Mexico to Chile. Surreal, poetic, naturalistic, urbane, All styles intersect and play, often within a single piece. There is "The Handsomest Drown Man in the World," the García Márquez fable of a village overcome by the power of human beauty; "The Aleph," Borges' classic tale of a man who discovers, in a colleague's cellar, the Universe. Here is the haunting shades of Juan Rulfo, the astonishing anxiety puzzles of Julio Cortázar, the disquieted domesticity of Clarice Lispector. Provocative, powerful, immensely engaging, The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories showcases the ingenuity, diversity, and continuing excellence of a vast and vivid literary tradition.
400 pages, Paperback
First published December 5, 2000
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About the author
Julio Ortega
107 books17 followersEscritor, crítico peruano y profesor de la Universidad de Brown en Estados Unidos. Autor de "Una poética del cambio" (1992), "El principio radical de lo nuevo" (1997), "Trasatlantic Translations" (2006) y "Rubén Darío y la lectura mutua" (2004), entre otros textos. De su trabajo más reciente destaca "El hacer poético" (2011) en colaboración con María Ramírez Ribes.
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February 7, 2025
THE VINTAGE BOOK OF LATIN AMERICAN STORIES
Both editors, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Ortega, emphasize their collection focuses on the innovative quality of the Latin American short story along with new and more imaginative trends in literature rather than any national or standard criteria. Thirty-nine stories collected here, ranging from familiar names like Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector, and Gabriel García Márquez to less well-known authors such as María Luisa Puga, Senel Paz, and Juan Villord. I enjoyed all of these tales, some more than others, but there are three short stories, all new to me, that especially resonated. And it is this trio I'll highlight in my review with the hope that what I write will motivate you to pick up this fine anthology.
NOTES FROM BUENOS AIRES by Mario Levrero (Uruguay)
Mario Levrero compiled a batch of intriguing diary entries when visiting Buenos Aires in the late 1980s which are very much in keeping with the maestro's masterful La novela luminosa (The Luminous Novel). I'll link my comments to three memorable excerpts.
“Sitting on a bench in the square I watched the pigeons; that's not at all original, since you can hardly see anything else; but I mean that I managed to fill out my opinion about pigeons, something which up till now had simply been a vague feeling of unease. Just as rats have a bad press, I concluded, pigeons have a good press, both cases being arbitrary and incomprehensible.”
Mario goes on to tell that rats, by his observation, are intelligent, witty, gentle, and friendly creatures, whereas, on the other hand, pigeons are “ridiculous, gluttonous, and extremely promiscuous, as well as lacking in any trace of intelligence and sensitivity.” He then concludes by admitting his hate for the way pigeons walk, a little stumbling way of walking similar to hens and some obese, obtuse women, amounting to a sort of extreme female caricature that might even amount to a kind of female essence. You have to love an author who has spent hours (as underscored in his Luminous Novel) watching the world's creatures with a mixture of fascination and disgust along with making quirky judgments and comparisons.
“And I've fallen in love, in an insistent, obsessive, adolescent way; this obsession has filled countless sleepless nights. In a way it cheers me that I've rescued the possibility of loving, which I'd believed to be lost amidst age and the cynicism of age. Although I've felt my chest seething with the anguish of love, pained, ill-treated, a sort of punchbag.”
Mario provides a score of vivid, tantalizing details of his relationship with the attractive lady he's hopelessly in love with. Ah, to be pushing fifty and yet to have the heart of a teenage Romeo.
“Here, in the square, there's a man I could say an old man, who is defying the sun. He's well built and although he's poorly dressed he has a noble presence, that rare spiritual aristocracy that I have only detected in certain humble people (and which makes me feel contemptible).”
There came that fateful day when Mario spots his idol (the author's actual word) wearing a ridiculous hat made of plastic straw with a goofy flower design on the plait, which turns the old man's noble presence into a cheesy comedy act. I can picture Mario sitting under the noonday sun in that Buenos Aires park shaking his bald head, musing on all the ways life can quickly plummet for us poor humans.
Mario Levrero, 1940-2004
PANTHER EYES by Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina)
Among the most mysterious and eerie stories in the collection, a story in two parts where the reader is given a choice of nine possible endings. Here's how the story begins: "They're moving along the corridor in the dark. Suddenly, she turns round and he screams. What's up? she asks. And he answers: Your eyes, your eyes are phosphorescent like the eyes of wild animals."
This is one story where I dare not say more, other than urge you to give this dark gem of Luisa Valenzuela an opportunity to glow.
Luisa Valenzuela, Born 1938
THE ONE WHO CAME TO SAVE ME by Virgilio Piñera (Cuba)
“I always had one great fear: not knowing when I would die.” So begins this singular tale narrated by an unnamed gent I'll call Raul. Oh, yes, Raul became obsessed with the uncertainty of the very moment when he would shuffle off his moral coil.
It all started back when Raul, age ten, was sitting on a toilet taking a crap in a movie theater restroom. Two men came in and tied a noose around another man's neck by the urinals. The victim called out, “But you're not going to kill me.” Raul looked through the grating and could see a knife slitting a throat, blood streaming out. He heard a scream and feet running away at full speed. When the police arrived on the scene, they found poor Raul unconscious, in what they called “a state of shock.”
Raul retraces the various modes his fear manifested during his years from young man, middle-aged man, and, finally, old man. One experience stood out: when he was in his early seventies, he took his first airplane. Two hours into the flight, the plane was caught in an incredible storm. All of the passengers were filled with terror, screaming mixed with the Lord's Prayer and Hail Marys. But not Raul. He tells us, “Thank God that for the first time I'm approaching a certain precision concerning the moment of my death.” Raul confesses that he rejoiced wildly, the only paradise glimpsed during his long life.
When Raul reaches his early nineties, his obsession becomes even more extreme. “And I freeze myself and burn myself more and more. I've become a worn-out exhibit from a museum of teratology and at the same time, the very picture of malnutrition. I'm sure it's not blood but pus that runs through my veins; my scabs – festering, purplish – and my bones seem to have conferred a very different anatomy on my body. My hip bones, like a river, have overflown their banks; my collarbone (as I lose my flesh) is like an anchor hanging over the side of a ship; the occipital bone makes my head look like a coconut bashed in with a sledgehammer.”
Through it all Raul keeps thinking if this is the very moment he's been waiting for all of his life. However, it never seems to come. Until one evening – the unexpected. A stroke of magic, Virgilio Piñera-style.
Virgilio Piñera, 1912-1979
sadly-abandoned
November 30, 2011I really liked the Onetti short (it had something to do with Hell in its title) and enjoyed the opportunity to revisit Julio Cortazar's Blow-Up (which I completely misunderstood as a stripling of 17 -- who knew it was so much more predatory an encounter than first conceived?), but found many of the other translations wooden/clunky/insert critical word of choice here. A shame.
January 9, 2021
I just didn’t get it also everyone is racist
February 5, 2017
I'm not sure exactly when I began reading this book, but I know it was at least ten years ago.
To the book's credit, I could never quite give up on it. It is full of gems.
And yet, clearly, it was a struggle to finish. As other reviewers note, I suspect many of the stories are poorly translated (though without having read the original, it is hard to say for sure). This is a compilation that could have used a brief introduction to each story. Some stories were in desperate need of historical/geographical context. Others would have benefited from literary context: sometimes I left a story wondering why it was selected - I couldn't find the literary merit, and yet, I'm sure that the editors chose it for a reason.
Over the ten+ years, I would read a smattering of stories and then forget which ones I'd read. With a few exceptions (The Aleph, Blow-Up, and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World), I'd have zero recollection of the stories I'd already read when I came back to them a year or more later. The three exceptions are stories from authors I've read extensively since high school (Borges, Cortazar, and Garcia Marquez), stories I'd read in both English and Spanish before encountering them here. As for the remaining stories, even if I remembered liking the story, I would re-read it and it would seem entirely new. I would like it again, but I would promptly forget it again. Right now, I only recall well the stories I read in the last few days.
Maybe that speaks to the originality and diversity of the collection, but it also belies mediocrity. The short stories I like best tend to stick with me for a long time, almost haunting me even if - especially if - they become disconnected from their origin in my mind. I wonder, where did that story come from? And when I encounter it anew, I immediately recognize it: that wasn't a dream, it was a story, this story! No such experience here.
To the book's credit, I could never quite give up on it. It is full of gems.
And yet, clearly, it was a struggle to finish. As other reviewers note, I suspect many of the stories are poorly translated (though without having read the original, it is hard to say for sure). This is a compilation that could have used a brief introduction to each story. Some stories were in desperate need of historical/geographical context. Others would have benefited from literary context: sometimes I left a story wondering why it was selected - I couldn't find the literary merit, and yet, I'm sure that the editors chose it for a reason.
Over the ten+ years, I would read a smattering of stories and then forget which ones I'd read. With a few exceptions (The Aleph, Blow-Up, and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World), I'd have zero recollection of the stories I'd already read when I came back to them a year or more later. The three exceptions are stories from authors I've read extensively since high school (Borges, Cortazar, and Garcia Marquez), stories I'd read in both English and Spanish before encountering them here. As for the remaining stories, even if I remembered liking the story, I would re-read it and it would seem entirely new. I would like it again, but I would promptly forget it again. Right now, I only recall well the stories I read in the last few days.
Maybe that speaks to the originality and diversity of the collection, but it also belies mediocrity. The short stories I like best tend to stick with me for a long time, almost haunting me even if - especially if - they become disconnected from their origin in my mind. I wonder, where did that story come from? And when I encounter it anew, I immediately recognize it: that wasn't a dream, it was a story, this story! No such experience here.
May 25, 2018
I do wish there were a bit more context provided for some of these stories, but there's something to be said for just providing the work to stand on its own merits. As you might expect from this kind of anthology the stories included are all over the place in terms of both theme and style but there does seem to be a general fascination with the fantastic in the everyday that I never tire of. Not everything here is at the level of Borges or Marquez but enough of the other authors come close that I think it's fair to say that the book as a whole is highly rewarding.
July 11, 2007
Probability states that anthologies will probably get three stars even. Very nice snack-sized intro to the literature of a continent: the over-self-conscious mind games of the Argentines, the fantastical landscapes and dream realms of the Mexicans, the overall preoccupation with aging, wise men and death. And oh man what García Márquez can do in five pages.
(n.b. I only read about half the stories.)
(n.b. I only read about half the stories.)
March 9, 2016
39 stories, so all over the place style and author wise. as expected no? has many famous names, borges 'the aleph' ; onetti 'hell most feared' , and many many i did not know, but would be fun to read more of these fascinating and little known (in usa in 2016?) storyists, like ampuero 'taxi driver, minus robert de niro" and fresan "national sovereignty"
has author bios and copyrights list. pre-21st century.
has author bios and copyrights list. pre-21st century.
April 22, 2015
There are some very enjoyable stories in here, but overall I feel it was too broad in the styles that it brought together. It was challenging for me to transition between stories.
February 2, 2019
39 (over 365 pages of small font) Latin American short stories probably written between 1950-1990, so this means they are not necessarily 'vintage' - Vintage is of course the printer. All are by different authors so one does very much get a broad flavour/sample of styles, narrative ideas and philosophy; this is in deed why I chose to read it, when I don't normally go for short story collections.
There are some well know LA authors like Cortazar, Onetti and Borges but many less known.
Good points:
After a while the stories don't meld into a mush of samyness.
Each are of similar length so no single lengthy story acts to pad out the book.
A good sample to find new authors to read.
Some really rather good stories.
My 'pile of novels to read' increased by about 3 based on authors I liked.
Bad points
So many stories to easily forget.
No real sample of magical realism.
No stories on the struggle of native peoples.
Rather modernist feeling narratives.
Too many of the authors, I liked and wanted to read more of, had few if any novels translated into English.
I know it's obvious to say but this is a good short story collection, so is a collection of short stories not a sampler of Latin American literature.
There are some well know LA authors like Cortazar, Onetti and Borges but many less known.
Good points:
After a while the stories don't meld into a mush of samyness.
Each are of similar length so no single lengthy story acts to pad out the book.
A good sample to find new authors to read.
Some really rather good stories.
My 'pile of novels to read' increased by about 3 based on authors I liked.
Bad points
So many stories to easily forget.
No real sample of magical realism.
No stories on the struggle of native peoples.
Rather modernist feeling narratives.
Too many of the authors, I liked and wanted to read more of, had few if any novels translated into English.
I know it's obvious to say but this is a good short story collection, so is a collection of short stories not a sampler of Latin American literature.
August 10, 2017
Would give it 3.5/5 if that were an option -
- I've been picking up and putting this book down since May, although I originally abandoned it after a couple stories in early 2015. While there was some sort of great comfort seeing it on my bedside for these last few months, it is with great relief I say that I have finished. In any case, an actual review -
- the back cover describes it as an "expansive" anthology, which is true but also a very clever means of justifying the anthology's failure to provide any particular curatorial stance beyond geography. That being said, I do appreciate the struggle of putting together a book of Latin American short fiction so as not to underrepresent the scope of what is contained in that. This is an "expansive" anthology, for better or for worse.
And, I was absolutely beyond pleased to read Maria Luisa Puga's 'Naturally' open with the line "Woody Allen has done so much to harm society".
- I've been picking up and putting this book down since May, although I originally abandoned it after a couple stories in early 2015. While there was some sort of great comfort seeing it on my bedside for these last few months, it is with great relief I say that I have finished. In any case, an actual review -
- the back cover describes it as an "expansive" anthology, which is true but also a very clever means of justifying the anthology's failure to provide any particular curatorial stance beyond geography. That being said, I do appreciate the struggle of putting together a book of Latin American short fiction so as not to underrepresent the scope of what is contained in that. This is an "expansive" anthology, for better or for worse.
And, I was absolutely beyond pleased to read Maria Luisa Puga's 'Naturally' open with the line "Woody Allen has done so much to harm society".
April 29, 2023
Like many collections this book was uneven. Even some beloved authors came across flat in this collection, although there were probably three strong pieces. It was hard to tell if the stories were just very dated or if they would held up if they hadn't had such terrible translations (I read the collection in English). I especially disliked the stories translated by Jeremy Munday. I found them to miss the substance of the passages. They lacked richness or if they included it it was done in a way that distracted from the stories and felt literal in a discomfiting way. I also found it disorienting to be thrown into conflicts and historical moments from across the world with no context. It made the poorly translated stories even more difficult to connect with or grasp.
March 4, 2019
It's a brave editor who'll take on curation of an entire continent of writers, but this selection is superb as an introduction to Latin American writing. I read this as a fairly young man, and as a massive fan of Borges, Marquez and Fuentes now, I can't help but think this book did exactly what it should have done. It both provides fantastic examples of the kind of writing representative of Latin America, but also inspires the reader to an ongoing relationship with the authors. I'd highly recommend this book, especially for younger readers.
August 10, 2020
With no other unifying theme than the writers being Latin American (that's 20 countries, FYI), this is a total grab-bag. As you'd expect, there are some big names (Borges, Garcia-Marquez, Lispector), a lot of not-so-big names, some realism, some magic realism, and even a (pretty bad) sci-fi story. Overall not bad, but the book would really have benefited from some structure and better author bios than the one- or two-sentence ones in the back.
May 6, 2020
Maybe the cultural references were just too different for me, but I didn't understand a lot of these stories. However, some were excellent. It was really a mixed bag. I guess my advice is to read what you find interesting and skip any that you just can't get into.
October 2, 2023
Ok I thought some of these were good it’s just that I really don’t vibe with short fiction for some reason. Which is definitely a me problem but I didn’t feel like this was anything exciting personally!
December 7, 2024
I didn’t know much about the Latin American genre of literature, but I had the opportunity to explore and learn how under appreciated the genre is in our world of literature today. Truly a good read.
April 4, 2020
Banyak cerpen yang aku suka dalam ni.
December 5, 2022
A valuable anthology of stories to get an idea of what is being written in Latin America.
August 1, 2012
I borrowed this book from the public library because it contains one story by Moacyr Scliar.
I had never heard of Scliar until I came upon his name while doing research on the book "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.
I read "Life of Pi" a long time ago. When I read it I was in some kind of mood, I don't remember what kind, but it wasn't good. I read "Life of Pi" quickly, just wanting to get it over with. How could I have done that? It's such a great book.
"Life of Pi" has been made into a movie and I'm going read the book once again before I watch the movie. I'm going to really read it, and prior to doing so I did some research into the plot and that's when I bumped into Scliar's name. I learned that Yann Martel's inspiration for "Life of Pi" came to him after reading Scliar's story (or novella), "Max and the Cats." I decided to "meet" Scliar by reading the novella that inspired Martel, as well as other works that he's written.
Unfortunately, my library doesn't have a copy of "Max and the Cats"; all they have is "The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories" which contains, as I mentioned, one story by Scliar. I can't even recall the name of it, but I didn't like it. I haven't given up on Scliar (no way am I doing that based on just one story I didn't care for). I've asked my library to get me a copy of "Max and the Cats" by interlibrary loan, and they'll do it.
Scliar has written other things and I've added some of them to my "to read" list here on Goodreads.
I read a few other stories in this collection of Latin American stories, but not a one "grabbed" me. I abandoned the book after reading a few of them.
If anyone reads this review, and you've read, and liked, Scliar, please let me know what works you recommend.
I had never heard of Scliar until I came upon his name while doing research on the book "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.
I read "Life of Pi" a long time ago. When I read it I was in some kind of mood, I don't remember what kind, but it wasn't good. I read "Life of Pi" quickly, just wanting to get it over with. How could I have done that? It's such a great book.
"Life of Pi" has been made into a movie and I'm going read the book once again before I watch the movie. I'm going to really read it, and prior to doing so I did some research into the plot and that's when I bumped into Scliar's name. I learned that Yann Martel's inspiration for "Life of Pi" came to him after reading Scliar's story (or novella), "Max and the Cats." I decided to "meet" Scliar by reading the novella that inspired Martel, as well as other works that he's written.
Unfortunately, my library doesn't have a copy of "Max and the Cats"; all they have is "The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories" which contains, as I mentioned, one story by Scliar. I can't even recall the name of it, but I didn't like it. I haven't given up on Scliar (no way am I doing that based on just one story I didn't care for). I've asked my library to get me a copy of "Max and the Cats" by interlibrary loan, and they'll do it.
Scliar has written other things and I've added some of them to my "to read" list here on Goodreads.
I read a few other stories in this collection of Latin American stories, but not a one "grabbed" me. I abandoned the book after reading a few of them.
If anyone reads this review, and you've read, and liked, Scliar, please let me know what works you recommend.
September 22, 2014
Overall it was hard to read. Half the stories made very little sense to me. They were probably very symbolic?
The ones I liked:
The Third Bank of the River (Joao Guimaraes Rosa)
a man abandons his family and spends the rest of his life in a rowboat at a nearby lake.
Luvina (Juan Rulfo)
about harsh rural areas and the people who survive there.
Bukhara Nocturne (Sergio Pitol)
a couple guys make up a story to a girl about to travel, and it comes true.
A Brief Reappearance by Florence (Alfredo Bryce Echenique)
meeting a past girlfriend. Addresses how its hard to reconcile the image of her than with what she has become.
Van Gogh's Ear (Moacyr Scliar)
goofy and funny. Man tries to fake a Van Gogh ear to pay off his local loan shark debt.
The Benefactor (Rodolfo Hinostroza)
a man gets credited with novels he didn't write. He comes to expect the ghost writer will keep producing. Could be symbolic for inborn gifts and general luck in life.
National Sovereignty (Rodrigo Fresan)
war from three soldiers' view. Funniest part is when two opposing soldiers meet and argue over who GETS to be taken prisoner. "I laid my rifle down first, the Geneva Convention says you HAVE to take me"
The ones I liked:
The Third Bank of the River (Joao Guimaraes Rosa)
a man abandons his family and spends the rest of his life in a rowboat at a nearby lake.
Luvina (Juan Rulfo)
about harsh rural areas and the people who survive there.
Bukhara Nocturne (Sergio Pitol)
a couple guys make up a story to a girl about to travel, and it comes true.
A Brief Reappearance by Florence (Alfredo Bryce Echenique)
meeting a past girlfriend. Addresses how its hard to reconcile the image of her than with what she has become.
Van Gogh's Ear (Moacyr Scliar)
goofy and funny. Man tries to fake a Van Gogh ear to pay off his local loan shark debt.
The Benefactor (Rodolfo Hinostroza)
a man gets credited with novels he didn't write. He comes to expect the ghost writer will keep producing. Could be symbolic for inborn gifts and general luck in life.
National Sovereignty (Rodrigo Fresan)
war from three soldiers' view. Funniest part is when two opposing soldiers meet and argue over who GETS to be taken prisoner. "I laid my rifle down first, the Geneva Convention says you HAVE to take me"
April 16, 2011
I had to read it for a class, but after I stopped the class, I decided to keep reading it to broaden my horizons. I'm just not a big fan of the Latin American stories. I found them hard to relate to, and not at all interesting. But that's just a personal opinion.
January 15, 2013
I had to read it for a class, but after I stopped the class, I decided to keep reading it to broaden my horizons. I'm just not a big fan of the Latin American stories. I found them hard to relate to, and not at all interesting. But that's just a personal opinion.
June 6, 2024
Pretty much the 'good ole' boys' Club here....the same names, same upper echelons of 'society', same bourgeois BS...
Want to read
August 6, 2009i love the eclectic collection of writers.
Read
November 20, 2018Really nice collection of short stories from all across Latin America (including Brazil). There wasn’t anything past 2000 but generally it was nice post-60s mix of stories and authors.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews