Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature, J. M. G. Le Clézio here conjures the consciousness of Mexico, powerfully evoking the dreams that made and unmade an ancient culture. Le Clézio’s haunting book takes us into the dream that was the religion of the Aztecs, a religion whose own apocalyptic visions anticipated the coming of the Spanish conquerors. Here the dream of the conquistadores rises before us, too, the glimmering idea of gold drawing Europe into the Mexican dream. Against the religion and thought of the Aztecs and the Tarascans and the Europeans in Mexico, Le Clézio also shows us those of the “barbarians” of the north, the nomadic Indians beyond the pale of the Aztec frontier. Finally, Le Clézio’s book is a dream of the present, a meditation on what in Amerindian civilizations—in their language, in their way of telling tales, of wanting to survive their own destruction—moved the poet, playwright, and actor Antonin Artaud and motivates Le Clézio in this book. His own deep identification with pre-Columbian cultures, whose faith told them the wheel of time would bring their gods and their beliefs back to them, finds fitting expression in this extraordinary book, which brings the dream around. “We are lucky to have in Le Clézio a writer of great quality who brings his particular sensibility and talent here to remind us of the very nature of the rituals and myths of the civilizations of ancient Mexico; he provides us with descriptions as precise as they are mysterious.” —Le Figaro       This provocative meditation on Mexican history by French novelist Le Clezio uses "dreams" (religious ideas, goals, and metaphors) to discuss Mexican civilization, especially the tragedy of its encounter with Spain. The author has written a work well founded in both pre-Columbian civilization and the Spanish chronicles of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Bernardino de Sahagun, and others. The "dreams" include Aztec religion, which predicted its own destruction; the Spaniards' dreams of gold and empire; and the "barbarian dream" (the two-sided "holy war"). Le Clezio contrasts Indian religions and Christianity, strongly favoring the indigenous peoples even as he vividly describes nefarious native practices. His reliance on the Spaniards' own words makes his indictment of them especially scathing. This expertly translated book can be compared with metaphorical works by Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes. Highly recommended. - Margaret W. Norton, Hoffman Estates H.S., Ill. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. This brilliantly conceived analysis of Mexican civilization as a series of "dreams" that come into conflict is breathtakingly well written, sweeping us away with the intensity and lapidary shimmer of its prose. In the magnificent first chapter, the Aztec dream that strangers would come from the east to rule them meets, tragically, the avaricious dreams of the conquistadores. Drawing on historical sources, such as Bernal D{¡}iaz and Bartolom{‚}e de Las Casas, Le Cl{‚}ezio depicts the downfall of Montezuma: "In that cruel and fatal game, to speak was to recognize the other, to allow him to enter your heart. It was to show to one's vassals, one's allies, that the proud reign of Tenochtitl{ }an was on the verge of ending, just as all the legends had proclaimed." Backtracking from this stunning opening, Le Cl{‚}ezio examines the dreams of origins that had propelled meso-American civilization to the Aztec heights, then the dream of barbarism that the Spaniards impressed upon the indigenes of the area. As those dreams have contended, the European has won, leaving the native dream of Mexico as yet unfinished. A splendid, moving contribution to the literature of cross-cultural contact as well as that on Mexico. Pat Monaghan Teresa Lavender Fagan  is a freelance translator living in Chicago; she has translated numerous books for the University of Chicago Press and other publishers.