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, peasant-born: 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. From the legendary Jorge Luis Borges and the unique Filisberto Hern ndez to such contemporaries as Angeles Mastretta, Rodrigo Fres n, Antonio L"pez Ortega, and Gabriel Garc!a M rquez, Latin American short story writers have developed a style without limits, defying categorization or a neatly defined history. With these 39 selections (all previously published and all by different authors), editors Fuentes (The Years with Laura D!az) and Ortega (Hispanic studies, Brown Univ.) offer a collection dating from the 1950s to the present. The authors, from 11 Latin American nations (Mexico is represented by 11), include 28 who are living and six women. Their work is at times powerful, engaging, and unsettling, and all are examples of a literary tradition unbound by nation, ethnicity, gender, or generation. Most of the contributors work in other genres, so this volume will introduce many of them as short story authors. Recommended for all collections with an emphasis on Latin America or contemporary literature.DBoyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., AL Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Short stories have always played an important role in Latin American literary history as provocative little mirrors reflecting important cultural traits distinctive to Latin America. The form is widely practiced by Latin American writers, who often have devoted their entire careers to it, and the form is greatly appreciated by critics and the reading public alike. Most critics, Latin American and otherwise, have a special metaphor to explain the difference between the novel and the short story, and in esteemed writer Carlos Fuentes' introduction to this vital gathering of contemporary examples of the Latin American short story, he presents his this way: "The novel is an ocean liner. The short story, a sailboat hugging the coast." One of the most potent of the featured "sailboats" here is Uruguayan Juan Carlos Onetti's "Hell Most Feared," in which a man is cruelly sent a series of salacious photographs by his ex-wife and ends up killing himself. But other masterpieces appear in this anthology as well. Brad Hooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Each and every [story in] this collection is a treasure." -- The Guardian "Latin American fiction is where serious debate can be found and, at its best, makes the contemporary English equivalent seem frivolous and lacking in courage." -- The Times (London) 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, peasant-born: 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. 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, peasant-born: All styles intersect and play, often within a single piece. There is "The Handsomest Drown Man in the World," the Garcia Marquez 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 Cortazar, 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. Carlos Fuentes is the author of more than a dozen novels. He lives in Mexico and London. Julio Ortega