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290 Arizona fournal of Hispanic Cultural Studies realm, Fuentes believes in Balzac, Faulkner, Kafka, Cervantes, and Shakespeare. He praises the novel for being a pluralistic, anti-dogmatic genre. In a chapter titled "Zebra" he offers a defense of fantastic literature for the way it frees us from established social norms and inherited ideas. In an entry on "Lectura," he describes the book as the sole medium through which we can achieve "La integración completa de nuestras facultades de conocernos a nosotros mismos para realizarnos en el mundo, en nuestro yo y en los demás" (171). In the realm of politics, Fuentes presents himself as a moderate leftist. He sympathizes with what he calls "la nueva izquierda europea," in particular with its stance on globalization, which it wants to bring under the control of democratic political forces. He believes in the power of civil society and in the importance of education. He tends to look towards Europe and is very critical of the United States. He is a strong advocate of the unity of Iberoamerican nations, which are tied together not only by a common language, but also by a shared culture of mestizaje. Fuentes repeatedly criticizes Enlightenment ideology for having bequeathed to Western culture an optimistic view of history, reflected in the belief in progress and human perfectibility. He calls for the reinstatement of a tragic sense of life and flirts here and there with a Nietzschean skepticism. But what stands out in this book is the extent to which Fuentes is a believer, a man of faith-a secular faith, no doubt, as the sections on God and Jesus help to demonstrate, but faith all the same. And this faith, in literature, in rhe correct form of politics, in his own cultural heritage, among other things, means that Fuentes is aufondan indestructible optimist. There is a great deal of sadness in the autobiographical sections of this book. In "Hijos," Fuentes offers a moving evocation of the short life of his son, Carlos Fuentes Lemus, who died in 1999 at the age of twenty-five. Yet he draws from the memory of his son a lesson about the power of artistic creation in the face of death and about the necessary gratitude of a parent to his child "por un solo dÃ-a de existencia en la tierra" (126). Fuentes mentions that his son identified with other artists who died young because they had no time "de ser otra cosa sino ellos mismos" ( 123). The father, in turn, describes himself as "un hombre fáustico occidental" (75), and, indeed, desire is one of the key themes of En esto creo. In "Belleza," Fuentes speaks of the eternal human dissatisfaction with the way things are: Deseamos siempre algo más, algo que quizás ni siquiera sepamos concebir, pero que nuestra imaginación y nuestros sentidos buscan, exigen, imaginan, aunque ni siquiera lo conciban. (33) Which brings us back to Thomas Mann, for Mann the author emerges at the end of the book as a compelling object of desire for the young Fuentes . The aspiring author from Mexico sees Mann both as a model of discipline and dedication to his art and as a supreme guide to the mysteries of human desire. But above all he sees him as the grand representative of a certain idea of Europe, "La Europa que es Io que ha sido prometido en nombre de Europa," as he puts it, citing Jacques Derrida. It is this same idea of the author as the standard-bearer for a culrure's deepest and most enduring values, which Fuentes has attempted to embody throughout his career. And it is insights of this kind into what drives Fuentes's creativity that are perhaps the most fascinating aspect of diis engaging new book. Maarten van Delden Rice University Passing the Torch: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Legacy of Hope University of Illinois Press, 2001 By Anthony L. Geist Photographs by José Moreno On March 22,2003, Harry Fisher, a writer, artist, and veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade , died at the age of ninety-two, hours after he marched against the invasion of Iraq by the U.S...

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