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Book Reviews 153 and the mainland. Thc constant migration of people between the island and the mainland “blurs the territorial, linguistic, and judicial boundaries of the Puerto Rican nation” (p. 21 I). Duany insists that the Puerto Rican diaspora. rather than being detrimental to Pucrto Rican cultural identity, is actually a linguistic, educational, and occupational advantage. What makes Duany’s study so unique and fascinating is his use of neglected primary sources, such as photographs and material culture. The book is a riveting blend of cthnographic fieldwork, archival research, surveys, censuses, personal documents, interviews, newspaper articles, museum displays, photographic collections, and literary texts. Although Puerto Ricans lack a separate citizenship, the author explains that they have a definite sense of national identity. Throughout the book, the author traces the development of certain nationalistic figures of the Puerto Rican peoplc. For example, the jihui-o (white, poorly educated, subsistence farmers living in the highlands) is a reoccurring theme in the twentieth century literary and photographic historical experience of the island. As a consequcncc of massivc migration to the mainland, images of Puei-to Rican identity have been transnationalized over the past twenty years. The jihuvo :F pava (straw hat) is a common cinbleinatic symbol of Puerto Rican culture in the United States. Duany explains that theyaim appears at folk festivals, public schools, and iniiseuin displays in the United States. Another exainplc used by the author to demonstrate this cultural diffusion is the appcarance of ca.sita.s (small woodcn houses typical of rural Puerto Rican homes) in the abandoned lots of New York City. Although the author explains that Pucrto Rican people, regardless of where they live, share a unique cultiiral tradition that cntitles them to claim that they are a distinct nation, he fails to clearly explain how the Puerto Ricans on the mainland who fail to teach their children the Spanish language can be included in a movement to expand and protect Puerto Rican cultural nationalism and identity. Still, the book makes a significant contribution to the growing literature about national identities. Michuel R. Hull Avm.sti+oiig Atlantic Stute Uiiivei-.vi?\~ Arlt, Roberto. Mud Toy. Trans. Michele McKay Aynesworth. Durham/ London: Duke University Press, 2002. During his lifetime Roberto Arlt (1900-1942)-novelist, short story writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright-was admired by the reading public but scorned by the critics. Nowadays, he is regarded as one of the most influential Argentine writers of his time and a direct literary ancestor of the SELA Sunzmer/Fkll 2003 Boom and Postboom authors of the second half of the twentieth century. A rapid-fire, unpolished writing style that combined elements of both realism and expressionism characterized much of his work. His fiction abounds in ambiguities and reveals an imaginative and inventive spirit, aspects that help explain his appeal today. The novel Eljiigiiete r-ahioso (1926), dedicated to his mentor, Ricardo Goiraldes, was Arlt’s first published book. Although his writings have appeared previously in English, this novel, translated here as Mad Toy,has until now been unavailable in an English-language version. Mad To)>, an episodic narrative with a realisthaturalist flavor, takes the form of a memoir. The narrator, Silvio Astier Drodman, is a mature adult who looks back on his youth to his teenage years and recalls important events duringthat formativephase. Despite being a work offiction,the novel conveys perhaps better than historical accounts a sense of the sordidness and social upheaval of the lower class districts of Buenos Aires in the early decades of the twentieth century. This is a novel of apprenticeship and formation-the formation of a future writer, Silvio; as such, it is clearly autobiographical in many respects and has much in common with the picaresque narrative. Arlt’s prose is hard-hitting and occasionally shocking, yet often poetic. In this skillful translation Aynesworth successfully communicates these stylistic nuances. Silvio confesses that at age fourteen he became a fan of cheap novels and contemplated a life of crime. He intentionally sets out to make life imitateart, specifically the fictional works that captivated his imagination and the heroic robbers that he idolized. Arlt’s novel (originallytitled Kdayzierca) is social realism and, at the same time, a...

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