The Essential Ilan Stavans - Softcover

..."the range of essays, the literary criticism and, indeed, the short storeis in [this] volume should convince the reader that [Stavans] has acquired eyes that can look everywhere, see everything and, more importantly, unravel what they have perceived.." -Jewish Quarterly, Moris Farhi "[The Essetial Ilan Stavans is] to be savoured, to be dipped into time and again and each time to be surprised happily that there is always something new in each of them.." -Jewish Quarterly, Moris Farhi "This engrossing collection of essays from scholar Stavans targets Latino American identity, politics, popular culture, Spanglish, and the intimate relationships among memory, translation, and literature. Spanning the last six years, the essays encompass astute cultural analyses of Latin American politics and its leaders-from Mexico's Subcommandante Marcos to Peru's Abimael Guzman of the Maoist Shining Path-and display a sensitive, if at times romantic, look at the historical, cultural, and linguistic nuances that brand "life in the hyphen." Stavans's studies of the oeuvres of varied male writers, such as Walter Benjamin, Octavio Paz, Lionel Trilling, and Elias Canetti, enhance the author's exploration of his own Jewish-American roots and illuminate a deeper understanding of the complex nature of identity and the effect of life on literature.." -"Library Journal "These reflections where the "you and "yo, Anglo and Spanglo, are joined in the richness of one Latino intellectual and artistic tradition make for stimulating reading. Positive, exaltant, anti-provincial, and inspiring, Stavans gives the reader the opportunity to celebrate the creation of a new Latino self in which we are notone but many, and the border becomes our 'dream catcher, ' the magic web which permits us to re-invent the future." -Rosario Ferre, author of "The House on the Lagoon and "Eccentric Neighborhoods "Ilan Stavans may be our most savvy reader. The 'we' in that sentence provides a space in which many groups can truly identify. He is a brilliant participant and reader of Mexican, Latin and South American literature and culture. He is an incisive and critical voice in and of the Jewish world in Hispanic America. He is one of the best the critics and interviewers in the North American, Anglophone world. An Ilan Stavans reader-something for everyone and something of true quality." -Sander L. Gilman, The University of Chicago

Here, Ilan Stavans, one of the foremost Latino scholars, collects his best essays into one volume. As a Mexican Jew whose native languages are Yiddish and Spanish, Stavans writes in English to limn the tensions, contradictions, and possibilities within the compex notion of a multi-cultural identity.