â€å“the People of the United States Will Do Anything for Latin America, Except Read About It.ã¢â‚¬â
U.S. IS DISCOVERING LATIN AMERICA'S LITERATURE
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February 16, 1982
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AMERICANS will practice anything for Latin America except read nigh it, the announcer James Reston once observed. Only a growing number of book publishers in the Usa, hopeful that this is no longer the instance, are issuing translations of more than books by more Latin writers than always before.
This literary Skilful Neighbor policy includes books by Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda, but it also embraces previously unknown novelists and poets. While Usa authors still frequently describe Latin America as the home for unreconstructed Nazis or fictional lost worlds, American publishers increasingly view information technology as a vast, untapped literary resource.
Avon Books has published 22 titles by Latin American writers since 1970, and, according to its editorial director, Bob Wyatt, ''Nosotros have lots more signed up.'' Fifteen months agone Avon published its first original Latin translation, ''The Emperor of the Amazon,'' a critically acclaimed novel by a Brazilian author, Marcio Souza. Information technology has 2 more Souza books in the works. ''Now nosotros are Souza'south publisher with globe rights for every country except Brazil.'' said Mr. Wyatt.
''The Emperor of the Amazon'' was translated by Thomas Colchie, the literary agent for Mr. Souza and xx other Latin American authors. ''I used to interpret all the books I correspond,'' he said, ''but recently there have been so many I've been farming them out to others.'' Enthusiastic Reviews
Most of the recent Latin books have been well received past reviewers. ''It's a very fruitful period for writers in Latin America,'' said Mr. Colchie, who formerly taught literature at Brooklyn College. ''Part of my own interest in Latin American literature has been a feeling of insuffiency virtually our own literature. I'one thousand personally a fiddling tired reading well-nigh the bug of life in suburban Connecticut.''
The problems of suburbia are most as remote every bit anything could be from the themes developed by Latin American writers in contempo and forthcoming books, most of which invoke illusion, metaphor, fantasy and mysticism. ''Seven Serpents and Seven Moons'' (Avon), past Demetrio Aguilera Malta of Ecuador, is a novel larded with myth, hallucination and fantasy. ''Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a forthcoming novel by Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, is a story about the narrator's scandalous human relationship with his aunt and with his beau scriptwriter.
In ''Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages'' (Random Business firm), past Manuel Puig of Argentina, an aged Argentine exile confined to a wheelchair hires a immature American to push him around Greenwich Village. ''Snakes' Nest'' (New Directions), by Ledo Ivo of Brazil, is a political apologue that explores the nature of good and evil.
''The Commemoration'' (Avon), by Ivan Angelo, a novel based on historical fact, got past Brazilian censors merely because the author masked those facts with satire. ''The Monkey Grammarian'' (Seaver), by United mexican states'south Octavio Paz, abounds with symbols, analogies and metaphor. ''The Voices of the Expressionless'' (Taplinger), by Autran Dourado, a Brazilian novelist, switches tense and time, and interweaves dialogue, narrative and stream of consciousness.
Even poesy is represented in this Latin literary boomlet. Black Swan of Redding Ridge, Conn., recently published ''The Minus Sign,'' a collection of poetry by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a noted contemporary Brazilian author. New Directions has brought out ''The Selected Poesy of Vicente Huidobro,'' the start major collection of the work of the late Chilean poet. In another departure from the beaten literary path, Lime Rock Printing of Salisbury, Conn., volition soon publish ''A Woman of Genius,'' the intellecutal autobiography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the 17th-century Mexican nun whose birthplace is now a shrine and whose portrait is depicted on Mexico's 1,000 peso note. Financing Aid
The publication of Latin American writers in the United States owes a huge debt to the New York-based Center for Inter-American Relations, which since 1968 has helped arrange financing for translations of nearly 70 books by Latin writers. Its Review, a journal published three times a year, has helped considerably to popularize contemporary Latin American prose and poesy.
But the popularity of Latin writers as well owes a large debt to Alfred A. Knopf, which for almost xl years has published in hardcover Jorge Amado, Brazil's most popular novelist, and Gilberto Freyre, a Brazilian Renaissance man of letters. Ironically, Knopf has no books by Latin authors on its winter or spring listing, although information technology plans to publish a novel in the fall by Jose Donoso of Chile and several books by Julio Cortazar of Argentina in the fall of 1983.
Several hard-comprehend publishers have temporarily taken up the Knopf pall, including Harper & Row and E.P. Dutton (which has published 10 books past Mr. Borges in the terminal 13 years). Now the hard-cover leader is Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In addition to the forthcoming Vargas Llosa novel, it recently published ''Isla Negra,'' autobiographical poems past the belatedly Pablo Neruda of Chile, who won the Nobel Prize in 1971. It volition soon publish ''Distant Relations,'' a novel past Mexico's Carlos Fuentes. After this year it volition release ''New Islands,'' a drove of short stories past Maria Luisa Bombal of Republic of chile, too as a novel by Luisa Valenzuela of Argentina.
But perhaps the near titles past Latin authors in recent years have appeared in paperback under Avon'south Bard imprint, which reads similar a Who's Who of Latin literature. Adjacent calendar month Avon will publish ''Macho Camacho'due south Beat,'' a novel by Luis Rafael Sanchez from Puerto Rico, and in June it volition release ''Mulata,'' by Miguel Angel Asturias, the late Guatemalan novelist, poet and diplomat who won the 1967 Nobel Prize for Literature. It even intends to publish a new translation by Mr. Colchie of a novel that was translated into English language some years ago: ''The Devil to Pay in the Backlands,'' by Joao Guimaraes Rosa of Brazil. Amado on List
Avon'southward list includes nine titles past Jorge Amado and three past Machado de Assis, the 19th-century Brazilian novelist considered by some the equal of Flaubert or Henry James. His ''Epitaph for a Modest Winner'' served as a model for novels by Amado and Marcio Souza, and his ''Dom Casmurro'' has been hailed as one of the finest works of fiction in whatsoever language.
Penguin Books recently signed an original piece of work past Roberto Drummond, a Brazilian novelist, and a novel past Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban, while Clarkson Northward. Potter has contracted for a novel by Jaime Manrique of Colombia. Ultimately, however, the future of Latin publishing volition depend on how well the books sell.
Jorge Amado'southward rollicking ''Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon'' reportedly sold 20,000 copies in hardback, while ''Ane Hundred Years of Confinement''by Mr. Marquez has sold well-nigh 800,000 in paperback; just then far they are exceptions. Even the sale of books by Mr. Borges, widely considered one of the finest writers in the world, has rarely reached 20,000.
At that place are signs that all that may be changing. In contrast to only a few years ago, nigh comparative-literature programs today include selections or books by Latin American writers, according to Mr. Colchie, and many books by Latin writers are widely available in inexpensive paperback editions, which help expand the market for a writer's subsequent books. And the overall quality is said to be meliorate than ever.
''In recent years there has been a renaissance in Primal and South American literature,'' said Roger Due west. Straus, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ''Dorsum in the 1940's, Italy was a fertile area for writers, then France. Now there is a flurry of showtime-rate Latin writers who are publishing some of the most interesting writing coming into the United States.''
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/16/books/us-is-discovering-latin-america-s-literature.html
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