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Imagining Argentina
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Imagining Argentina Paperback - 1991

by Lawrence Thornton

A political novel about "los desaparecidos" (the disappeareds), in Argentina during the late 1970s, it tells the mesmerizing story of Carlos Rueda, a man who discovers, after his own wife disappears, that he can imagine the fate of other disappeareds, but not his own Cecilia.


From the publisher

"Remarkable . . . deeply inventive . . . Thorton has imagined Argentina truly; his inspired fable troubles and feeds our own intriguing imagining."--Los Angeles Times Imagining Argentina is set in the dark days of the late 1970's, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the general's prison cells and torture chambers. When Carlos Ruweda's wife is suddenly taken from him, he discovers a magical gift: In waking dreams, he had clear visions of the fates of "the disappeared." But he cannot "imagine" what has happened to his own wife. Driven to near madness, his mind cannot be taken away: imagination, stories, and the mystical secrets of the human spirit. Praise for Imagining Argentina "A harrowing, brilliant novel."--The New Yorker

"A powerful new novel . . . Thorton seems to have wedded his study of such writers as Borges and Marquez with thy his own instinctive gift for metaphor, and in doing so, created his own brand of magical realism"--The New York Times "Imagining Argentina is a slim volume filled with beautiful writing. It is an exciting adventure story. It is a haunting love story. And it is a story for all time."--Detroit Free Press

"The writing is crystalline, the metaphors compelling . . . Its central theme is universal."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"In a time when much North American fiction is contained by crabbed realism, Thorton takes for his material one of the bleaker recent instances of human cruelty, sees in it the enduring nobility of the human spirit and imagines a book that celebrates that spirit."--The Washington Post Book World "A powerful first novel and a manifesto for the memorializing power of literature."--The New York Times Book Review

"A profoundly hopeful book."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the jacket flap

"Imagining Argentina is set in the dark days of the late 1970's, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the general's prison cells and torture chambers. When Carlos Ruweda's wife is suddenly taken from him, he discovers a magical gift: In waking dreams, he had clear visions of the fates of "the disappeared." But he cannot "imagine" what has happened to his own wife. Driven to near madness, his mind cannot be taken away: imagination, stories, and the mystical secrets of the human spirit.

Details

  • Title Imagining Argentina
  • Author Lawrence Thornton
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reissue
  • Pages 240
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Bantam, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.
  • Date November 1, 1991
  • ISBN 9780553345797 / 0553345796
  • Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 in (20.57 x 13.21 x 1.52 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1970's
    • Cultural Region: Latin America
    • Ethnic Orientation: Latino
  • Library of Congress subjects Political fiction, Political prisoners - Fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 88003384
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

"A harrowing, brilliant  novel."--The New Yorker.

"A  powerful new novel... Thorton seems to have wedded  his study of such writers as Borges and Marquez  with thy his own instinctive gift for metaphor, and  in doing so, created his own brand of magical  realism"--The New York  Times.

"Remarkable... Deeply  inventive... Thorton has imagined Argentina truly; his  inspired fable troubles and feeds our own intriguing  imagining."--Los Angeles  Times.

"Imagining Argentina is a  slim volume filled with beautiful writing. It is  an exciting adventure story. It is a haunting love  story. And it is a story for all  time."--Detroit Free  Press.

"The writing is crystalline, the  metaphors compelling... Its central theme is  universal."--The Philadelphia  Inquirer.

"In a time when much North  American fiction is contained by crabbed realism,  Thorton takes for his material one of the bleaker  recent instances of human cruelty, sees in it the  enduring nobility of the human spirit and imagines a  book that celebrates that  spirit."--The Washington Post Book World.  

"A powerful first  novel and a manifesto for the memorializing power of  literature."--
The New York Times  Book Review.

"A  profoundly hopeful book."--The Cleveland  Plain Dealer

About the author

Lawrence Thornton is an award-winning novelist best known for Imagining Argentina, his first novel, which received a number of literary prizes, including the Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, the PEN American Center West Award for Best Novel of 1987, a nomination for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Shirley Collier Award from UCLA, and the Silver Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California. He also received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Thornton was born and educated in California, where he lives with his wife.
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Imagining Argentina
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Imagining Argentina

by Lawrence Thornton

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by Thornton, Lawrence

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