Magical Realism

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Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012) is the best-known Mexican representative of the Latin American Boom literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Alongside South America contemporaries like Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Julio Cortázar, Fuentes challenged the conventions and expectations of traditional Latin American literature. The Boom generation gained unprecedented popularity in Western Europe and, from there, became globally renowned. The trend is most often characterized by experimental forms and politically engaged content.Born in Panama... Read Aura Summary

Revered Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez first published “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”—a work of magical realism—in 1968. Gregory Rabassa translated the short story into English in 1971, and all quotes in this guide refer to this edition.The story begins as a man named Pelayo kills crabs that heavy rains have washed into his house. In the muddy yard, Pelayo finds that something else has also washed up: an old man who cannot... Read A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Summary

A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) is the third novel by Haruki Murakami, an internationally acclaimed author who most recently won the Jerusalem Prize and whose work has been translated into over 50 languages. He is also known for Norwegian Wood (1987), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009).The 29-year-old narrator of the novel, who is never named, works for an advertising agency in Tokyo and leads a lonely and regimented life. He is divorced... Read A Wild Sheep Chase Summary

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Toni Morrison’s Beloved was published in 1987. It is inspired by the real story of an African American woman named Margaret Garner, who, while attempting to liberate herself and her children from enslavement, killed her own daughter to prevent her capture and enslavement. It tells the story of Sethe, a self-liberated, formerly enslaved woman who kills her daughter in the same manner. This daughter later returns to haunt the family. The novel is widely classified... Read Beloved Summary

Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions, a novel by Daniel Wallace, presents the story of the life of Edward Bloom, as told and retold by his son, William. William recounts Edward’s life as Edward lays dying of an unnamed terminal illness. The truth of Edward's past has always eluded William, as his father's anecdotes tend toward the unbelievable, and he seems incapable of being serious. Using tall tales, dreams, and allusions to Greek mythology... Read Big Fish Summary

Published in 2004, Alice Hoffman’s novel Blackbird House chronicles a house on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and its inhabitants over a 200-year span. The story, which invokes elements of magical realism, begins during the War of 1812 and ends in the present day. Shifting between first-person and third-person point-of-view, the novel delves into the themes of Love as Motivation, Resilience Resulting from Adversity, and The Power of Place in Shaping Lives.Other works by this author include... Read Blackbird House Summary

Blended is a 2018 novel by veteran young adult fiction writer and lifelong educator Sharon M. Draper. In it, she invokes elements of magical realism and explores the impact of both racism and divorce on adolescents through the vehicle of a precocious and talented 11-year-old, Isabella Badia Thornton, who narrates the novel. Izzy struggles with her sense of identity; her father is Black, her mother white. That struggle deepens as she experiences first the impact... Read Blended Summary

Bless Me, Ultima is a novel by American author Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020). Published in 1972 by independent Chicanx publishing house TQS Publications, it is one of the first literary accounts of Chicanx culture to attain widespread acclaim in the United States. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account based on Ayana’s experience of coming of age in post-World War II New Mexico. Anaya explores themes of the Multiplicity within Chicanx Identity, Catholicism, Innocence Versus the Power... Read Bless Me, Ultima Summary

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Bone Gap is a young adult novel by Laura Ruby. It features magical realism, meaning that the setting is realistic with fantastical elements. There are also mystery and crime elements. The novel is set in rural Bone Gap, Illinois, and is told from the third-person omniscient perspective. The narrator is all-seeing, knowing everything about the characters and events.The story follows Finn, an 18-year-old man. He is the only witness to the abduction of a beautiful... Read Bone Gap Summary

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Boy, Snow, Bird is a novel about race in mid-20th-century America. The novel’s central protagonist is Boy Novak, though the book employs two participant narrators: Boy, in Part I; Boy’s daughter, Bird, in Part II; then Boy once more, in Part III. The novel takes place almost entirely in Flax Hill, Massachusetts, except for the first chapter; however, it jumps in time, with the first portion set in the 1950s, while the latter portion is... Read Boy, Snow, Bird Summary