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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
sad
tense
its really cool how you can see the world changing through these short chapters
La historia es hermosa pero que tan cruel ha sido el mundo con las Americas
I liked Galeano's approach to non-fiction here and enjoyed reading the vignettes at first. It became harder and harder for me to follow after a while, though, and I found myself wishing I was just reading one solid story instead of bouncing around the Americas each page. This is just my preference and no real fault of the text--the text is beautiful and heartbreaking and creative. I may pick up the next book in the trilogy a little while down the line.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Appropriately, I started this on Columbus Day. Beautiful and fabulous (but I did put it down several times).
It feels ungrateful and churlish to not give it 5 stars. This is a massive and beautiful and utterly devastating portrait of the history of the violation, enslavement, and genocide carried out upon the people of so-called America, up to 1700. Actually, yes, give it 5 stars.
But here is the challenge: beautifully written though each of these short pieces are (most under a page) -- and they are tight concise little works of art -- the sheer span of history leaves few recurring characters and this combined with the litany of disgusting violence, slavery, betrayal, and murder makes it quite a slog by the end. BUT WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE? It has to be so, else we fall back into the same old whitewashed comforting myths of progress.
Powerful, skillful work, but I will be taking a break before I move on to [b:Faces and Masks|264893|Faces and Masks (Memory of Fire, #2)|Eduardo Galeano|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388547038s/264893.jpg|1257337], Volume 2 of Memory of Fire.
But here is the challenge: beautifully written though each of these short pieces are (most under a page) -- and they are tight concise little works of art -- the sheer span of history leaves few recurring characters and this combined with the litany of disgusting violence, slavery, betrayal, and murder makes it quite a slog by the end. BUT WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE? It has to be so, else we fall back into the same old whitewashed comforting myths of progress.
Powerful, skillful work, but I will be taking a break before I move on to [b:Faces and Masks|264893|Faces and Masks (Memory of Fire, #2)|Eduardo Galeano|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388547038s/264893.jpg|1257337], Volume 2 of Memory of Fire.
Due to the amount of out of print books in the 1980’s segment of the challenge, I had to order a lot of books beforehand instead of taking it one book at a time, as I had done for the 90’s and 00’s, When I found out that I was tackling a trilogy I did groan a bit. I mean staying stuck on the same book for a while can get a little bit tiresome – especially now that I’m starting school again so my increased workload means decreased reading time.
But I enjoyed this first volume so far. Galeano is attempting to chronicle the history of South America (and some other places in the areas such as Cuba) and starts off with Indian mythology and works his way til 1700. All the famous people have their parts – Columbus , Pizarro , Drake , Philip II etc .
The reason why I’m probably enjoying this so much is that all the info is presented into little bite sized chunks and vary a lot, sometimes there are poems , anecdotes and historical info . What Galeano is trying to bring out is that the history of South America is one of slavery and a race who were deprived for their land and culture, all in the name of progress.
Anyway volume 2 focuses on the years 1700 – 1900. Should be interesting
But I enjoyed this first volume so far. Galeano is attempting to chronicle the history of South America (and some other places in the areas such as Cuba) and starts off with Indian mythology and works his way til 1700. All the famous people have their parts – Columbus , Pizarro , Drake , Philip II etc .
The reason why I’m probably enjoying this so much is that all the info is presented into little bite sized chunks and vary a lot, sometimes there are poems , anecdotes and historical info . What Galeano is trying to bring out is that the history of South America is one of slavery and a race who were deprived for their land and culture, all in the name of progress.
Anyway volume 2 focuses on the years 1700 – 1900. Should be interesting