Tuesday, September 27, 2016

AURA





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Aura, Carlos Fuentes, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1962, 38 pp


Summary from Goodreads: Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged widow to edit her deceased husband's memoirs. There Felipe meets her beautiful green-eyed niece, Aura. His passion for Aura and his gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion. 


My Review: I loved this novella by an author I have also come to love. I read it on my Nook, as it is not currently in print except for the bilingual edition pictured above. At first it seemed a rip off to have to pay $9.94 for such a slim volume. About three pages in I did not care.

Written like a fable, it took me into a strange dreamlike story involving a starving writer, an old woman, the green-eyed Aura and a crumbling old house.

It is spooky. It is somewhat supernatural. It is almost a deal-with-the-devil tale. Not quite like anything else I have read by Fuentes but utterly enchanting.

8 comments:

  1. This sounds extremely familiar. I wonder if I may have read it many years ago and have just forgotten the specifics. I have read a few of Fuentes' works (that I can specifically remember) and always found them quite wonderful.

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    1. I wish I could share the ebook with you. I have never understood why, if one has paid for the ebook, one cannot lend it to someone else. I guess they have us over the proverbial barrel.

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  2. I would love to read this one!
    Actually some books are configured on Amazon (Kindle) so you can lend them to others; I have done it with my father. I think whether it can/cannot depends on the publisher.

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    1. Thanks Carmen. I will look into that. Let me know what you think of Aura when you read it.

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  3. The prices of e-books seems crazy these days; no wonder e-book sales have dropped a lot. Duh. I like the spooky sound of this one. 1962 is turning out to be a vintage year.

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    1. My 1962 list is turning out to be rich with good books. Even though I have been reading from that list since February 2015, it has been worth almost every reading hour I have spent. And if I can read one a week from now on I can finish the list by the end of the year!

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  4. I would love to read this one!

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    1. I believe you would love the experience of reading it!

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