Memory of Fire V 1: Genisis

by Eduardo Galeano

Book Overview

Genesis, the first volume in Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy, is both a meditation on the clashes between the Old World and the New and, in the author's words, an attempt to "rescue the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394747305
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Pantheon
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Fictory of the Americas

Galeano admits that he has not written an objective history of the Americas, and that some of the material is pure fiction. He intermingles fact, fiction, poetry, magical realism, historical quotes, myth, religion, social commentary and about anything else you can think of. The combination is very effective. It would make a great textbook for students with the ability to separate the fact from the fictional presentation of his representations of what the facts could have been. His emphasis is on South & Central America and I'm glad. He does add enough about North American to fill out the time frame, but that's not the "story" he is telling. I need a better of understanding of the other two Americas. I gave it 4 stars because I felt he could have made it a little more readable. I can't really describe what it is missing, but I found my attention wandering a little too often. I will read the next two books in the series (really - they are sitting on my shelf) because I enjoyed his interpretations of American (North & South) history. (I don't know where the Product Details above gets "3 pages" - the book is 300 pages.)

Memory of Fire Trilogy by Eduardo Galeano

Here is a typical complete chapter from surely the strangest book of history I've ever read. "1927: San Gabriel de Jalisco: A Child Looks On "The mother covers his eyes so he cannot see his grandfather hanging by the feet. And then the mother's hands prevent his seeing his father's body riddled by the bandits' bullets, or his uncle's twisting in the wind over there on the telegraph posts. "Now the mother too has died, or perhaps has just tired of defending her child's eyes. Sitting on the stone fence that snakes over the slopes, Juan Rulfo contemplates his harsh land with a naked eye. He sees horsemen -- federal police or Cristeros, it makes no difference -- emerging from smoke, and behind them, in the distance, a fire. He sees bodies hanging in a row, nothing now but ragged clothing emptied by the vultures. He sees a procession of women dressed in black. "Juan Rulfo, a child of nine, is surrounded by ghosts who look like him. "Here there is nothing alive -- the only voices those of howling coyotes, the only air the black wind that rises in gusts from the plains of Jalisco, where the survivors are only dead people pretending." The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano's trilogy Memory of Fire contains the books Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind, from the last of which this chapter comes. Taken together, the books make up a compendious and riveting history of the Americas (mostly Central and South America). But this is no academic history. It does follow a chronological timeline through the last five centuries or so. But each chapter tells a small story, like the one above. Hundreds of historical figures wander, curse, pray, converse, make love, die, are transformed or obliterated in these pages. And each story is an anecdotal parable that contributes to a single long history of almost total cruelty. And the history of The Americas is one of cruelty. Starting with the creation myths of several American Indian peoples, Memory of Fire continues through the history of those Indians prior to the invasions of their lands by Europeans, almost the only sanguine section of the entire trilogy. Then, Galeano proceeds to the invasions themselves, which include stories of myriad individual Indian headmen, priests and women warriors, mystic Indian truth tellers, those who would tell of future disasters, and tribal chiefs misled by their own oracles... as well as the thousands of adventurers, holy men fanatics, pirates, crazy dictators, soldiers, mercenaries, prostitutes and treasure seekers that came with the conquerors. The single constant theme in all this is that of the crushing defeat and murder of the defenseless by the powerful. Prior to the nineteenth century, the defenseless were all the Indians from both The Americas, and the Blacks who were brought to the American continents as slaves. Later the defenseless were made up of peons, indentured servants, peasants rendered landless by oligarchs and self-serving governments, Jews, socialists

Very hard to stop reading the entire Trilogy

I originally purchased the first volume of this Trilogy (Memory of Fire). After reading a few pages of the first volume, "Genesis", I rushed to get the remaining two volumes. Galeano has an amazing ability to write, even with translation, in a compelling and magnificent historical-fictional style. The narrative flows from year to year over the centuries in these volumes and gives the reader a wealth of knowledge that reshapes many of the "historical" accounts he or she has been taught. I suspect that is the case whether one is a citizen of the United States or not. Certainly, for the North American reader os Galeano's Triology, whether we are reading about the 1400's or 1900's, each page surprises. His work spans an immense ammount of time and the reader, perhaps not an historian, is amazed at the degree to which he or she has been utterly swept through history. Not an historian, myself, it is perhaps enough to say that the literary quality of these volumes is compelling. I have read the three volumes, given my set away to someone who had not read it, purchased it again and read it yet again. Accusations of "bias" against the work, which has its foundations in historical evidence, are improper. It is perhaps enough to say that Galeano writes from a distinctly Latin American perspective. These volumes in a poetic fashion, despite some of the terrible events of the history they record.

History of the Americas told in a unique style

The author has drawn from many sources to compile this beautifully written history of the Americas, told in a couple of hundred short chapters, each a mini story of a legend or historical event presented in chronological order. Part one of the book, called "First Voices" recounts ancient legends and creation myths of the first peoples of the Americas, later comes contact with Europeans - the "discovery" years then conquest. Volume One of the trilogy takes the reader up to 1700 and recounts more stories from South America than the Caribbean or North America, though all parts of the Americas are touched.Wish now I had read this more slowly, rather than reading this straight through like a novel, a few of these chapters a night would have been better, so many horrific stories of cruelty, oppression and genocide one after another were hard to absorb, overwhelming greed is really the theme. Such a waste of human knowledge and experience, the destruction of the ancient books of the Mayans by the Catholic church was a loss for all humanity.

Simplemente maravilloso

Un texto poetico, con la lucidez de un escritor critico. Permite conocer el mundo americano previo a la llegada de los colonizadores. Un mundo que, aunque no estaba colonizado, poseia una cultura riquisima, basada en el respeto a los seres vivos. Realmente de lo mejor que he leido. Es recomendable leer completa la trilogia