About
Author: Octavio Paz (Mexico)
Genre: Socio-Political
Setting
Place: Mexico
Time: 1600s-1950s
My Rating (see what this means)
My Subjective Rating: 3
My ‘Objective’ Rating: 1.65
Introduction
‘The Labyrinth of Solitude‘ by Octavio Paz – a Nobel winning poet is a collection of essays tackling the question of identity in his fellow countrymen – the Mexicans.
Rootless amidst their pre-Columbian and Spanish heritage, Paz studies various facets of Mexican history and culture and explores themes of solitude, alienation and existential questions in context of his country Mexico.
Being a fairly dense work, with several local references – the book is a challenging read of anyone unfamiliar with Mexican culture and felt somewhat pretentious to me. But that can be due to my relative unfamiliarity with Mexican history and culture.
Perhaps I will need to come back to it at a later date after I have familiarized myself with more of Mexico – before I can pass a more critical judgement on the book’s content. Arguably this defeats the purpose of the work aimed to explain the Mexican psyche!
But let me withhold judgement for now.
Picture Credits:
- Cover Picture: https://mountainlake.org/learn-about-and-celebrate-dia-de-los-muertos-the-day-of-the-dead/