A fascinating and urgent prose retelling of the Mayan myth of creation by renowned Latin American author and scholar Ilan Stavans, gorgeously illustrated by Salvadoran folk artist Gabriela Larios. The most important creation story in the Americas before the European conquest, Popol Vuh was a millennia-old oral tradition that, in the 16th century, as the Mayan civilization was being threatened with destruction, was written down in verse by members of the K''iche'' nobility in what is today Guatemala. That original was translated into Spanish by a priest and then vanished mysteriously. Composed of four parts, Popol Vuh tells the story of how the world was created in a series of rehearsals that included wooden dummies, demi-gods, and eventually humans. Cosmic in scope and yet intimately human, Popol Vuh offers invaluable insight into the Mayan way of life before 1492, their code of ethics, their views on death and the afterlife, and their devotion to passion, courage, and the natural world. One of the most extraordinary sections of the narrative is the description--as inspired as Dante''s hell--of the underworld, Xibalba. Equally archetypal is the legend of the ultimate king, who, in the face of tragedy, became a spirit that accompanies his people in their struggle for survival. In his prose retelling of this classic that is as seminal as the Iliad and Odyssey , award-winning scholar of Latin American civilization Ilan Stavans offers a much-needed opportunity to appreciate the timeless resonance of the account, while also connecting it with the current plight of the indigenous people of the Americas.
Praise for Ilan Stavans: "Ilan Stavans is an inventive interpreter of the contemporary cultures of the Americas. Cantankerous and clever, sprightly and serious, Stavans is a voracious thinker. In his writing, life serves to illuminate literature--and vice versa: he is unafraid to court controversy, unsettle opinions, make enemies. In short, Stavans is an old-fashioned intellectual, a brilliant interpreter of his triple heritage--Jewish, Mexican, and American." --Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ".in the void created by the death of his compatriot Octavio Paz, Ilan Stavans has emerged as Latin America''s liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast." --The Washington Post "Ilan Stavans has done as much as anyone alive to bridge the hemisphere''s linguistic gaps.
" --The Miami Herald "A canon-maker." --The Chronicle of Higher Education "Ilan Stavans is a maverick intellectual whose canonical work has already produced a whole array of marvels. His incisive essays are redefining Jewish literature." --The Forward "Ilan Stavans is the rarest of North American writers--he sees the Americas whole. Not since Octavio Paz has Mexico given us an intellectual so able to violate borders, with learning and grace." --Richard Rodriguez "In the multicultural rainbow that is contemporary America, no one may be more representative of the state of the union than Ilan Stavans." --Newsday "Ilan Stavans may very well succeed in becoming the Octavio Paz of our age." --The San Francisco Chronicle "A virtuoso critic with an exuberant, encyclopedic, restless mind.
" --The Forward "Ilan Stavans has the sharp eye of the internal exile. Writing about the sometimes reluctant reconquista of North America by Spanish-speaking cultures or the development of his own identity, he deals with both the life of the mind and the life of the streets." --John Sayles "Lively and intelligent, eclectic, sharp-tongued." --Peter Matthiessen "I think Stavans has one of the best grips around on what makes Spanish America tick." --Gregory Rabassa "Ilan Stavans is a disciple of Kafka and Borges. He accepts social identity broadly, in the most cosmopolitan terms. His impulse is to broaden, not to narrow; he finds understanding through complication of identity, not through the easy gestures of ethnic politics." --The New York Times "Ilan Stavans has established himself as an invaluable commentator of literature.
" --Phillip Lopate.