Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion

In this volume, published in 1999, Margarite Fernández Olmos provides an overview and analysis of several novels by Rudolfo Anaya, including Bless Me Ultima (1972), Heart of Aztlán (1976), Tortuga (1979), Alburquerque (1992), Zia summer (1995), Rio Grande Fall (1996), and Jalamanta (1996). Each chapter begins with a brief contextualization of the novel’s writing, publication, and reception. The overview then covers the plot development, setting, narrative strategies, and characterization in each novel, proceeding to offer critical readings of the particular style and notable themes of the various works. Furthermore, Fernández Olmos suggests alternative reading perspectives, such as a postcolonial view of Alburquerque, a feminist analysis of Rio Grande Fall, or a critical examination of archetypal myth in Bless Me, Ultima. While each chapter can stand alone, when put together they offer important insights into the author’s overall literary trajectory. This larger perspective highlights Anaya’s prolific career as one marked by experimentation with different genres, forms, and styles, while maintaining thematic threads that can be traced through most of his prose fiction, as well as his poetry, essays, and plays.

-Sophie Ell

"Rudolfo A. Anaya's seven novels can all be viewed in terms of the Chicano literary tradition though their rich texts have earned Anaya a place of respoect in mainstream modern American literature. Fernandez Olmos guides the reader through Anaya's literary world with clear signposts, illunminating the mythical , cultural and linguistic complexities of his astounding stories. From his coming-of-age masterpiece Blesss Me, Ultima (1972) to his most recent work Shaman Winter (1999), Anaya's writing, with its rich spiritual symbolism, is brought down to earth and made accessible to the student reader by Fernandez Olmos' insightful analyses. This work devotes a chapter to each novel, enabling Fernandez Olmos to guide the reader through each, showing the patterns and variations of literary devices in Anaya's works, while offering interesting alternative interpretations of Anaya's writing. Student readers and researchers will find the bibliography, which includes reviews, criticisms, and other rsecondary sources, to be very helpful." - Excerpt from Dust Jacket.