By
– August 25, 2011
A prominent Latin American critic and the author or editor of more than 30 books, including two novels, Ilan Stavans is professor of Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College. Born in Mexico to Russian immigrant parents, he came to New York in 1985 and now lives in New England. He began life speaking Yiddish and now writes in English, with Spanish and Hebrew speaking intervals along the way. This polyglot, polycultural background gives Stavans a broad base and a varied viewpoint, as this collection of essays demonstrates.
Stavans’s Mexican-Jewish background gives him a sensitivity to the anti-Semitism of Latin Americans, most of whom have never met or seen a Jew. In “Hispanic Anti-Semitism” and “The Holocaust in Latin America” Stavans offers an insightful explanation of the deep-rooted origins of this phenomenon. But Stavans’s interests take him far beyond Latin America. Popular culture, classic English literature, personal recollections — this “Critic’s Journey” is a trip with a keen observer who is interested in everything before him, a knowledgeable companion who shares with the reader his enthusiasms and understanding of what he sees. A volume in the Writers on Writing series. Acknowledgments.
Stavans’s Mexican-Jewish background gives him a sensitivity to the anti-Semitism of Latin Americans, most of whom have never met or seen a Jew. In “Hispanic Anti-Semitism” and “The Holocaust in Latin America” Stavans offers an insightful explanation of the deep-rooted origins of this phenomenon. But Stavans’s interests take him far beyond Latin America. Popular culture, classic English literature, personal recollections — this “Critic’s Journey” is a trip with a keen observer who is interested in everything before him, a knowledgeable companion who shares with the reader his enthusiasms and understanding of what he sees. A volume in the Writers on Writing series. Acknowledgments.
Maron L. Waxman, retired editorial director, special projects, at the American Museum of Natural History, was also an editorial director at HarperCollins and Book-of-the-Month Club.
