Complete Works and Other Stories

by Augusto Monterroso, Edith Grossman (Translator), Will H. Corral (Introduction)

Overview

Augusto Monterroso is widely known for short stories characterized by brilliant satire and wit. Yet behind scathing allusions to the weaknesses and defects of the artistic and intellectual worlds, they show his generous and expansive sense of compassion.

This book brings together for the first time in English the volumes Complete Works (and Other Stories) (Obras completas [y otros cuentos] 1959) and Perpetual Motion (Movimiento perpetuo 1972). Together, they reveal Monterroso as a foundational author of the new Latin American narrative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292751842
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	01/01/1996
Series:	Texas Pan American Series
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	170
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Augusto Monterroso is the internationally renowned author of nine books, including The Black Sheep and Other Fables. A resident of Mexico since 1956, he won the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, Mexico's highest literary honor, in 1975.

Edith Grossman is an award-winning translator of contemporary Latin American literature. Her recent publications include Strange Pilgrims and Of Love and Other Demons, by Gabriel García Márquez, and Maqroll and The Adventures of Maqroll, by Alvaro Mutis.

Table of Contents

• Before and After Augusto Monterroso by Will H. Corral
• Complete Works (And Other Stories)
  • Mister Taylor
  • One Out of Three
  • Finished Symphony
  • First Lady
  • The Eclipse
  • Diogenes Too
  • The Dinosaur
  • Leopoldo (His Labors)
  • The Concert
  • The Centennial
  • I Don’t Want to Deceive You
  • Cow
  • Complete Works
• Perpetual Motion
  • Flies
  • Perpetual Motion
  • It’s All the Same
  • Regarding Attributions
  • Homage to Masoch
  • The World
  • The Brain Drain
  • The Endymion Report
  • I Know You, Mask
  • The Advantages and Disadvantages of Jorge Luis Borges
  • Fecundity
  • You Tell Sarabia That I Said He Should Hire Her and Place Her Here or Wherever, That I’ll Explain Later
  • Homo Scriptor
  • Under Other Wreckage
  • How to Stop Being a Monkey
  • How I Got Rid of Five Hundred Books
  • The Maids
  • Solemnity and Eccentricity
  • Winning the Street
  • Humor
  • Paradise
  • It May Be True
  • Living Together
  • Height and Poetry
  • Christmas. New Year’s. Whatever
  • Choose One
  • Ever-Present Danger
  • The Outdoor Poet
  • Tender Rose
  • Brevity
  • Errata and Final Notice

What People are Saying About This

Cynthia Steele

Monterroso is certainly the leading living Guatemalan writer. . . . His microcuentos are finely honed, highly ironic, sophisticated pieces which are both very good literature and excellent pedagogical devices. I would liken his short stories to some of Borges' more accessible ones, with the added dimension of political commitment.
— Cynthia Steele, author of Politics, Gender, and the Mexican Novel, 1968-1988: Beyond the Pyramid

Editorial Reviews

Sophisticated wit and playful surrealist fantasy dominate these ingenious and gently mocking tales, by a Guatemalan-born soul mate to the late Jorge Luis Borges. This first English translation of Monterroso's work offers the contents of his two published collections, Complete Works and Other Stories (1959) and Perpetual Motion (1972). They're a monument, if that isn't the wrong word, to this entertaining author's trademark 'concision and wit.'-- "Kirkus Reviews"

From the Publisher

These clever stories from an author born in Honduras of Guatemalan and Honduran heritage offer one surprise after another, although, as with many collections, readers may come to anticipate the surprise. ``Mister Taylor'' is a Boston native who travels to the Amazon and begins exporting shrunken heads back home, inspiring huge demand. Brother Bartolom Arrazola tries to use his scientific knowledge to escape from Indian sacrifice, not realizing that Mayans are more than knowledgeable about such things, in ``The Eclipse.'' The brevity of these stories is often a surprise in itself. ``The Dinosaur'' consists of a single sentence, and ``Perpetual Motion 1981'' is not much longer; it is a Mbius strip of a story that lives up to its title. ``Flies'' introduces an obsession with flies that permeates the second half of the book, comparing the insects with the punishing Eumenides and Furies. And throughout the collection, Monterroso writes about the process of writingmost successfully in ``Leopoldo (His Labors),'' a story about a hapless writer that includes the hilarious journal he hopes to use for inspiration (``Tuesday the 12th Today I got up early but nothing happened to me''). Writers aren't supposed to write about writing, and probably someone has decided that stories should be longer than eight words. Or that flies are not fit for discussion. Monterroso's work is a welcome reminder of the futility of preconceptions. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Born in Honduras in 1921 and residing in Mexico since 1944, this talented essayist/fabulist/aphorist/ enjoys flouting genre constraints. His knack is for creating ordinary/unusual characters like the American headhunter in the Amazon jungle who exports shrunken heads back to the United States, or the first lady of a Latin American country who rushes around like a lunatic giving poetry readings. His world is one where poetry can impoverish even the richest spirit, the belts with which drunken men beat their wives are made especially for that purpose, the habit of reading books is diminished by the acquisitive habit of buying books, and flies, along with love and death, are the third great theme of life. "The essay about the story about the poem about life is perpetual motion," he philosophizes, and the perpetual motion of his prose selection here is rich in Saki-like irony, the peeling away of veneer, insight, and compassion. Recommended for larger public libraries.Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.

Library Journal

A no-nonsense introductory text for health care students. Presents an introduction to general psychology with an emphasis on application in health promotion and preventative care. The authors include topics such as: self-image, learning development, perception, memory, stress, loss, and pain. The chapters are peppered with case examples and exercises for group and individual study. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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