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Imagining Argentina | 
 enlarge | Author: Lawrence Thornton
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.99 (100%)
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Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 135696
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0553345796
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553345797
ASIN: 0553345796
Publication Date: November 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Standard used condition. May have light reading/storage wear. Usually ships within 1 business day from Walpole MA.
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Product Description
Imagining Argentina is set in the dark days of the late 1970's, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the general's prison cells and torture chambers. When Carlos Ruweda's wife is suddenly taken from him, he discovers a magical gift: In waking dreams, he had clear visions of the fates of "the disappeared." But he cannot "imagine" what has happened to his own wife. Driven to near madness, his mind cannot be taken away: imagination, stories, and the mystical secrets of the human spirit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Imagining Argentina- I strongly recommend it December 14, 1999
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
I read this book, Imagining Argentina, for a class on conscience and political struggle. Of the books we read (Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, and others), this book quickly emerged among my classmates as a favorite. This is in part due to the fact that it is an easy read. The language flows smoothly, unburdened with cumbersome wording. Also, the crafting of the story is quite artful. Imagining Argentina takes its material from historical events. Argentina's so-called "dirty war" was an internal conflict, waged by the military government on the people. Anyone who publicly decried the generals or their policies risked being disappeared. The main character of Thornton's novel, Carlos Rueda, is a playwright who discovers a gift for seeing both past and future events through the eyes of the disappeared after his own wife is taken away. People start coming to him to hear the stories of their disappeared loved ones. Though many of the characters are fictional, the stories Rueda tells are taken from actual experiences of victims of the dirty war. Thus, Thornton blends mysticism with factual information to create a novel that is both a compelling read and a moving account of Argentina's dark, not-so-distant past.
 Very realistic September 22, 2004
Marga
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
I wanted to address the comments of people who said this novel was not historically accurate. I write this as an Argentina Human Rigths Activist and the founder of Proyecto Desaparecidos, http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/ . It's exactly the opposite, reading the story was as if the Ruedas clan had been introduced into a completely real situation. The story starts with a real event, the forced-disappearance of several students who were lobbying for student-priced bus fare. Cecilia, Carlos Ruedas' wife is a journalist with the real-life newspaper La Opinion, the only newspaper (save for English language Buenos Aires Herald) that actually dared to write about the repression and the disappeared at that time. In response, she's disappeared herself (and the account of her disappearance comes straight from the testimonies of such events) and taken to the ESMA where she's tortured and treated in a "typical" manner for the time. In his search for her, Carlos comes into contact with many real-life people, most of whom are given pseudonyms in the book. For example Mario Raban, alias "Gustavo Santos", is a navy man who in the book infiltrates the families of the disappeared and plans their kidnaping at the Church of the Holy Cross, where they met. In real life, Alfredo Astiz, alias "Gustavo Nino", was a navy man who infiltrated the families of the disappeared and planned their kidnaping at the Santa Cruz Church. Both in the book and real life, Raban/Astiz also shoots Dagmar Hageling (her real name).
The types of stories told by Carlos about what happened to the disappeared are very realistic, though perhaps there is a greater rate of escapes and liberations in his stories than in real life. Still, most seem to have been taken out of real testimonies. The winding down of the repression, with Amnesty International's and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' visits are also historical events, as is the eventual trial of the generals.
There a couple of things that are not completely accurate, such as the command line structure at the (real life) secret detention center ESMA, but this is a novel and that type of detail would hinder rather than help the story.
Finally, what I found most amazing was the voice of the narrator and thus of the book itself. It sounded like Argentine Spanish translated into English, so much so, that sometimes I found myself translating back into Spanish for an easier flow. How an American writer can accomplish such a feat is a mystery to me.
"Imagining Argentina": A Book of Passion, Heart and Spirit March 21, 2003
Richard Rubenstein (Unionville, Ontario, Canada)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
A brilliant and inspiring novel, Lawrence Thornton's "Imagining Argentina" effectively portrays the turmoil and struggle in Argentina in the 1970's as people were taken from their loved ones by corrupt government officials and became members of "the disappeared". Using exceptional and eloquent writing techniques, Thornton is able to portray a story of love, imagination, despair and most provocatively, faith. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this novel, is its ability to establish a relationship between the reader and the protagonist, Carlos Rueda. So deeply intriguing and stimulating is this central character, that the reader cannot help but communicate with him, by sympathizing the losses of his wife and daughter, understanding his desperation and desperation and inhaling his words of wisdom and bold faith in humanity. The story emphasizes on the theme of faith and the power of the human spirit. Carlos' unbreakable belief in his wife's survival is never tarnished nor questioned, as he able to unite a lost community and bring hope that their loved ones will return someday. The only negative aspects of this novel is that sometimes the book is so plotted out that it feels like you are watching a movie rather than reading a book. The novel also starts off slow but picks up very quickly towards the middle. I highly recommend this novel, "Imagining Argentina" and hope that it moves you just as much as it has moved me.
Simply Magical December 18, 2003
J. A Magill (Sacramento, CA USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
In this masterfully spun and tragic tale, Lawrence Thronton captures the very essence of the genre of mystical Latin American literature. In an homage to the works of authors like Marques and Allende, the author blends the fantastic and the deadly real, giving the reader a heart wrenching view of Aregentina during the military junta. Thornton, himself not Latin, brings to life the pain and hopelessness of those whose relatives would disapear under the military's rule and who had no one to whom they could turn.In colorful language that seems to flow off the page and into your heart, he creates a world so real that you feel like you know the depth that these characters suffer. Magical realism can be extremely dificult to write as it often fails to hold the reader. Exactly the opposite is true of this wonderful novel.
Impressive Novel January 5, 2004
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I was assigned Thornton's Imagining Argentina for my International Politics class last semester and dreaded the day that I would have to read the book.Much to my surprise, Imagining Argentina is a gripping novel about the tortures experienced in Argentina and throughout South America. Thornton's grasp of Magical Realism is astonishing, especially given his native tongue and land. Thornton shows an obvious study of Spanish and South American literature and manages to evoke the nature of Magical Realism in a book written in English for an American audience. Read Imagining Argentina. It is a fascinating novel that is impressive in both literary prowess and contemporary political importance.
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