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Title: Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey by Ariel Dorfman ISBN: 0-14-028253-X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A master story-teller's own story of multiple exiles
Comment: Both as a memorial to the democracy that was delayed for a generation in Chile (and to his friends who were casualties in the Pinochet terror) and as an account of how a major writer became the bilingual hybrid he is by rejecting first one and then the other of his linguistic selves, this is a fascinating book. . Battered from continent to continent by political events of the twentieth century, Dorfman's survival (as he knows well) depended on considerable luck and on his father's connections. Although he has accepted that his vocation is to tell stories, especially the stories of repression in Chile, there is no doubt that he harbors a considerable amount of survivor guilt.
Contrary to the misrepresentation of earlier reviewers, Dorfman does mention Borges (three times, all with respect), criticizes Castro as well as Pinochet (though Chile is a place to which he gave his heart and soul), and is not just aware, but explicit that it is ironic "I should have become a spokesperson for the poor in Latin America because I had spent so many years in the rich North" and of the recurrent ironies that the connections of his marxist father got them out of harm's way.
This is a very honest, un-narcissistic account of an interesting life of multiple exiles, observing failures of democracies, making clear the different selves that emerge in different languages. I would have liked more on the second American exile and assenting to bilingualism, and I regret that the hardback cover composition was replaced by the duller, less bicultural one on the paperback.
Rating: 5
Summary: A passionate look at bilingualism
Comment: This is a great book. I have seldom read a book that is so honest and, at the same time, so full of sound and fury. Yes, it is highly idiosyncratic, especially when Dorfman tries to explain his reasons for chosing English over Spanish and vice versa, but, at the same time, it is written with such passion that one cannot help sympathizing with him. Being bilingual myself, going from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English every single day of my life, being an expatriate yearning for the lost paradise of my birth and childhood, I found in Dorfman's "Heading south, looking north" many of the encountered feelings that a person who participates in two cultures has--and I rejoiced in that I was not alone in my feelings.
But, apart from being a passionate meditation on the virtues and 'ravages' of bilingualism, "Heading south, looking north" is a corageous book full of the ironies that make up life and a hymn to the Allende revolution in Chile. There is much to be gained from his soul searching, much to be learned from his criticism of the revolution that he loves so much (yes, I think it's appropriate to use the present tense), and, above all, much to be admired from this singular journey. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 1
Summary: why am I suprised
Comment: While Mr. Dorfman's experience of crossing cultures and language during a high profile time in Chilian and American history is poinent, it is not unique or objective. His self absorbtion is irritating. His self rightousness criticism covers unresolved suvivor's guilt which would be better resolved in the analysts chair. It is unfortunate Mr. Dorfman presents such idealised view of the Salvador Allende. I have lived and worked in Chile and am well aquainted with many people,peers of Mr. Dorfman, who also have parents who immigrated from Europe or Russia. Allende caused terrible harm to the Chilian economy in his repartiation of middle class businesses and land amoung other things. Middle class housewives demonstrated in the streets begging the military to oust him. No one approved of the repressive regime, the fear and the disappearances of the early Pinochet years, but in the last years Pinochet opened the Chilian markets to the world. Pinochet was voted out and democracy in with the addition of "primary" elections so that no one will be elected with 33% of the vote as was Allende. There were no monsters in Chile, no saints,but there is complex history, culture and politics. It is a shame Mr Dorfman with his high visability couldn't have addressed that.
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Title: Rumbo al sur, deseando el norte: Heading North, Looking South, Spanish Edition by Ariel Dorfman ISBN: 1583220798 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 09 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Woman Hollering Creek : And Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros ISBN: 0679738568 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Death and the Maiden (Penguin Plays) by Ariel Dorfman ISBN: 0140246843 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1994 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability (A National Security Archive Book) by Peter Kornbluh ISBN: 1565845862 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 11 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Alphabet in My Hands: A Writing Life by Marjorie Agosin, Nancy Abraham Hall ISBN: 081352704X Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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