Voices of Time: A Life in Stories
This Uruguayan writer has a way of producing stories reminiscent of folktales, testimonials, and reflections, and of stitching them together into vast historical tapestries, a technique seen to greatest effect in his trilogy "Memory of Fire." The current collection, subtitled "A Life in Stories," includes excursions into the Mayan concept of time, Peruvian cave paintings, and child laborers in Pakistan, and features walk-on appearances by Hernán Cortés, Diego Maradona, and Michael Jackson. Galeano can be fierce and defiant, as when he inveighs against the I.M.F., the World Bank, and assorted dictators, but there is always something celebratory to his style. Evoking the call of poets and singers, and the mysterious voices of wind, moon, trees, and dreams, Galeano remains, first and foremost, a wonder-struck raconteur.Copyright © 2006The New Yorker