Picture of author.

Ilan Stavans

Author of The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories

122+ Works 2,079 Members 32 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

Ilan Stavans (born Ilan Stavchansky on April 7, 1961, in Mexico City) is a Mexican-American, essayist. He is the author of "The Hispanic Condition", "The Riddle of Cantinflas", and "The One-Handed Pianist & Other Stories" as well as the editor of "The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories" and a dictionary show more of Spanglish, among other volumes. He has been a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize, among other honors. He teaches at Amherst College. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Stavans at the 2015 Texas Book Festival. By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44475580

Series

Works by Ilan Stavans

The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998) — Editor; Contributor — 130 copies
Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories (1993) — Editor — 128 copies
Isaac Bashevis Singer: An Album (2004) — Editor — 115 copies
Dictionary Days (2005) 66 copies
The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2010) — General editor — 58 copies
The Urban Muse (1997) 40 copies
The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature (2005) — Editor — 24 copies
Popol Vuh: A Retelling (2020) 19 copies
Reclaiming Travel (2015) 15 copies
The Essential Ilan Stavans (2000) 13 copies
Golemito (2013) 9 copies
Octavio Paz: A Meditation (2002) 9 copies
Love and Language (2007) 9 copies
Loteria (2004) 8 copies
I Love My Selfie (2017) 6 copies
Borges, the Jew (2016) 6 copies
Knowledge and Censorship (2008) 4 copies
La Condicion Hispanica (1999) 3 copies
God, A History of God (2014) 3 copies
Prontuario (1985) 2 copies
A Critic's Journey (2010) 2 copies
The new world Haggadah (2015) 2 copies
Blimunda 1 copy

Associated Works

The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (2005) — Editor — 889 copies
Rebellion in the Backlands (1902) — Introduction, some editions — 603 copies
Tent of Miracles (1969) — Introduction, some editions — 478 copies
Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (1980) — Introduction, some editions — 469 copies
Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings (1997) — Introduction, some editions — 250 copies
Selected Writings (Penguin Classics) (1986) — Introduction, some editions; Editor, some editions — 57 copies
American Visa (2007) — Afterword, some editions — 53 copies
Masterworks of Latin American Short Fiction: Eight Novellas (1996) — Introduction, some editions — 48 copies
Muy Macho (1996) — Contributor — 48 copies
The Last Tortilla & Other Stories (1999) — Introduction, some editions — 36 copies
Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge (2006) — Editor — 19 copies
Look Away! The U.S. South in New World Studies (2004) — Contributor — 17 copies
Mestizo (1988) — Introduction, some editions — 15 copies
Mexican Village and Other Works (2008) — Foreword — 6 copies

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Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

It's hard to read creation myths without understanding the cultural references, but you'd need so many footnotes it would probably look like pages of Talmud. There were a few references I caught that weren't fully explained in the text (e.g. the creation of humans from maize involves Paxil, brokenness, and Cayala, bitter water, to create human blood --- nixtamalization!), but that just proved to me how much was going over my head. Getting a sense of the shape of the mythology (descending and sometimes rising from the underworld, repeated apocalypses) and some common themes (twins) was still worthwhile and interesting.

Sadly not a comic (I would read the hell out of that) but nice, if intermittent, illustrations. But again, with so much visual symbolism that I know I must have been missing....!

Pronunciation guide thanks to my excellent linguistics nerd friend Cass: "x" = "sh", "j" = "h" (like in Spanish). I assume ' is for a glottal stop, but don't quote me on that. This seems like the kind of thing that should have been in the book....
… (more)
 
Flagged
caedocyon | 1 other review | Jan 2, 2024 |
I have mixed feelings about Stavans. He's undeniably sharp - I love his notion that the US should consider Spanish a native language, for example, or his refusal to reduce Latines to "brown" - but he often slides towards self indulgence (Ilan, we don't want to hear about your dreams! In. every. damn. book!) and self regard. In short, worth reading but expect to be annoyed.
½
 
Flagged
giovannigf | 1 other review | Sep 25, 2022 |
Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
 
Flagged
fernandie | 1 other review | Sep 15, 2022 |
Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
 
Flagged
fernandie | Sep 15, 2022 |

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Statistics

Works
122
Also by
23
Members
2,079
Popularity
#12,358
Rating
4.0
Reviews
32
ISBNs
242
Languages
2
Favorited
2

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