Solis's graphic novel makes a solid--and delightful--supplement to the oeuvre of one of surrealism’s leading figures. Told with tenderness and drawn with whimsy, the book chronicles the period of Buñuel’s life that the artist spent filming his seminal pseudo-documentary, The Land without Bread, in the Spanish community of Las Hurdes, Solís focuses this fascinating story on Buñuel’s creative struggle and his internal debate between the principles of surrealism and those of social realism.
In this brisk and revelatory novella, Pacheco juxtaposes the portrait of a nation undergoing rapid change with that of a boy growing into adulthood. The nation is Mexico, where politicians enrich themselves; the boy is Carlos, a child of middle-class parents. While Mexico City engages in a struggle between traditional values and the new standards of industrialization and consumerism, Carlos falls in love with the mother of one of his classmates--only to find the adults around him suppressing his sexual and emotional awakening. It's a feat of almost incredible storytelling.
There is an ornate and otherworldly--almost divine--quality to Groff’s writing that makes Matrix the perfect display of this already accomplished writer's growing genius. And her genius is indeed growing as she recasts the High Middle Ages life of the poet Marie de France as the story of a well-born bastard exiled to life as a nun in a remote abbey. Building on the luster of her past work--not least, that of her renowned sentences--Groff also shows a steadier and more restrained hand.
