Naranjo the Muse

$11.95

by Omar Castañeda

ISBN: 978-1-55885-192-4
Category: Fiction
Published: 30 Jun 1997
Bind: Trade Paperback
Pages: 176

 

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“My life is a nightmare of predictability,” bemoans one character in this collection of lyrically interwoven stories. Out of the banality of existence comes magical realist accounts, fantastic events and aerial lives that, through their storytelling and through the force of story-telling itself, forge new ways of being. These stories are not just about the stories, but about how each of us envisions our life as storyteller. Naranjo the Muse also deals with resisting the oppression of everyday existence. As in the labyrinthian The 1001 Arabian Nights, this collection reveals how stories save lives and seduce the mind away from an awareness of death, be that death actual, moral, political or death in the desperation of everyday living.

“Magical-realist, metafictional tricks effortlessly enliven this collection of cleverly interconnected stories . . . An unusually imaginative and charming book.”—Kirkus Reviews

OMAR CASTANEDA was the author of numerous books, poems and stories for children, young adults and adults, including Imagining Isabel (Dutton/Lodestar, 1994), Abuela’s Weave (Lee & Low Books, 1993), Remembering to Say ‘Mouth’ or ‘Face’ (FC2/University of Illinois, 1993), Among the Volcanoes (Dutton/Lodestar, 1991) and Cunuman (Pineapple Press. 1987). A creative writing professor at Western Washington University before his untimely death in 1997, Castaneda was the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships for his work, including those of the National Endowment for the Arts, Parents’ Choice, Fulbright and the Boston Globe Library Press Award.