Faqih Ahmad Ahmad itibaren Primorskiy Krayı, Rusya
I'd been warned by some that the first Hellblazer volume should be seen as more of a bridge between Alan Moore's great work with the character in "Swamp Thing" and the places "Hellblazer" would go in subsequent volumes. Thus, I didn't get my hopes too far up for it and found most of it quite enjoyable -- especially its roots in Alan Moore's fantastic "A Murder of Crows."
Malinche is the story of the indigenous woman, Malinalli, who had a relationship with Hernan Cortes when the Spanish conquered Mexico. Her story is somewhat similar to that of Pocahontas with John Smith in the U.S. I had always understood Malinche from common myth to be seen as a traitor -- someone who was sleeping with the enemy and selling off her people's secrets. This book shows that it was not that way at all. Rather than standing as a symbol of betrayal, Malinche instead becomes the root of modern Mexico today -- a Mexico that must find a way to integrate its mixed history of indigenous and Spanish roots, the conquered and the conquerors. Laura Esquivel's writing is absolutely beautiful and lyrical. This book is part history, part spirituality. This book helped me to understand not only more of Mexican history but more of Mexico's very rich and complicated history of spirituality and religion.
Enjoyed this more than I expected to. Basically it is an autobiography of a highly coveted groupie during the late 60s-early 70s, but there was a lot of interesting stuff about Frank Zappa and his wife, the writer's fellow Girls Together Outrageously, Gram Parsons (good for me, a big GP fan), Keith Moon, Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger. Also it was interesting to read about the 60s and 70s from less of a "hippie" perspective and a little more of a "hipster" one, although there is a lot of that same flowery sentiment throughout.