Reader Reviews for The Book of Embraces (Norton Paperback):
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Unforgettable
Comment: After regretfully returning this book to the library more than ten years ago, and forgetting all about it in the course of life, I happened upon the title of this book while haunting the internet, and the beauty of this book all came rushing back to me. Rarely do I encounter a book that makes such an impression on me. I am filled with longing to read its pages once again. The writing style is wonderful and adds to the haunting beauty of its content. Not a typical four-course meal -- to compare it with food -- but more like a sushi dinner, or dimsum; skip around and eat whatever catches your eye!
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Summary: Embraces in the middle of disconfort
Comment: The epicenter of small tornados. Sad, funny, intriguing, depressing and completely unique way of writing reality. Galeano has an special eye to see what most people cant. How can he catch on an eye of a blink so many characters? simple characters from the country towns, from the cities, simple BUT rich people. Off course... in every shining story you will also find the dark side. This book is life itself. Dark and Bright to live sometimes in yellow, sometimes in black and sometimes in grey. Nothing is perfect, this kind of embraces also have thorns. But if you want to feel through your heat, undoubtedly... this is the book for you.
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Summary: Summer Reading Review
Comment: The fact that Eduardo Galeano's The Book of Embraces defies conventional categorization is indicative of its sometimes fragmented and always unpredictable content. Its combination of short texts with seemingly unrelated and shocking illustrations was a welcome break from traditional forms. My sister, who read Galeano in high school, recommended this book one night when I asked her to suggest something different for my new book club. Unfortunately, I immediately disregarded her suggestion and did not pick up this book until a year after our initial conversation.
Galeano has been criticized for his lack of organization and rambling style, yet the "random" musings is literature in its purest form. The author demonstrates his ability to passionately write in several styles and on varied topics while still maintaining a common uniting thread. A majority of the short texts come back to military dictatorship throughout Latin America and particularly within the author's homeland, Uruguay. All of the stories reflect the disconnected reality of people away from their country of birth. Galeano's exile forced him to confront a lifestyle completely different from what he had previously experienced. Galeano's writings are therefore permeated by a sort of nostalgia for Latin America before political forces altered it beyond recognition. Another uniting feature of the book is the inclusion of sections entitled "The Walls Speak." The fleeting nature of graffiti mirrors the book's impulsive origins. Galeano writes what he feels on whatever is on his mind, much like the authors whose mysterious scrawls he has accumulated. Some poignant phrases include: "'Everybody makes promises and nobody keeps them. Vote for nobody.'" And "Here we sit, watching them kill our dream.'"
Other topics throughout the book include consumerism, extreme poverty, faith in God, and immigrant life. Galeano frequently uses social commentary to espouse his views on everything from homogenization in "Television/3" to morality in "The System/2." "Television/3" explores the effects of Americanization on Hispanic culture: "We eat imported emotions as if they were canned sausages while the young children of television, trained to watch life instead of making it, shrug their shoulders." "The System/2" discusses duality as a cultural practice: "Double language, double accounting, double morality: one morality for speech, another morality for action. The morality for action is called realism. The law of reality is the law of power."
Unfortunately, my school curriculum does not offer any works by Latin American authors; even 100 Years of Solitude is left out. In addition, there are few history classes that give any South American history. Knowledge of the extreme conditions during different military dictatorships is necessary at a school with a large population of South American immigrants. Therefore, reading The Book of Embraces gave me an opportunity to experience literature that is a testament to my own Hispanic roots. The story of my family is part of the brief history included in Galeano's meditations. I highly recommend this book to my peers in particular, because its intensity will awaken American teens from their rut of comfort and overabundance.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Abrazos,Si!
Comment: No one on this planet can write like Eduardo. And other writers have had the good sense not to try. Oh yeah the way he puts a book together is all his own- but please don't be put off by it because you never saw anything like it before. What Eduardo has to say is always something very special- here is a guy who writes with his whole heart and soul, with all his passion too. One of the greatest joys of this book is sharing it with your friends- there are so many little stories you know somebody will love. And what a nice surprise it is when they discover this incomparable writer, and can then go and start reading his other books. Of which there are plenty, and all great.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Book of Embraces
Comment: This book was required for my daughter's high school English class. It made little sense to us. The thoughts may be beautiful, as described by others, but they were disconnected and incoherent. I wondered if the writer had some form of mental illness or something was lost in translation.
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