I always find it difficult to review an anthology because I tend to see them as collections of individual stories rather than collections of individual stories. I never like all the stories in an anthology, and to be honest, would it be a good thing if I did? Would that mean all the stories are fantastic? Or would it mean that the anthology lacked a certain scope and never ventured beyond my taste or comfort zone.

That said, I didn't hate any of these stories, and found myself engaged by them more often than not. I read them in the Spanish, while occasionally checking my understanding or finding new vocabulary in the translations. This anthology suited that purpose fairly well. There is no glossary, and the stories have not been simplified for a beginner/intermediate reader. I'm grateful that they haven't been simplified! The layout of the book was carefully planned so cross-checking the languages against each other was easy, although the translation was by no means slavish to the original. As a matter of fact, Appelbaum added some delightful humor to the cancion in Portillo's "Unclaimed Watch." The stories date back to the 1800s and the first three or even four stories were definitely outside of my comfort zone! The vocabulary, and I suspect even sentence structure, of the modern Mexican short story has changed since then. Once I got to the latter stories, the language switched to a style I was better able to manage.

The first two stories, despite the language difficulty, were okay. Jose Maria Boa Barcena's "Lanchitas" is a well-told version of a ghost story I've heard a few too many times. Perhaps this story is the origin. Once I got to Altamirano's "Antonia" though, I read these stories voraciously. "Antonia" convincingly describes the ridiculous emotional turmoil of first love, and also describes a tumultuous time in Mexican history. Portillo's "Unclaimed Watch" is brilliant, and the final work, de Compo's "El fusilado" is as chilling as anything Shirley Jackson ever wrote. Skip Gutierrez Najera's "Juan el Organista" though, unless you are into Gothic with a capital G. It's beautifully written, but the plot is a bit heavy handed for my tastes.

On the whole, quite a good read for anyone interested in Mexican literature. The translations too are well enough done to satisfy if you aren't able to navigate the Spanish. ( )