"[Carlos Fuentes] belongs to a generation of eminent Latin American writers who like to take strong political positions and to be close to power and to the powerful. In Fuentes's case, this involvement seems to have provided a great deal of inside knowledge about how political power is actually wielded in Latin America. In The Eagle's Throne, he portrays and dissects the tragicomedy of Mexican political culture with an air of extraordinary authority and remorseless humor. As someone who, here in Mexico City, has become a daily observer of this very muddy Mexican election campaign, I can attest that the novel certainly seems prescient: "We resign ourselves to throwing meat to the lions every six years," says Congresswoman Tardegarda. "But the system doesn't change." Francisco Goldman for The Washington Post Book World
