SOURCE: "Fuentes: Mexico's Smoldering Volcano," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, August 18, 1996, p. 4.

Below, Weintraub offers a predominantly negative review of A New Time for Mexico.

The focus of this collection of essays [A New Time for Mexico] is largely on events during the last two full calendar years—the breakdown of Mexico's economic fabric in 1994 and the calamitous depression that followed in 1995. The discussion is personal and idiosyncratic—how Carlos Fuentes views what happened and what are his Ten Commandments for the future.

Fuentes is a person of considerable distinction, and his writings therefore merit the attention of those who seek to understand the Mexican scene. His thoughts are often inspiring, such as the emphasis on democracy, liberty and justice in his Decalogue, but they are also often quite base, such as his crude anti-Americanism. His prose is full of flowery banalities: "To see Mexico from the...