SOURCE: A review of Al paso, in World Literature Today, Vol. 67, No. 2, Spring, 1993, p. 340.

[In the following review, McMurray surveys the content of Al paso, noting its thematic range and style.]

In his prologue Octavio Paz refers to Al paso as periodismo literario, which aptly describes this collection of short articles, written over the past ten years, on a wide variety of topics. The book is divided into four parts. "Letras" contains commentaries on both Mexican and foreign writers, most of whom are well known. "Teatro de miradas" is devoted to painting and architecture. The third section, "Al paso," presents a wider range of subjects, from the Marquis de Sade and Luis Buñuel's film Los olvidados to books on Mexican revolutionary heroes and Paz's Nobel Prize lecture in Stockholm. Finally, of special interest to translators, "Tres poemas de la dinastía T'ang" discusses the translations of three...