Fuentes' debut novel has inspired much criticism with its experimental narrative technique, its combination of history, anthropology, sociology, music, and cinema, and its soul-felt critique of modern Mexico. Some critics recognized the author's imaginative and powerful style as revolutionary in Latin American literature, while others rebuked his storytelling strategies. In a review for the New Yorker, Anthony West writes of Where the Air Is Clear: "With the bravery of a young man, Senor Fuentes has cleared all ideas of what a novel ought to be from his mind and has decided, quite simply, to put what is it to be Mexican, and all of Mexico, in this book." West further praises the way Fuentes leaves the construction of his "social mosaic" to the reader, despite the author's being "not the most polished and assured of writers." On the other hand, Richard Gilman's article for Commonweal describes...