Article: Hackneyed magical realism, abridgment hurt `Thirteen Senses'.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Dona Margarita wasn't sleeping, but she closed her eyes and stilled her breathing so she could fool the devil, whose eyes she saw glowing in the fire.

He crept closer, and still she didn't move.

Suddenly, she leapt up, grabbed him by the tail and flung him far, far away. He wouldn't get one of her sons this night.

Or something like that. Ho-hum. How come every time I listen to a book by a Latin author, it's got to have magical realism in it, no matter how bad?

Is it a beautiful facet of a rich culture that gets lost in translation, or is it really as hackneyed as it sometimes seems?

Or is the problem with Victor Villasenor's ...

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