You Dreamed of Empires
Álvaro Enrigue
From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan. One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan – today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures. more
240 pages, Hardcover
First published Riverhead
3.97
Rating
1015
Ratings
206
Reviews
Álvaro Enrigue
31 books 260 followers
Escritor, editor y crítico literario nacido en México D. F. en 1969. Álvaro Enrigue ha pasado su vida entre el Distrito Federal y Washington D.C. Fue durante un tiempo profesor de Literatura en la Universidad Iberoamericana y de Escritura Creativa en la de Maryland. Desde 1990 se dedica a la crítica literaria, y ha colaborado en revistas y periódicos de México y España. A su regreso a México, después de una breve etapa como editor de literatura del Fondo de Cultura Económica, ha pasado a formar parte de la revista Letras Libres.Community reviews
I reviewed this for the LA Times. You can see my full review there: https://www. latimes. com/entertainment. Spoiler: I loved it. more
Psychedelic, quasi-historical, lightly-metafictional, blood-spattered, febrile culture clash between the Aztec rulers and the Spanish conquistadors. Delectable. more
Este es el hipotético encuentro, novelado de la forma más ingeniosa posible, entre los castellanos-caxtiltecas y Moctezuma en Tenochtitlan. y me lo creo mucho más que todas las clases de historia que he recibido en mi vida. Con una narración ágil y moderna, nos cuenta una escena histórica que funciona como un mecanismo de relojería; cada elemento está puesto con una función. Tiene pasajes divertidos, otros duros y otros muy evocadores que me hacen querer saber más sobre los personajes, sobre todo los mexicas, aunque sé que es muy difícil. Poco diálogo y mucho de psicología de personajes, no entréis en ella buscando una crónica de la "conquista", ni una reivindicación de los nativos porque en este relato no hay buenos ni malos: recuerda más a una historia de ciencia ficción de primer contacto; nos sitúa en una ciudad impresionante al borde de una crisis política y religiosa a la que, de pronto, llegan unos extraños. more
when somebody puts what's happening to us now in a book, he said, they'll think it's more chivalric romance bullshit. mexican author álvaro enrigue's latest full-length, written during the plague years, is a hallucinatory historical humor novel — a playful psychedelic reimagining (complete with a new ending. ) of the infamous meeting between aztec emperor moctezuma and spanish conquistador hernán cortés. it's hard to imagine a writer having more fun than enrigue must have had when composing each of you dreamed of empires (tu sueño imperios han sido)'s resplendent pages. set in the aztec floating capital city of tenochtitlán in late 1519, enrigue's story teems with vivid detail and description. more
The Aztecs vs. the Spanish - let's read about the conquest of Tenochtitlán. . more
A vivid and hallucinatory reimagining of the meeting between Hernan Cortez and Emperor Moctezuma. Playful and surreal, You Dreamed of Empires is a slow-motion collision course of ambition, colonialism, religion, and revenge. With prose that is as candid and engaging as it is fluid, this novel looks at history from a new angle; gives a breath of justice and dark humor to an empire that is often portrayed in pop culture but seldom truly understood or shown with good intentions. Fun and fascinating, with a serious call out to the centuries long harm done to cultures and nations due to colonialism at its core. . more
Novela arriesgada y poco conservadora la de Alvaro Enrigue, con una imaginación desbordante por cierto. Eso es lo que más me ha gustado de la novela con mucha diferencia. Otros aspectos interesantes son lo bien documentada que está, así como la mezcla de hechos históricos con un toque simpático y hasta de humor fino que incorpora el autor: los nombres de los sacerdotes, algunas conversaciones o pensamientos de los protagonistas son muy buenos y divertidos. La propuesta del final o esa para-historia alternativa que da, también es muy buena. La trama, sin embargo, aun siendo buena, bajo mi punto de vista está falta no ya de contenido, sino de movimiento, me parece que tiene poca chicha a pesar del punto histórico y culminante que trata y del tratamiento novelado y alternativo que le da. more
What an extraordinary book. This is not a book I would usually read as I never seem to enjoy 'historical' novels but as Natasha Wimmer was the translator I wanted to give it a go. This book seems to be dividing opinion everywhere amongst reviewers and I think it is especially relevant to praise it in light of the New York Times review which likened the characters and cities names to 'elite anti-depressants of the sort', and clearly doesn't appreciate it's masterful mix of comedy and paranoia. You Dreamed of Empires is a fictional account of, in short, the colonization of what is now Mexico City. Or is it. more
EDIT: Full review on INSTAGRAM. Is it too early to call my favorite book of the year. Full review to come but this exceeded all my expectations. more
I've been on a lovely roll with books lately, and Álvaro Enrigue's You Dreamed of Empires is keeping my winning streak going. You Dreamed of Empires is an imaginative recounting of single day: the day when Hernán Cortés met Moctezuma. Since actual accounts of that event are pretty much nonexistent, Enrigue gives himself permission to create his own truth about that day. This works well in two ways. First, it means readers, even if they know the "standard" story of Moctezuma and Cortés, don't have any sort of certainty. more
Based on this book and Sudden Death, I'm ready to claim Enrigue as one of my favorite authors of a type of historical fiction I've come to love - one that combines a 'you are there' feeling with its exact opposite -the awareness that all we have of history are markers to endlessly interpret and misinterpret. And that leads to a kind of historical fiction writing that I think of as 'quantum entanglement fiction', where reader, author, and characters occasionally fall into wormholes where we can all play together outside of time, and maybe even come up with a provisional truth or two. And I love Enrigue's particular brand of Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" - it has warmth and humor, but never sugar coated, never sanitized. Some other books that do this for me - Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin; To Calais, in Ordinary Time by James Meek, Nobber by OIsin Fagan; Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann; Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Riva Galchen. I love that it is such an international list, although heavily Western. more
In You Dreamed of Empires, Enrique reimagines the meeting of two cultures and two leaders - Moctezuma of Tenoxtitlan, and Hernando Cortes of Spain. Much of our contemporary understanding of the "Aztecs" - a misnomer according to Enrique, rather than being an "Aztec Empire" it was more accurately a diplomatic web of city states, including Mexica, Tenocha, etc. - is subverted. Cortes and his garrison of hapless Europeans, mannerless and ignorant, frequently mislaid with diarrhea from the hot foods, and arrogant about their inevitable conquest belie our Western Euro-centric hagiography of the conquistadors and missionaries, and particularly the aggrandizement of Western culture over conquered cultures. The purpose of the novel reveals itself to be just this subordination of "History" - in the novel, the history that we live in today is but the dream of a conquistador. more
Lo disfruté muchísimo. Desde hace varios libros, Enrigue nos ha dicho varias veces que la escritura es el juego y la novela es el juguete y, en esta ocasión, nos invita a jugar no sólo como lectores, también como participantes de una especie de happening en negro sobre blanco. Me gustó muchísimo la estructura del texto, el humor que va de lo ligero y cotidiano a lo profundo y culterano y, sobre todo, la constante ruptura de la "cuarta pared" por parte del autor que se convierte en personaje e incluso guiña desde las páginas a quien las lee y lo invita a meterse a jugar con él en ese juguete de palabras. La construcción de los personajes, la re-creación o creación de los escenarios y las libertades poéticas y no tan poéticas que se toma Enrigue nos dejan ver también algunos de los mecanismos internos, los resortes y cables y baterías que impulsan al juguete. La intriga palaciega y las estructuras de poder con sus usos y costumbres empapados de una "cordialidad de la fregada" refleja --queriéndolo o no-- situaciones muy actuales que ocurren a unas cuantas varas de la ciudadela mexica en donde la figura del Tlatoani que parece perdido pero que sigue siendo un gran político y estratega se renueva con cada desayuno de tamales de chipilín. more
The retelling of history in such an irreverent, wryly disregarding manner is everything you wouldn’t expect from a historic novel, but is hugely entertaining throughout. This is a spritely reimagining of an encounter between Cortés and Moctezuma, occurring over the course of one day in the November of 1519 in the labyrinthine city of Mehxicoh-Tenoxtitlan. On this stage plays out so many things to appreciate, whether it is the horses of the conquistadores, such a novelty to their hosts, loose about the palace, or the aged Moctezuma himself, self-medicating his depression in his room, high on mushrooms and cactus-of-tongues, while his sister, who also is his wife, try to come up with a plan to save the empire. When the Emperor does leave his room it is often to roam the palace in his nightshirt chewing grasshopper tacos. He is mentally unstable, though no one will question his word for fear of being brutally sacrificed. more
I absolutely loved this irreverent and creative reimagining of Cortes' attempted conquest of Moctezuma's empire in modern day Mexico City. The ending is everything I wanted it to be, so satisfyingly anticolonialist but also so devastating with the knowledge of what could've been but wasn't in our reality. The power of this book is with the slow dismantling of the Spanish characters as "civilized. " This defiance of hegemonic power is subtle but effective. I really appreciated the different characters and perspectives we get, especially Atotoxtli and Malinalli, two very intelligent and savvy women with very different fates. more
My copy just came in and it is taking everything in me not to drop everything and start it immediately 🫣 . more
more or a 3. 5 but i decided to round up instead of down because i deeply love the cover. it is actually very fitting. this re-imagination of first contact between Moctezuma and Cortés was inventive, playful and adds a humanity and greatness to the Mexica (Aztec) that most tellings of the Spanish conquest lack (or conveniently leave out). it’s been a long time since i read up on the history of this period, but i think that was actually for the best because it gave me less preconceived ideas about where this plot was going. more
Riveting. Absolutely riveting. One of the most unusual books I've read in many years. Neither fact nor fiction but a book that has given me a sense of the age of Cortez and the appearance of the Spanish in the Aztec Kingdom that I won't be able to forget for a long time. I couldn't put it down. more
Sometimes darkly funny, sometimes gory, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes mind-bending. A pretty cool & somewhat unique book that doesn't fit into a neat & tidy box. And here's your soundtrack for it:https://www. youtube. com/watch. more
i LOVED this book. it’s quite short but i took my time reading it, rereading some passages multiple times over and flipping back and forth a lot to make sure i hadn’t missed anything (i’m sure i still missed a lot, and will probably reread this in the future. ). it was so unexpected, funny, and weird. . more
Este es un libro que hacía falta en la literatura mexicana. Desde hace tiempo, siento que es necesario hacer literatura de la llegada de los de Castilla y antes de ese período. Entiendo que es muy difícil porque son muy pocas las fuentes donde se puede acudir que no manipulen los acontecimientos ocurridos. Afirma el autor: “Esa visión del pasado precolombino siempre será literaria, porque nunca vamos a poder saber cómo era realmente. Tenemos las ruinas, las crónicas que son parciales, son documentos políticos de no sé si seguir diciendo: vencedores, invasores, no estoy seguro de que ellos hayan vencido. more
“Donde se alzaba Tenochtitlán ahora había una cuidad española: los palacios, las iglesias, los conventos. Una monja que era pura luz y que también soñaba y que aunque hablaba castellano comía mole y pipián y pápalo y nogada. Era un país enorme: las cañadas, las sierras, los desiertos, las selvas. Pero también era un país que era puro dolor”. A lo largo del libro el autor logra crear un diálogo íntimo, sádico e incluso conmovedor con el lector, al grado de hacerlo sentirse como lo que es, un mestizo pero sin perder el rumbo de la antigua e indomable cuidad México - Tenochtitlán. more
What a treat. At first I had to get into the rhythm of the proceedings but once it clicked, I was all in. I loved the blend of humor in this historical retelling, reimagining. I loved the breaking of the fourth wall, I loved certain stand-alone chapters, and I loved a music cue just dropping in from the future. Somewhat occurring at a breakneck speed, at times I could feel the swoosh as wind on the back of my neck as the narrative zoomed in on characters moving about the veritable game board of Tenochtitlan. more
4. 5 stars. Thank you Riverhead for my free ARC of You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue— available Jan 9. Read this if you:🗺️ enjoy historical fiction set in uncommon places/times🏇 have ever put "horse" or "pony" on your holiday gift list🎭 don't take your fiction too seriouslyTranslated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer 🇪🇸Cortés and his motley crew meet with the legendary Moctezuma in Tenochtitlan one morning in 1519, and the day that follows is full of hilarity, political machinations, hallucinogens, and reversals of fortune. Plus some pretty malodorous priests. more
Una obra menor de un escritor arriesgado. Lo mejor su sentido del humor y la gran base histórica que utiliza; lo peor es que no me ha enganchado en ningún momento. Le reconozco, al menos, la valentía de jugar con las formas narrativas. Pero como ya he leído otros libros suyos (y mejores que este) ya eso se lo atribuyo como seña de identidad propia. Puede que lo que más me ha gustado de todo el libro sea la carta a la correctora-editora que va al principio. more
Muy buen libro, excelente final. Se disfruta con su prosa en ocasiones socarrona. Muy documentado, recrea con precisión el esplendor de Tenochtitlan. more
I don’t even know where to start with this. Historical reimagining. Complete with psychedelics, weird present-day interludes from the authors, and T. Rex songs playing in the Great Temple of Tenoxtitlan in the 1500s. Loved it. more
Truthfully, I went in expecting to not like this. 1. The further back in history a story is set, the less appealing it is to me + 2. Several reviews noted how it’s light on action, heavy on details. So a slow 16th century story sounded 😴. more
maybe the coolest book that i've ever read. álvaro enrigue takes us into that fateful day in 1519 in which cortes and the spaniards marched into tenochtitlan. the book is made up of short chapters told from the individual perspectives of the spaniards and residents of tenochtitlan themselves and readers bop around from character to character seemingly randomly. i truly felt that i was in the day with these characters especially as the tension rose and the day approached its end, the structure collapsed in on itself with the narrative sometimes switching between different perspectives from one paragraph to the next. the structure creates that same sensation that the characters experience--time and fate happening all at once. more
Son los misterios de los mexicas y los colhuas, llenos de plumas, sangre, complejos formalismos de nombres alambicados, habitantes de ciudades con un orden metódico tan distinto del orden metódico que nos sería familiar (y también del aprendizaje racista que en las plumas y la sangre y los nombres extraños ve solo caos, mientras en nuestra sangre y nuestras plumas y nuestras pieles ve orden metódico). Pero también es la distancia móvil de Álvaro Enrigue, que oscila sin tirones entre la cercanía de quien comprende, la mirada lejana de la fascinación y el término medio del humor ácido. Durante todo el libro, hasta casi el final, me pregunté cómo era posible crear una tensión narrativa tan eficaz en una trama histórica cuyo desenlace conocemos. Y hasta aquí digo, porque creo que es mejor llegar a este buen viaje de hongos sin saber mucho más. more