As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful newspaper magnate and
land baron, lies confined to his bed and, in dreamlike flashes, recalls
the pivotal episodes of his life. Carlos Fuentes manipulates the ensuing
kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon
memory, from Cruz's heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution,
through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy
death. Perhaps Fuentes's masterpiece, The Death of Artemio Cruz is a
haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico.