"Like John S. Brushwood's La novela mexicana, 1967-1982 (1985)... D'Lugo's book explores theme and structure in the modern Mexican novel, going beyond her titular emphasis to a thorough stylistic analysis of Mexico's landmark novels by Mariano Azuela to María Luisa Puga."

—Choice

"This book is a most significant contribution to the field of Mexican literature. It offers excellent insights into the issue of fragmentation: how it works, how it differs among a variety of novels, what its effects are in fiction. . . . The scholarship is superb."

—Raymond L. Williams, author of The Writings of Carlos Fuentes

From Mariano Azuela's 1915 novel Los de abajo to Rosamarìa Roffiel's Amora of 1989, fragmented narrative has been one of the defining features of innovative Mexican fiction in the twentieth century. In this innovative study, Carol Clark D'Lugo examines fragmentation as a literary strategy that reflects the social and political fissures within modern Mexican society and introduces readers to a more participatory reading of texts.

D'Lugo traces defining moments in the development of Mexican fiction and the role fragmentation plays in each. Some of the topics she covers are nationalist literature of the 1930s and 1940s, self-referential novels of the 1950s that focus on the process of reading and writing, the works of Carlos Fuentes, novels of La Onda that came out of rebellious 1960s Mexican youth culture, gay and lesbian fiction, and recent women's writings.

With its sophisticated theoretical methodology that encompasses literature and society, this book serves as an admirable survey of the twentieth-century Mexican novel. It will be important reading for students of Latin American culture and history as well as literature.