This novel portrays Carlos Fuentes best; it is aggressive, sharp, and powerful. With penetrating humor and frank narrative, the nine stories (in this novel) depict the rift that has occurred between the U.S. and Mexico in the last two hundred years. But Fuentes also gives us an insight into the force of Mexican life and culture, and how it has been able to survive in spite of the injustice and corruption in Mexico that have caused so many to seek to immigrate.