This book provides the most comprehensive study to date of the full range of Mar-'' writing, including discussion and analysis of his literary and intellectual formation, his development as a novelist and short story writer, andhis unique perspective offered in nearly twenty-five years of newspaper columns on topics ranging from religion to football. Above all, Mar- is examined as a writer of fictions. As a translator of several canonical works from English to Spanish, Mar- came to appreciate the preciseness of words as well as their ambiguity, their capacity to represent as well as their propensity to distort. The author examines Mar-''s constant awareness of how languagecan be used to construct stories as the foundation for engaging the world as well as for imagining it. The nature of Mar-''s storytelling, and the way in which he imagines, form the principal focus of this Companion.
David K. Herzberger is Professor and Chair of the Department of Hispanic Studies at th
