Generally, I wouldn't buy English translations of Spanish novels, preferring to read to read in the original language, but since no Spanish books can be bought in China and this was a dirt cheap second-hand book, I took it nonetheless.

Lovers of the bull fight, will fore-mostly think of Death in the afternoon by Ernest Hemingway, a book which has been widely criticized. A few weeks ago the news was broadcast that Barcelona has now banned bull fights. It seems, in due course this noble, albeit cruel, artful ritual may disappear altogether.

If ever that should happen, we should be glad to have this Mexican novel, The wounds of hunger, by Luis Spota, dubbed the most perfect bull-fighting novel, to preserve the myth for posterity.

According to his biography, the author was a bull-fighter for a short time. From the novel, it is clear that he knows the metier and scene very thoroughly, giving the whole of the novel an air of profound authenticity.

In relatively few pages, just over 200, the author shows us the depths and heights in the career of Luis Ortega, an aspiring toreador. Most of the time Ortega and his pals are so poor that they have nothing or very little to eat. The poverty of the matadors and their families is almost tangible. We learn that it was incredibly difficult to get the opportunity to perform in a corrida, and the danger and fear of the young, often inexperienced men facing the bulls. There is a lot of blood and goring, all described in vivid colour and detail. Our sympathy for the main character is swayed from sympathy to loathing and back to admiration, as he struggles to be a hero, but often enough is just "merely" human.

The novel is very entertaining, full of adventure, as one would expect of a bunch of young Mexican rascals. The translation of Barnaby Conrad retains the quality of being very Mexican, and I very much enjoyed reading this book. ( )