Status
Available
Call number
Call number
ML
Publication
San Francisco : HarperSanFrancisco, c1993.
Physical description
xii, 256 p.; 22 cm
Local notes
This remarkable book lets readers hear Maya myths as they are told today in the mountains of Guatemala. First published in 1993, Breath on the Mirror is now available only from UNM Press.
"A fascinating literary and anthropological excursion into the mental universe of the modern Quiché Maya and their forebears. The stories and myths so compellingly recounted here turn our own world upside-down and remake it in the Maya image. Reading this, one can understand why and how Maya culture has survived five centuries of oppression."--Michael D. Coe, Yale University, author of The Maya
"A fascinating literary and anthropological excursion into the mental universe of the modern Quiché Maya and their forebears. The stories and myths so compellingly recounted here turn our own world upside-down and remake it in the Maya image. Reading this, one can understand why and how Maya culture has survived five centuries of oppression."--Michael D. Coe, Yale University, author of The Maya
User reviews
LibraryThing member Hebephrene
As an avid reader I almost never put a book down but found this to be unreadable. It's ambitious. Good for him. He wants to immerse us in the mythopoetic universe of the Mayans by blending the subjective and objective services. But the problem is that for us to go on the journey we need to be
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anchored somewhere together and he fails to provide any guidance. We are just thrown in. Is Jaguar man another anthropologist or a god amongst us. I had to constantly stop reading and go back to try and figure out what was going on so there was no flow, no immersion and thus no involvement. This is basic stuff and his editor should have run interference and helped him figure out how to do this so it was still accessible to the reader. A shame. Show Less