"A novel of great power and great imagination. It sweeps through the history of modern Mexico in one man's life —which is no novelty. What is unusual —I was reminded of The Leopard— is the understanding of people and history that fuses these elements into a continously revealing whole... I was dazzled by the richness of this book, in texture, construction, psychology and description. I won't swear it is a masterpiece; but it may be"
"Carlos Fuentes is perhaps the only living Latin-American writer who has it in him to do for his country what Euclides da Cunha did for Brazil is Os Sertões, and to make the passion of the land's rebirth and repossession comprehensible to the outsider"
"Not only in his native Mexico, but also throughout the Spanish-speaking hemisphere his eloquent voice is widely acclaimed... Fuentes has moved into prime position in Latin-American letters"
"Remarkable, in the scope of human drama it pictures, the corrosive satire and the sharp dialogue"
"Fuentes is not only a highly perceptive writer, but a virtuoso in the handling of form and exposition... Artemio Cruz is a dazzling technical performance which, thanks to the translation by Sam Hileman, carries over into English... One is left with a feeling of admiration for a story at once so wide-ranging in scope, so penetrating in depth, and so symmetrical in structure."
