Remembering To Say 'Mouth' Or 'Face' - Reviews

"Drawing heavily on the Popol Vuh, this collection is full of the realistic magic of mythological connections and contemporary scenes. It's a blending of cultures. A long tumpline of stories that burden the head. Castaneda's stories are electromagnetic fields of imagery, character, and happening, which bend words as well as boundaries. I can feel the crosswinds of this book."

-Diane Glancy, author of Firesticks

"These are the stories of travelers on a spiritual quest between worlds. Part mythtaker, part poet, Omar Castaneda is an original, and these stories are unlike any in our literature."

-Toi Derricotte, author of Captivity

"In the stories of Omar Castaneda, we cross borders with a surefooted guide: the rivers of immigrants on a pilgrimage, the jungles of ancient myth, the hard urban landscapes of sleeping addicts and sleepless lovers. Guatemala haunts and invigorates these tales like Castaneda's Lord of Festival, dead but not dead, the face of magic and ritual and danger illuminated in flashes of poetic language."

-Martin Espada, author of City of Coughing and Dead Radiators

"Not only is Castaneda a worthy heir to Asturias, but Castaneda's own singular stylistic and thematic sensibilities expand the scope of the movement, achieving a most rare synthesis of hemisphere visions: north and south; First World and Third World; mythical truth and contemporary socio-political reality."

-Bob Shacochis, author of Easy in the Islands

"By driving clear through drugs, sexuality, philosophy and myth, even through anger and pain, Castaneda gets beneath the skin of experience."

-James Bertolino, author of First Credo

"These stories take us to places which are sometimes hostile, often magical, but always of profound consequence. Rendered in harshly evocative prose, this brilliant and disturbing collection blends urban legends with the myth and legend of the Guatemala Maya."

-Johnathan Harrington, author of Tropical Son