REVIEW: Cannibal Tenderness

Abstract

Mexican author Enrique Serna wrote his first story in a high school literature class, but not on the instructions of his teacher, but in an effort to escape boredom; he told what happened in a matchbox. The story, which now seems simple to the author, won the contest (and its publication) of the cultural supplement of the newspaper El Nacional. Serna declares that it was then when he felt he had discovered his vocation; however, he considers himself “an author of slow evolution”, because it took him more than ten years to master the craft[2]. Thus, since 1989, he has published several works in different genres (short stories, novels and essays), among which we can mention Uno soñaba que era rey (1989), Señorita México (1993), Amores de segunda mano (1994), El miedo a los animales (1995), Las caricaturas me hacen llorar (1996), El seductor de la patria (1999) and El orgasmógrafo (2001), just to mention a few. His texts have earned him awards such as the Mazatlán Literature Prize 2000 for El seductor de la patria and the National Narrative Prize Colima, for published work, in 2004, for Ángeles del abismo (2004).