Under the Fifth Sun: A Novel of Pancho Villa

by Earl Shorris

Told from the point of view of an ancient shaman, this is the dark and mystical story of Mexico's greatest revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. Shedding the Hollywood mantle of the drunken, womanizing bandit-turned-hero, the Villa who comes to life in this extraordinary novel is part man and part myth, part visionary hoodlum and part brilliant general.

A troubled childhood--marked by his father's early death in the fields and his sister's rape by a local landowner--and a prophetic dream propel young Villa through a period of lawlessness and drifting and into life as a military leader. The story moves convincingly through the events of Villa's life, showing him to be a man of fierce passions and moral conviction, a natural leader for the rebellion.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

638 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Earl Shorris was an American writer and social critic. He is best known for establishing the Clemente Course in the Humanities, named after baseball great and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. The Clemente Course is an "educational institution founded in 1995 to teach the humanities at the college level to people living in economic distress." He was critical of Western culture as "sliding towards plutocracy and materialism." Shorris published extensively on Mexico and Mexican history. Shorris made the acquaintance of Miguel León-Portilla, who published a widely-read anthology of accounts of the conquest of Mexico from Aztec viewpoints, The Broken Spears. The two subsequently published an important anthology of Mesoamerican literature, bringing to a mass market the existence of significant body of writings by indigenous Mexicans.

Reviews

[Alejandro Carrillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una buena novela que incluye la ficcion con la historia, muy entretenida

[M. Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long, interesting novel based on the life of Pancho Villa, the famous bandit and then General in the Mexican Revolution.
A lot of interesting Mexican history, including history of and the mysticism of the Aztecs.
Obviously, one doesn’t know how much to believe of the romantic and other personal stuff, as it is, of course, a novel.

[Ignacio Perez Tejeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo pude leer hace algunos años y la manera en que lo entendí es un poco entre la magia o fantasía y tiene una manera de ver al Villa que todo mexicano quisiera, un personaje místico por nombrarlo de alguna manera

[Ignacio Ortiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buena novela histórica sobre el famoso Doroteo Arango. Interesante que la haya escrito un norteamericano. A través de la lectura es posible hacer un recorrido biográfico sobre la vida de Pancho Villa.

[Rene Lechuga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una de las mejores novelas de caudillos que he leído, me volví un admirador de Pancho Villa

[DoctorM · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written and occasionally highly thrilling novel of the life and career of Francisco Villa, both as General Villa the revolutionary and Pancho Villa the bandit. Shorris doesn't romanticise his hero--- Villa here is a brutal and violent man, but one whose better angels sometimes struggle to the surface. A good, ground-level view of rural Mexico and the revolution and decade-long civil war that followed.

[Cheryl Schibley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great novel set in the southwest about the anti-hero (some say very bad guy) Pancho Villa.

Merged review:

I'm a big fan of Earl Shorris and this book was very good. If you live in the southwest like I do - there is a general fascination with the anti-hero (really a pretty bad guy) Pancho Villa.

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, the, dusty, hungry, mystical, savaged,suppressed Mexico. A peoples suffering brought to life with tragic prose. The anti?/hero Pancho Villa and the Azteca Shaman who saw it all. Oh to ride with Pancho and the boys.

[Perezmn28 · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story was too slow and I lost interest. Sometimes the writing style was a bit confusing.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic and amazing

[Richard R R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing novel based on the life of the Mexican icon, Pancho Villa. Chock full of details of the daily life in turn of the century Mexico.

[c · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny, entertaining, interesting, easy to read.