SOURCE: "Out of Juice," in New Statesman & Society, Vol 7, August 26, 1994, pp. 37-8.

In this review of The Orange Tree, Hopkinson finds Fuentes's ideas "predictable" and "tired" and declares that the book is only partially redeemed by its humor.

Carlos Fuentes needs little introduction. The hype on the covers of his novels, plays and essays lists his prizes and awards, his global scattering of posts as Mexican ambassador and as professor. It was during his post at Cambridge in 1992—the quincentennial of Columbus' landings—that he delivered the lectures that form the nucleus of these five novellas: perhaps that is why they have a familiar, not to say a jaded, ring.

The Orange Tree is the hand holding these five fingers, dipping into the stages of colonialism that have afflicted the "other" (southern) America. The orange seeds brought to Spain with the Moorish conquest had put down deep roots...