In The Death of Artemio Cruz, Fuentes perfects the experimental techniques he had used in his two previous novels, Where the Air Is Clear and The Good Conscience (1959). Thanks to its superb organization this novel is his best and most demanding work. Cruz's consciousness is presented through alternating sections in which Cruz uses the first-person singular I, the second-person you, and the thirdperson he, those parts which feature the novel's twelve flashbacks, which according to Fuentes are patterned on the twelve levels of Dante's Inferno. The twelve portions are presented from the point of view of the dying man in the present on his deathbed. As long as his powerful will is intact, Cruz's ego retains the dominance it has enjoyed throughout his life. As the physical Artemio Cruz declines, the voice addressing Cruz as "you" gets stronger. It is the voice of a conscience which the tycoon...