 In the words of literary scholar Jack Himelblau, the book is "an avant-garde and critically significant novel in the history of Spanish-American fiction" and Latin American history and literature scholar Charles Macune includes in a list of prominent translated Latin American novels.For Macune, novels and novelists of Latin America are "both history makers as well as reflections of the region's history".Unlike Latin American newspapers and archival materials, translated Latin American novels are far more accessible to readers without a knowledge of Spanish.