Critics have written at some length about the “magic realism” in Alejo Carpentier's novels and his original treatment of historical material and peculiar concept of time. Without wishing to ignore the importance of these aspects in a close examination of Carpentier's vision of life in a New World setting, something more can be said about his ingenious choice and use of source material.
In a novel like El reino de este mundo (1949) the extraordinary liveliness of the narrative depends, ultimately, upon a subtle interweaving of historical and fictional material and the care taken in selecting the former. Carpentier has a scholar's eye for the interesting source, and the narrative techniques he develops here prompted an accurate judgment from Juan Marinello who described his recent novels as “casos cumplidos de sabiduría y creación.”