JULIA, MERCEDES. Las ruinas del pasado: aproximaciones a la novela historica posmoderna. Madrid: Ediciones de la Torre, 2006. 222 pages.History has long served writers as a storage bin of raw materials: it has offered poignant realities often buttressed by documents and testimonial evidence, and has also provided a jumping off point for soaring fantasies extending far beyond the known reality of previous times. The historical novel, one of many manifestations of narrative curiosity about the past and subject of Mercedes Julia's Ruinas del pasado, has created a complex history in relation to the past in its own right. In her book, Julia sets out to examine one part of this history: the postmodern novel, with a focus primarily on Spanish fiction over the past few decades and the various strategies pursued within fiction to represent and construct history.Julia's definition of the historical novel is sweeping in its reach: "las novelas que de alguna manera intentan acercarse a los sucesos pasados o constituyen una reflexion sobre la historia" (15). This allows her to include in her study a range of novels that are narrowly or broadly historical, as well as snippets of literary and historiographic theory that help her scrutinize the novels and draw out the nature of their various historical representations. In chapter one, she offers an overview of the historical novel from Homer to the present, thus providing a brief glimpse of the uses of the past in fiction over a period of nearly three thousand years. Such a far-reaching exercise can only view the skin of historical writing, of course, acknowledging innovation and intense historical curiosity at various points along the way. This overview then leads to the critical heart of Julia's study, individual chapters devoted to specific works of the Argentine writer Enrique Molina (Una sombra donde suena Camila O'Gorman, 1973); Spanish authors Francisco Ayala (Los usurpadores, 1948), Lourdes Ortiz (Urraca, 1982), Fernando Quinones (El coro a dos voces, 1997), Raul Ruiz (El tirano de Taormina, 1980; La peregrina y prestigiosa historia de Arnaldo de Montferrat, 1984; Los papeles de Flavio Alvisi, 1985; Sixto VI, 1986), and Antonio Munoz Molina (Beatus Ille, 1986; El jinete polaco, 1991; El dueno del secreto, 1994); and a final chapter devoted to the theme of immigration in several works by Spanish writer Roberto Montero Glez and Moroccan novelist Mohamed Chukri.Julia distinguishes among different classes of novels to justify their inclusion in her study. Some of the works chosen "permiten observar la relacion ficcionhistoria desde las propuestas mas sobresalientes de este periodo" (16). These include, for example, historical novels written by women, novels that show irreverence toward the past, those that focus on memory, and testimonial fiction. Other novels are selected "por su singular acercamiento al pasado" (16). Although all of the works studied in the individual chapters resonate with historicity and certainly merit critical scrutiny, it is not clear conceptually why one novelist from Argentina and one from Morocco were selected for inclusion in a book that tilts heavily toward Spain.The richness and diversity of history give strong impetus and justification to Julia's exploration of the past, which is most useful when it concentrates on individual novels. The best-wrought chapter is devoted to Raul Ruiz's tetralogy, in which Julia examines the imbrication of fantasy and history to create a hybrid postmodern narrative. …