Exiled from almost everywhere by Juan Goytisolo
07 Sep 2011 5 Comments
in EUROPEAN FICTION, Spain Tags: dalkey archive, Juan Goytisolo, spain, TRANSLATIONS
Exiled from almost everywhere by Juan Goytisolo
Spanish fiction
Translator -Peter bush
This is the latest work of Goytisolo to be translated and published earlier this year by Dalkey archive .The book is subtitled The posthumous life of the monster of Le sentier .As with the other Goytisolo books I read it is different in style than they where ,this book is set in a dream /nightmare after life set in the cyber world ,we meet a man blown up by a extreme bomber and some how ends up as a ghost in the machines as the book progress the book is told in a series of short vignettes with recurring characters .The characters he meets are mainly religious a Iman ,a pedophile Monsignor a Rastafarian rabbi all crop up ,the monster of le sentier himself a pervert and social critic was in an earlier book of Goytisolo I read .Through this collection of small nuggets Goytisolo tackles the modern world issues such as terrorism ,religious fervour .
First he stood in front of him ,looked round at his colleagues ,and then wagged an accusing index finger .
“look! here he is ! It’s him for sure!”
was he about to say ,like a compatrioat of his in the thereafter,
“the author of blood wedding ?”
“The Monster of Le Sentier !”
early on in the book as le sentier becomes use to cyber heaven / hell ?
Another character we meet is called Alice it easy to see this cyberspace nightmare world as the modern opposite of lewis Carrolls wonderland ,with the characters meet being the nightmarish monsters and colourful characters of the original but with a modern twist on them .
In order to put the agents of the different secrets services that are after her off her trail “Alice” avoids the hustle and bustle of the ethnic neighbourhoods that so attract our deceased protagonist .she flaunts her charms …
Alice in Parisian wonderland
This is not the easy book to read as it is told in such short snatches the vignettes never more than two pages long dart from here to there .I enjoyed this Goytisolo is a man who has lived in Exile most of his own life so set a book in thereafter using it as a sort of exile would come easily to him .He is trying to answer big questions on terrorism and Islam and other religions but not giving the answers more pointing a way and feelings on the subjects .Peter Bush translation is very good he manages to keep the Goytisolo voice I ve encountered in his other books .
Juan Goytisolo is probably the greatest living spanish writer and hopefully one day nobel winner he was longlisted for the international booker prize this year , he has lived in exile since the mid fifties first in paris with his wife the niece of the french writer Marcel Proust they lived there until her death in 96 a year later Goytisolo moved to Morocco Marrakech where he still lives .
Source – personnel copy
Have you read his books ?
The manual of darkness by Enrique De Heriz
25 Aug 2011 8 Comments
in Spain Tags: 2011, frank wynne, spain, TRANSLATIONS
The manual of darkness by Enrique De Heriz
Translator – Frank Wynne
Spanish Fiction
Enrique De Heriz is from Barcelona ,this is second novel in TO be translated to English ,a best seller in his native spain when it came out .He is also well-known as a Translator of books from english into spanish .
The manual of darkness at it heart is the story of Victor Losa we follow him over the period of a year at the start of the book he is a well-known Magician who has just been named the worlds best magician ,just as this happens he is struck down with blindness a huge moon like white spot in his vision ,the early part of the book deals with his initial reaction to this and also we have two other narratives one about his father who was a bit odd a scientist that loved keeping ants nd seeing how they live .The other narrative is Victor tracking the history of a Victorian pickpocket called Peter grouse he finds this out via his mentor Mario Galvan they also discuss a myriad of other subjects .As the book unfolds , we see that the chance tha Victors sight is going to return is very slight ,so he seeks to help via a helper from ONCE ( the spanish equivalent of the RNIB in the uk ) Alicia helps Victor learns about how to cope in a unsighted world ,in the latter parts they are vignettes of famous blind people as we see how they coped with there sight loss .In the end victor starts to come to terms with his new life .
such a small degree of hope is like a minuscule balcony in a poor man’s home .Perhaps it looks out towards the bleak north ,perhaps it is not large enough even for one miserable chair and perhaps ,over time serves only to house three empty flowerpots that upon a time contained something living .It extends the space of the apartment only in the mind of those who live there .This is its meagre function ,and even if it succeeds in this it is a miracle ,Victor spends little time nurturing this vain 0.2 per cent of hope ,and whole days mony of them ,regretting that it will not come to pass .
Victor had been told he had 0.2 per cent chance of full vision
Where do I start with this book ,well at his heart is Victor he is a man who has gone from the top to the bottom of the world in a second as he lost his sight ,but he copes in a way as he learns new things as he once spent a lot of time learning new tricks ,also a link back to when his father told him ants are deaf he links this own blindness also an either or situation of which is worse condition .The book does what a lot of modern Spanish fiction does and that is make you think beyond the story into your own life and those around you .I suppose the nearest comparison would be the works of Carlos Ruiz Zafon like his books this is a book that has many different levels to it .As ever Franks translation is well executed .
The anatomy of a moment by Javier Cercas
06 May 2011 8 Comments
in Spain
Source – library
Javier Cercas is probably the best writer in Spain at the moment he has had a number of great novels translated to english his most well-known been soldiers of Salamis a former IFFP prize winner for him and the translator Anne Maclean ,he lived in america teaching spanish literature in 80′s and 90′s and now teaches in Girona at the university .
I choose the video as that is what the book is about ,the 23 February 1981 ,Antonio Terjero burst into the spanish parliament building (Cortes).Firing shots in the air with his fellow coup members .all but three deputies fell to the ground three men bravely stood and faced him off .Javier has taken this event the last coup in mainland western europe and written well not sure to call it a docu novel or a narrative non fiction ,but whatever this book is so well researched and absorbing I for one didn’t know a lot about 23F (as the spanish now call it ) ,I remember the world cup the year after but can’t remember this being mentioned during that .So I was gripped find out about the characters in the coup how post Franco things had been smoothed over but underneath a plot was simmering amongst the old hardliners ,about the three brave men the stood General Mellado ,he was a former Francoist ,but had taken part in post Franco reforms ,the out going president Adolfo Suarez he was an interim man after his resignation the job passing to a more left leaning leader and this Cortes was here for a handover of power .Santiago Carnilla the communist leader who sat and calmly light a cigarette a man who had lived in exile in Francos time .
with the exception of the 23 february coup – of which it was actually a basic ingredient – no event in recent spanish history had unleashed as much speculation as Adolfo Suarez resignation ;however , of all the enigmas of 23 February this maybe the least enigmatic might be Adolfo suarez\ resignation .although its impossible to exhaust the reasons that triggered it ,
Suarez resignation on the 25th january had help the coup in a way .
This book is gripping and eye-opening ,as someone with a vague knowledge of spanish politics and the fact that it had struggled post franco until PSOE goverment and how Spain had coped post Franco in its change to democracy ,we are told about Suarez who won in 1979 and started the ball of reforms rolling ,but like everything change is a hard pill for some people to swallow and thus two years later the storming of the Cortes and over events unfold around spain .The Kings role in this event is shown to be vital who will he support ? I remember being Amazed at PSOE (spanish socialists )celebrations when in spain as a kid during the elections cars and trucks with people shouting hooting horns and airhorns ,but now as it was only a few years after this that clear joy of people became clear in my mind .Cercas has help open a crucial event in Spain history to the everyman like myself ,the book reads like a novel but a glance at the bibliography and notes show the research he put into this book .Anne Maclean is outstanding in her translation as ever she is .
HAVE YOU READ THIS OR ANY OF HIS OTHER BOOKS ?
DO YOU REMEMBER THE COUP ?
While the women are sleeping by Javier Marias
25 Mar 2011 16 Comments
in Spain Tags: 2010, NEW VOICES, spain
Source Library
Translator Margaret Jull Costa
Javier Marias is one of Spain’s top current writers his your face tomorrow trilogy is considered on fo the best spanish books published of recent year ,Javier ran away to paris at a young age ,translated English books into Spanish and taught Spanish literature at Oxford university.I did have your face tomorrow from library last year but was unable to reach it in time and read it so had to return it un read ,so saw this slim collection of short stories from the various points in his career which is his most recent translation .
the stories all centre strange and unnatural ghost stories an homage to the English ghost stories in some ways ,the title story follow a large voyeuristic man watching different women on the beach in their bikini’s then his steady descent into darkness and shadowy world ,in other tales a butler recounts an incident involving the lady of the house ,another tale is told by a dead man ,some one meeting the double in another .There are stories set around the world ,a lot involving english people Marias is well-known for his huge love of england .these range from the late sixties to mid nineties so show the breadth of Marias writing
It is quite possible that the main aim of ghosts ,if they do still exist ,is to thwart the desires of the mortal tenants ,appearing if their presences is unwelcome and hiding away if it is expected or demanded .
opening of one of the tales a kind of nostalgia perhaps
Now this book is only 128 pages long and contains ten tales ,what did I learn from it ? well Marias definitely likes england and the english there are enough characters thrown through these tales to mark him out as a Anglophile ,His pace is slow even in these shorts the pace is slow almost like watching Barcelona play gentle passing the ball or in this case slowly build the stories every time .One story has a made up bio of an English writer Lord Randall , which is a bit like Bolano another Spanish language writer and one of my favourite themes in writing ,made up writers bio just imaging the books that don’t really exist . A great intro to a writer I want to get to know well in the future .the translation is by Margaret Jull Costa who has won awards with her other translations of his work
Have you read him ? if so what to try next ?
SPANISH LITERATURE (A VERY SHORT INTRDUCTION) JO LABANYI
14 Oct 2010 16 Comments
in books from, Spain, TRANSLATIONS
Jo Labanyi is professor of spanish and a director of king Juan Carlos 1 of spain centre at New York university ,she founded the journal of Spanish culture .This is one of the OUP series of very short introduction ,I requested a copy from OUP ,as I thought it would give me some guidance and back ground information on Don Quixote and its writer Cervantes and also where to carry on my reading in Spanish literature ,The book is divide in to numerous chapters under 4 main headings ,multilingualism and porous borders ,spanish literature and modernity ,gender and sexuality and culture patrimony .the first section deals with the moorish influence on the literature on spain,via epic poems like el Cid ,the rise Alfonso in the 13th century and his influence on the written word ,french ,jews influences .WE also find out about the post Franco rise of works in the various spanish languages ,such as Manuel Riva’s in Galician ,Basque with Bernardo Atxaga and Carmel Riera in Catalan ,under Franco these languages were suppressed .
The second section deals with how spanish literature has fared through time ,been influenced and shaped by its writers and external writers .Also in places lead literature but was forgotten and other novels held up as the first .
Getrudis Gomez De Avellaneda “sab” (1841) ,the first spanish language anti-slavery novel , anticipates uncle tom’s cabin by ten years .
There is a focus on the 1920′s surrealism and writers of the time such as Federico Garcia Lorca .through to the new wave of spanish writers such as Zafon and Perez-Reverte ,the generation X influenced books of Ray Lorca .
The last two short sections deal firstly with female spanish writers ,Homosexual writings a focus on Monique Lange and her husband and probably the best Spanish writer in the 20th century Juan Goytisolo .the last section deals how Spain has dealt with its writing heritage and its history ,its reverence of Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote .
I found this book a wonderful insight into spanish literature and gave me loads of background information on the writers and the history ,I certainly via this book have many years of Spanish literature to enjoy ,from Miguel De Unamo ,via Juan Goytisolo ,Lorca and the new spanish voice in america Ray Loriga ,Molina .
HAVE YOU READ ANY FROM THIS SERIES ?
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE BOOK FROM SPANISH ?
Don Quioxte -week 1 sonnets ,books ,riding ,a inn and a large farm
26 Jul 2010 20 Comments
in books from, Spain, windmils for the mind Tags: readalong, spain
So we ‘re under way and the journey begins the first 92 pages cover a lot of ground a brief intro ,some wonderful sonnets about the hero and knights in general ,then we finally meet Don his book laden house book about knights .Then he sets forth and rides and ends up at an inn .Wants to be made a knight by the innkeeper ,who refuses but relents in the end ,back home people worried but to no avail he enlists his neighbour sancho Panza a farmer to be his squire .the meet some people already on the road to the adventures .
Well so far ,so good we got a feel of Don Quixote a sort of 16th century billy liar ,the book reads as thou it was written yesterday ,the footnotes enlighten the text so much ,and things like explaining the meaning of blanco is dual so both used in translation .The mean of Panza is belly or paunch thus leading to the image in my mind .
Also Rachel of catalan cooking is hopefully going to give us some great recipes from spain at the time of Don Quixote
WHAT DID EVERY ONE THINK ?
WHAT YOU THINK OF THE TRANSLATION ?
Stone in a landslide by Maria Barbal
25 Jul 2010 7 Comments
in CATALAN, Spain Tags: spain, TRANSLATIONS
This is Peirene no 2 and considered a catalan classic ,Maria Barbal is a teacher at secondary school ,she grew up in the Pallars region of spain stones in a landslide was her debut novel and the first to be translated into english by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell .She has since published numerous novel and plays,she is a member of the catalan writer association .
The book centers on the life of Conxa ,she live in the Pyrenees in a small village and the book starts as she is on a journey from her village to another to work for an aunt .Her amazement is a the differences for her home village to this new village even thou the distance is very short .
They liked everything ; the chorizo and the black pudding ,the cuts of ham .They liked the bacon .Its much tastier than the stuff down their ,they would say .I enjoyed seeing how they kept helping themselves to more and the way they used there knives .
early on in new village .
Now Conxa live is hard and not much hope but then suddenly she has a glimmer a young Beau appears in the shape of Jaume a nice young man ,but this is the 30′s in spain and wart is looming even thou where Conxa lives it seems very distant Jaume thou decides to fight against Franco and goes to war thus changing Conxa’s life for ever .
Jaume wasn’t around much those days .He had been made a justice of the peace and said that now was the time to bring water to Sarri de Dalt .He had joined the republican left ,which was the party of the Gerneralitat Government .he had explained all this to me .
The war is looming .
The book sums up a hard life but without ever drifting in to misery ,Conxa is a survivor and just gets on with it .The portrait of village life is great .It remind me of the stories I heard from people when I worked in a day centre in rural Northumberland ,the same tales of differences between villages ,tough living people the same as Conxa’s ,the scenery of pallers area is baron and tough working land and the village life revolves around the seasons ,the place is caught out of time from the modern world ,until the arrival of the war which at first seems very distant but in the ends has a larger impact on people’s lives .The book is a real page turn and wonderfully translated ,this is a prefect rainy afternoon book or one for those long summer train rides .
WINSTONS SCORE -
Spanish mountain goat seems to perfectly sum up Conxa hardy ,stoic , a born survivor
The carpenter pencil by Manual Rivas
20 Apr 2010 6 Comments
in EUROPEAN FICTION, Spain Tags: spain
Manuel Rivas
notes-
Manuel Rivas is a spanish writer that writes in the Galician language from the north-west region of spain where it shares many similarities with portuguese ,Rivas has worked as a journalist and was a founding member of Greenpeace in spain ,two of his novels have been adapted to films in spain ,he is also one of the first spanish writers to examine the spanish civil war and it effects on people .
The book-
The story follows a couple dr Daniel Da Barca and Marisa mallio ,he is a left winger ,making speeches and rabble rousing with his girlfriend by his side but this leads to trouble and when a change in civil war means the right wingers take control he is promptly arrest and thrown in to prison,we meet Rincon another prisoner that is torture and eventually killed by the head of the prison Zalo ,a really nasty piece of work ,herbal the narator of the story grabs Rincon pencil as it drops he is the man who gave up dr daniel to the authorties as he is also in love with Marisa .Daniel eventually is asign to the prison hosptial where he trys his best to help the patients in rather poor conditions ,whilst his sweetheart marisa tries to via for his release .
from the sentry box in a corner of the prison wall ,with the carpenters pencil behind his ear ,herbal listened to what the painter was telling him .he was telling him that beings and things are clothed in light .that even the gospels talk of men as “the children of light “
a quote from about midway in the book
my view -
This book is wonderfully wrote and beautifully translated by Jonathan dunne ,the scenes he writes are very vivid ,there is a sense your there watching these horrors unflurre in front of you .It gives a grewat sense of to quote the line from apocplyse now “the horror of war ” and it is even worse it’s a civil war as you now the people your are facing like daniel and herbal in this book .It is great to hear a spainsh voice talk about the civil war having read orwells and hemingways books set during the civil war .A wonderful book ,a true modern classic .
links-
