An Englishman named Anthony Whitelands arrives aboard a train to Madrid turbulent spring of 1936. Must authenticate an unknown box owned by a friend of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, whose economic value can be decisive for the crucial political change in Spain's history. Turbulent love affairs with women from different social classes distract the art critic before he had time to gauge how they are multiplying their persecutors, police, diplomats, politicians and spies in an atmosphere of conspiracy and riot.
The exceptional narrative skills of Eduardo Mendoza combine perfectly the seriousness of the events narrated in the presence, very subtle, of his famous sense of humor, because every tragedy is also part of the human comedy.
All of the above is as shown on the cover of the first edition of Tiff Gatos. Madrid 1936 by Eduardo Mendoza.
Mendoza, who read from the 15 years after giving me my cousin MD The Labyrinth of olives, a book that I liked and paid much . In this first book was followed by The mystery of the haunted vault, this time the book was required reading for my sister and followed, also my sister's required reading in high school, no Gurb news.
RBA in a library when edited cheaply and better than the current format, I did with the city of wonder. Upon leaving the opposition, one day I got lost and the savings he had invested it in a library that no longer exists, a light comedy and the truth about the case Savolta.
The last, The Mystery of the ladies room, Maurice or the last elections, three lives of saints, the amazing journey of Pomponio Flato ...
a book? Maybe.
This does not mean that everyone that my cousin writer I read give me like a religion, Isabel Allende did not like.
Anthony, 34, reaches Spain in March 1936 to appraise the artwork of Don Alvaro del Valle and Salomero, Duke of Igualada.
Anthony zascandilea in Madrid, sometimes lost, others fled, most of the time clueless as soon as hurd known behind his back.
The art collection is not of great value pricing and causes disappointment in Anthony, who, skilled in the English Golden Age, is to nineteenth century paintings. However, the lovely Paquita, he has kept a surprise.
In the basement of the family mansion Valley lies a Velazquez that he has never seen the light and it never will. Here I would say as in the previous post, I refer to unravel the mystery out of reading the book, but the mystery was already solved by El Pais, in an article entitled A painting of Goya by José Carlos Mainer.
Goya Pictures do not appear either in the book. I do not know the title, it will be for the shootings.
Made in
missing from the book's non-participation of artists of the time and who attended the Madrid of 1933. Lorca maybe not, because from 1933 to 1934 was in New York. This poet is mentioned only when, after visiting a tavern where rocks come bullfighting, Anthony remembers seeing Ignacio Sánchez Mejías in one of his previous visits to the city and after having read the famous poem by Lorca, translated into English lose passion and interest.
not proliferate over the politicians of that era. José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Marquis of Stella, a friend of the family del Valle y enamorado de la hija mayor, Paquita; cuyos amores no llegaron a término porque Don Alvaro, imaginando el futuro del apuesto joven y de la propia España, se opuso.
Queipo de Llano y Francisco Franco, quienes acuden al palacete de Don Álvaro, y cuyas identidades tratan de ser ocultadas.
Azaña.
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora.
Como ya afirmó tras ganar el Planeta Eduardo Mendoza, Riña de gatos no es una novela histórica. Y todo ello a pesar de los fantásticos art and political dialogues that take place throughout the novel.
The book opens and closes with the painting The Death of Actaeon, a metaphor for what the children in Spain will themselves: eat them alive.
On the train that Anthony brings to Spain, as a prelude to the riots and quarrels in the streets, witness the following conversation between a Republican and a priest, rather curious:
"Republican said the priest with his thumb and said
- Here, without going any further, you have an example of what he was saying. Until four days ago, they did and deshacíann at will. Now living on borrowed time and that we're running out of hand the boinazo. Or not, father?
The priest clasped her hands in her lap and stared fixedly at the passenger.
- laughs best who laughs last, undaunted answered. ;
English left them locked in a duel of words and paraphrase. Slow and monotonous, the train continued its way through a desolate plain, leaving a thick column of smoke into the air and crystal meseteño winter. Before going back to sleep he heard the Republican argument:
- Look, father, people do not burn churches and monasteries without rhyme or reason. They have never burned a tavern, a hospital or a bullring. If the whole of Spain the people choose to burn churches with the cost of lighting, there must be. "
0 comments:
Post a Comment