Francisco Ayala (1) (1906–2009)

En el primer cuento me entusiasmé pensando que la gracia era denunciar que el protagonista escribía de forma compleja y enrevesada y terminar escribiendo peor que él. En el segundo me di cuenta de que este tipo metía ornamentos por todas partes. Bueno, es un español en los años 40. Ya.

Ayala, a sociologist who in 2009 died at age 103, saw the best and the worst of Spanish society in his long life. This novel from 1965 is written in the form of a memoir by a witness to the excesses of a totalitarian regime. There is a sardonic knowingness to the narrative--an expectation that people in power will behave badly, and that the worst will rise to the top. An amusing and disquieting novel.

Part of book project. Definitely a book. Spoilers could appear. Did it make sense? I don't know. I think the reader was supposed to draw conclusions beyond what the narrator did; the plot lines were fantastic, somewhat, and not believable; I assumed Angelo was the idiot who killed Dona Concha but I don't think he said that. There were some typos & a sentence or 2 that didn't make sense & I didn't know if that was the fault of the printing, the translator, or there on purpose because the show more narrator is transcribing. It is well done, and interestingly conceived, and humorous in the way the narrator wanders off into digressions and thinks he is a historian when he is not, thinks he is independent and unbiased when he is not...and he turns out to be a murderer like the rest.... show less

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