Pío Baroja (1872–1956)

La última novela inédita de Pío BarojaEl mejor Baroja atrapa de nuevo a los lectores con la descripción de los lugares, la caracterización de los compañeros que va encontrando el protagonista y las conversaciones y tertulias donde se tratan los grandes temas de su obra y de la época: la naturaleza humana, la violencia, el exilio,la situación española y la europea. Un paseo melancólico y lírico por la España de la guerra civil; una aguda descripción de Valencia la roja, punto de partida de aquellos que quieren embarcarse fuera del país; un retrato impresionista del París del exilio, de las tertulias y del desencanto de una Europa que ha entrado en guerra. Una obra inolvidable que cierra la gran trilogía de Las saturnales.… (more)

Despite all of the huge amount of hype this book has attained as one of the great works of Basque adventure literature, it failed to meet such high expectations. I believe one of the problems is simply because since there isn't a lot of books that take place in a Basque's POV during the 2nd Castillian War, schools selected this book because it has a wide enough appeal, quick to read and there isn't much else literary competition. If the book had taken place during the US Civil War or the great Napoleonic battles of early 1800's British fiction, it would have never gotten even a tenth of the amount of attention.

So what is the plot?

This is actually the great highlight of the story in a sort of way. Our antihero of sorts is Martín Zalacaín, a Basque boy from the small city of Urbia which is very close to the French border in northeastern Spain. After his mother became a widow at a young age, a woman from the old Ohando aristrocratic family allowed her to live in a guesthouse pretty much free of charge alongside the Ohando children: Carlos and Catalina.

While Martín's sister Ignacia is well... pretty much absent in the plot, our hero Martín is curious, rebellious, likes to get into fist fights with other boys and has zero interest in going to school. For pretty much zero reason he forms a lifelong disdain for Mrs's Ohando's son Carlos who is described to be a vindictive pretentious boy that believes Martín should bend his knee in gratitude (which considering he lives in his mom's house for free isn't too far from the truth).

The writing of the initial chapters falls into the same writing problems of many Victorian era books. We get a chapter that focuses on one village character that is a tad bit too drunk in the tavern that doesn't necesarily play an important role in the story, and then we get another from a gossipy villager that only appears once. The first third of the novel is quite episodic and slow, but it does offer some glimpses of how Martín's hunger for independence and adventure come from as he is educated by his Grand-uncle Miguel Tellouri. Lest to say, the old man teaches Martín a lot of useful survivor skills living in the mountains which came in handy.

After several spoiler filled events that were a tad bit too much tell and not enough show for my taste, Martín has the freedom to choose what to do with his life as the Carlista war is fast approaching. Should he become an impoverished farmer that works under one of the great families of Urbia like his father? Or perhaps become an overly idealistic foot soldier that fights for one of the two sides of the upcoming war? Martín soon decides to follow his grandfather's suggestion to remain neutral and becomes a weapons smuggler.

Martín always follows a sort of grey line between being a clever law abiding man of commerce and an honest crook, which is something that I actually liked about the writing. The middle section of the book is by far the best part which I believe was where the author had the most fun because it talks about how Martín ends up captured by a faction of Carlista zealots, or the time he gets locked up in a county jail as a sort of POW for no apparent reason and has to use his street smarts to escape. I think if a more modern movie adaptation could be made of the book, the more adventurous portions of the book could be adapted quite well.

Martín has a small group of friends he meets along the way, such as his compadre Bautista (the book never really delves into how the two best friends meet which I think was a real waste), a Carlista soldier named Briones and a peculiar man Martín constantly ends up bumping into colloquially known as "The Foreigner". I think The Foreigner would have been a better narrator of the story; he might have even toned down the excessive telling in the prose. And of course, Carlos Ohando enters and leaves Martín's life giving him nonstop trouble.

While the book excells in the adventurous chapters, it fails in other ways. Particularly when it comes to the female characters in Martín's life. Mrs's Ohando, Martín's mother, Ignacia, Catalina Ohando, a circus girl named Linda, and finally a woman Martín rescues named Rosita all interact with Martín, yet I cannot find much of a way to describe any one of them. The mother appears the least and she is probably the only character with some degree of personality. Frail, beaten under the weather and defeatist, Martín doesn't have much in common with her. And the other female characters... Mmm... the book claims Ignacia is charming and flirts with men but... um... we never have a scene where we see her misbehaving. Ignacia is just there as a sort of prop for Carlos to exploit and then she is well... not really doing much.

Catalina is supposed to be Martín's love interest, yet we don't really know anything about her. The funny irony is that even Martín has a hard time describing her. He can't even say what her eye color is or anything pertaining to her personality. It is like all of the women in the story are just mannequin props that revolve around Martín's great life adventures that can be placed back inside of the wooden chest once he has to set off town to another tavern and listen to endless songs.

And oh yes, we have songs a plenty! At first I kind of liked them because they are in Basque with nice Spanish translations, but then they became so frequent. Every chapter has at least one of them and without a full-fledged guide that talks about the historic events that are referenced in the song, it becomes sort of distracting.

One last thing I felt that was missing is a nice hand-drawn map of the 15 cities that appear over and over again in the book.

In essence, While I give props to the good chapters of the story, the book is quite a letdown when it comes to its female cast. If the book had been published today, it would have been cruelly panned by the critics. The sad irony is that I think Linda and Rosita were pretty interesting characters despite their short screen time. Was Linda sold into slavery to the circus? Rosita knew how to use a hunting rifle and didn't hesitate to use the weapon when we first meet her. Where did she learn how to shoot so well and why? Rosita's brother is a soldier so obviously she got some help. I found her to be an interesting character gone to waste. She surely had other close encounters with the war, yet we get a bunch of tavern singalong chapters instead. :/

Oh, and does anyone believe Martín exudes some Gary Stu vibes sometimes? He never had any interest in learning how to read & write growing up, but later in the book he can now read complicated military letters? Huh?

I will keep my eyes open for other Basque novels that thankfully have Spanish translations and hope I have more luck next time!… (more)