NOVEMBER THREAD ON THE GRAND EUROPEAN TOUR: THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

Yesterday in Lisbon. My lovely but often fairly scary wife is our correspondent in situ at the moment.

A million apologies for being so late setting this up.

No excuses whatsoever.

SPAIN - PORTUGAL - ANDORRA (technically a sliver of France too but we did that already).

CERVANTES
SARAMAGO
PESSOA
CERCAS
CAMOES
ZAFON
ANTUNES
MARIAS
LIDIA JORGE
CELA
FELIPE FARIA
BAZAN

and many many more.

What will I read:

The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago



and

Ordesa by Manuel Vilas

I have read and loved Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind multiple times. However, that is as far as I have gone with the series, so this month I am going to read The Angel's Game, the second book in the series.

>4 alcottacre: I love Zafon's books too, Stasia. I have read three or four of them and loved them all but The Shadow of the Wind is special.

Five Stars for The Shadow of the Wind!

I'm also a fan of Zafon's books. He died too young.
I've made a start on The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. I have several of his books in my book piles. Johnny Depp starred in an adaption, The Ninth Gate (1999) which I've seen years ago but don't remember much.

>6 m.belljackson: For me too, Marianne. That is how books should be written and stories told. How sad that Zafon died so young, only 55.

>7 avatiakh: Same thoughts expressed at the same time!

>3 PaulCranswick: I'll also be going with a Saramago, Blindness.

I’m a hundred pages in to Don Quixote—-only 840 more to go! Fortunately Edith Grossman’s translation is very readable and the chapters are short.

>12 PawsforThought: I’m also doing Don Quixote but my edition is only a bit over 400 pages.

>10 Tess_W: During COVID I “saw” Blindness as a so-called “sound installation.” The audience sat in socially distanced seats on the stage, in the dark, and listened to the actors’ voices on headphones. A surprisingly powerful piece of theatre.

>12 PawsforThought: I have two other copies by different translators; one is also 940 pages and the other is 769. Perhaps your copy is just Part I? Or is the print extremely small?

>12 PawsforThought: I see on the book page that your edition is an “abridged version.”

>6 m.belljackson: A polarising book! “Thumbed” reviews on LT range from 5 stars to 1 star.

>15 booksaplenty1949: Yeah, it’s slightly abridged (difficult to tell where/how because it’s not obvious in the text). Swedish is also a more compact language than English and Spanish so that makes for some of the difference. Both parts are included. I couldn’t find a complete version in my library system, but don’t think I’d be able to do a full length version right now anyway.

I plan to read Nazarin (1895) by Benito Perez Galdos, which I think was influenced by Don Quixote. Perez Galdos (1843-1920) was born in the Canary Islands, but lived most of his life in Madrid.

>18 kac522: I would have allowed the Canary Island's as belonging to Spain, Kathy, even though it is, of course not actually part of the peninsula physically.

>17 PawsforThought: I checked the foreword of my copy and it seems that the primary cuts have been made to exclude the short stories told by people near Quixote - they've been replaced with short summaries. I'm good with that - if I want to read those bits at some point I can just look them up.

>20 PawsforThought: I can think of fewer books more in need of abridging than the Don, Paws. Extremely well done in finding that one!

>20 PawsforThought: I'd read that one! I've started Don twice and did not finish. In fact, I may look for an abridged version!

>5 PaulCranswick: Thus far the only one of his books that I have read is The Shadow of the Wind, Paul, but I own several others. I just need to get them read!

>6 m.belljackson: Totally agree with that, Marianne!

>7 avatiakh: Yes, he did die far too young!

>21 PaulCranswick: I completely agree with that sentiment, Paul. Don Quixote went on far too long for me the one time that I read it - the unabridged version, needless to say - and I decided I never needed to read it again, lol.

I am a big fan of Dolores Redondo and have devoured her books. I will be reading her latest book Esperando al diluvio this month.

I’m reading Ines en de vreugde by Amudena Grandes (Inés y la alegría). Anita has read several of her books, just last year I think, and praised them. It is a demanding book, as there is a lot of Spanish history and politics involved, and I have to look this up. The story of Spain during the second World War. But it’s worth it.

Added: finished this book. It really blew me away, especially the first half. The second half feels more distant, and there is a lot of going back and forward in time. Taking effort and concentration to really follow.
A very good story, and I got to understand a lot more of what went on in Spain, the communist party, during the reign of Franco.

I finished Blindness by Jose Saramago. It is a modern allegory in which an unexplained epidemic of “white blindness” sweeps through an unnamed city, plunging society into chaos. At first, those afflicted are quarantined in an insane asylum where conditions are brutal. After a fire, the main characters escape and make their way back to an apartment in a central location. Of course, there are no utilities, food, or law and order. The overlying question of the book is: who can really see? 354 pages 4 stars Saramago is Portuguese and this book was translated from the same.

I finished The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon today and while it is not nearly as good IMHO as The Shadow of the Wind, I did enjoy it for the most part. I gave it 3.75 stars and guardedly recommend it.

>26 Tess_W: We did a group read of Blindness several years ago, Tess. I read it, gave it 5 stars, and decided then and there I did not need to read it again. I found it very emotionally devastating for me.

>27 alcottacre: I agree, it made me feel sick in some spots. That being said, I think I'm going to read another Saramago in December.

>28 Tess_W: I will be curious to see your thoughts on whatever Saramego you decide to read next, Tess. I have never read anything of his beyond Blindness.

@Tess_W and @alcottacre. I've read several by Saramago except Blindness and The Double. Maybe I will try to get to Blindness before the month is done.

>30 Kristelh: What was your favorite thus far?

@Tess_W, I really think maybe my favorite is Cain but I gave 4 stars to Baltasar and Blimunda and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis but Cain kind of sticks with me.

>32 Kristelh: I requested Cain and Death with Interruptions from the library. I'll read whichever one comes in first!

>33 Tess_W:, I look forward to your thoughts on Cain if you get to that one. If I remember right, it's not long.

I finished The Dumas Club by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. A fairly dark read but with lots of Dumas related content.

Finished Pt 1 of Don Quixote, and have to say I am underwhelmed. For those tempted to read an abridged version which summarises the narratives related by characters Don Quixote meets along the way, I have to say that I found those stories far more entertaining than the central narrative. Having got almost halfway through the 940 pages in my edition I am committed to continuing through Pt 2, but so far this book definitely fits Mark Twain’s definition of a “classic.”

>36 booksaplenty1949: I seem to recall the second half was slightly better than the first, but still a slog.

I finished Nazarin by Benito Perez Galdos; translated from the Spanish and edited with notes by Jo Labanyi.

Benito Perez Galdos (1843-1920) was born in the Canary Islands and lived most of his life in Madrid. He was a great admirer of Tolstoy.

Nazarin (1895) is the story of a humble priest, Don Nazario, from Madrid who is determined to take Christ’s gospel literally. He leads through example: he lives the life preached by the gospels, the life of meekness, poverty, non-resistance to evil and keeps to the truth at all costs. He has no possessions and begs only for food that he absolutely needs. As he sets out from Madrid to live out his principles, along the way two women of dubious character decided to change their ways, and they follow him on his path. Early on the narrator asks: “The locals generally regard him as a saint, but others think him a fool. Which version is correct?” Thus he encounters on his journey those who admire him, but also those who taunt him and dismiss him at best, and physical abuse at worst.

The edition I read had excellent notes, pointing out how Perez Galdos cleverly weaves the parallels between the priest’s journey and Christ’s journey, as well as the priest’s journey and Don Quixote’s journey to seek the ideals of chivalry. The priest meets and discusses his ideals with many people along the way, bringing out various concepts of capitalism, socialism and Christian thought prevalent during the late 19th century. There’s a lot packed in this little book (190 pages), but I don’t think I could have navigated it successfully without the editor’s excellent notes in this Oxford World’s Classics edition.

>38 kac522: This sounds really interesting.

>39 EllaTim: I have to admit I would never have understood the many references and nuances without the excellent notes in this edition. It made the story meaningful.

I finished Don Quixote last night. I know others have also read it for this challenge, and it seems like not everyone has enjoyed it but I did. My copy was a shortened version (couldn’t get hold of anything else) but still not short by any means. Yes, some parts are less than exciting to read, but I generally found it very funny and quite heartwarming. My favourite parts were where Cervantes was obviously being meta and making fun of either himself or his contemporaries - like naming the author of the tale and arab-ified version of his own name.
I would like to read the full version of this some day, but I would do it over a longer period so as not to feel the pressure of finishing within the month.

>37 amanda4242: Yes, am finding the second half a big improvement, although that is not as great a compliment as it may sound.

Finished Don Quixote. First part never really developed past the opening incident where Quixote tilts at windmills. Second part had more going on, especially with Sancho Panza. But not another 500 pages worth, IMHO. I have no interest in mediaeval literature as I do not enjoy fantasy or allegorical narratives. My edition had hundreds of footnotes explaining the references to genuine mediaeval epics; almost as many as the footnotes explaining Sancho Panza’s misquotations/misapplications of Spanish proverbs. It was a lot. All in all, no doubt The Great Spanish Novel and a book I’m happy to say I’ve now read, but not a high point in this year’s reading.

>43 booksaplenty1949:, congratulations on finishing Don Quixote.

>44 Kristelh: Thank you. Now on to Rabelais. Hope I’m not just being a glutton for punishment.

I did finish Blindness before the year end.