Two Basque Stories

Bernardo Atxaga, Two Basque Stories
I have been impressed by Atxaga’s writing in the past, especially in Obabakoak, his first collection of stories set in the fictional village of Obaba, his favorite locale. These two stories, though undeniably more complex than meets the eye, seem to be intended as young adult fiction. The heft and resonance in his later work isn’t there, though this appears to be a deliberate choice by the author. In “Two Letters All at Once,” Old Martin, a Basque immigrant living out his retirement in Idaho, receives two letters from home, prompting a story in which he tells his less-than-interested grandson about a quarrel between two of his closest friends when he was young. His role in that quarrel and a show more significant deception are what led him from Obaba to the American West. Old Martin uses his memories to dispense Aesopian morals but also to illustrate how identity is created. Atxaga is at his best when sketching personalities and plot but the story is simple and the attraction more in the manner in which it is told than anything else. In "When a Snake Stares at a Bird," a young city boy spending time in his grandfather's village comes to realize that things he once thought were uncomplicated—nature, animals, his grandfather—are much more complex than he had ever imagined. That said, I thought it less successful than the first story and, though there is a deftness to appreciate in both stories, neither strikes me as much more than “pleasant.” The stories were first published in Euskara in 1984 and are said to have ensured Atxaga’s popularity in his homeland. Even if that is so, I’d suggest they are of more interest to a completist than someone looking for his strongest work. show less