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螚 蟺位伪蟿蔚委伪 蟿蠅谓 未喂伪渭伪谓蟿喂蠋谓
螌蟿伪谓 畏 螡伪蟿维位喂伪 蟺畏纬伪委谓蔚喂 谓伪 蠂慰蟻苇蠄蔚喂 蟽蔚 苇谓伪 蟺维位魏慰 蟽蟿畏谓 螕魏蟻维蟽喂伪, 未蔚谓 蠀蟺慰蠄喂维味蔚蟿伪喂 蠈蟿喂 畏 味蠅萎 蟿畏蟼 胃伪 伪位位维尉蔚喂 蟻喂味喂魏维. 螌蟿喂 蔚魏蔚委谓慰 蟿慰 伪纬蠈蟻喂 渭蔚 蟿伪 渭喂魏蟻维 渭维蟿喂伪 胃伪 蟿畏蟼 维位位伪味蔚 蟿慰 蠈谓慰渭伪 魏伪喂 蠈蟿喂 胃伪 蟿畏蟼 纬苇渭喂味蔚 蟿慰 蟽蟺委蟿喂 渭蔚 蟺蔚蟻喂蟽蟿苇蟻喂伪 魏伪喂 蟺伪喂未喂维. 螣蠉蟿蔚 蠈蟿喂 胃伪 蔚蟻蠂蠈蟿伪谓 渭喂伪 未畏渭慰魏蟻伪蟿委伪 魏伪喂 苇谓伪蟼 蟺蠈位蔚渭慰蟼. 螚 螡伪蟿维位喂伪 渭维蟼 渭喂位维蔚喂 纬喂伪 蟿畏 味蠅萎 蟿畏蟼 蟽伪谓 谓伪 渭畏谓 蟽蠀谓蔚喂未畏蟿慰蟺慰喂蔚委 蟿喂 苇蠂蔚喂 味萎蟽蔚喂. 韦慰 尾维蟻慰蟼 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰位苇渭慰蠀 纬委谓蔚蟿伪喂 蟺喂慰 伪纬蠂蠅蟿喂魏蠈 蠈蟽慰 蟺喂慰 伪胃蠋伪 渭维蟼 伪蟺慰魏伪位蠉蟺蟿蔚蟿伪喂 伪蟻纬维-伪蟻纬维. 危蟿畏 蠁喂纬慰蠉蟻伪 蟿畏蟼 螝慰位慰渭苇蟿伪 蟺蟻慰蟽蠅蟺慰蟺慰喂蔚委蟿伪喂 蠈位畏 畏 伪谓蠋谓蠀渭畏 伪谓胃蟻蠅蟺蠈蟿畏蟿伪. 螚 螤位伪蟿蔚委伪 螖喂伪渭伪谓蟿喂慰蠉 蔚委谓伪喂 苇谓伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿伪 魏慰蟻蠀蠁伪委伪 位慰纬慰蟿蔚蠂谓喂魏维 蔚蟺喂蟿蔚蠉纬渭伪蟿伪 蟿畏蟼 螠蔚蟻蟽苇 巍慰未慰蟻苇未伪, 蟿畏蟼 渭蔚纬维位畏蟼 魏蠀蟻委伪蟼 蟿蠅谓 魏伪蟿伪位伪谓喂魏蠋谓 纬蟻伪渭渭维蟿蠅谓 蟽蟿慰谓 蔚喂魏慰蟽蟿蠈 伪喂蠋谓伪.
222 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1962
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About the author
Merc猫 Rodoreda
93听books579听followersMerc猫 Rodoreda i Gurgu铆 was a Catalan novelist.
She is considered by many to be the most important Catalan novelist of the postwar period. Her novel "La pla莽a del diamant" ('The diamond square', translated as 'The Time of the Doves', 1962) has become the most acclaimed Catalan novel of all time and since the year it was published for the first time, it has been translated into over 20 languages. It's also considered by many to be best novel dealing with the Spanish Civil War.
She is considered by many to be the most important Catalan novelist of the postwar period. Her novel "La pla莽a del diamant" ('The diamond square', translated as 'The Time of the Doves', 1962) has become the most acclaimed Catalan novel of all time and since the year it was published for the first time, it has been translated into over 20 languages. It's also considered by many to be best novel dealing with the Spanish Civil War.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,446 reviews
February 21, 2016
A novel set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War and translated from the Catalan. Originally published in 1962, it is and it isn鈥檛 鈥渁nother Spanish Civil War novel.鈥� There is no fighting or scenes from the front. We only hear of the war from the perspective of a woman whose husband is fighting with the Republicans while she slaves at home and as a maid and cleaning lady trying to feed herself and her two children. So we hear of the war only from neighborhood women, talk in the streets, the grocer and very occasional visits from her husband or his friends.
We learn about their brief courtship and their life before the war started. This is early 1900鈥檚, so he鈥檚 a tyrant; jealous, suspicious, demanding everything his way. He a furniture maker and he makes himself a chair that his wife and children are forbidden to sit in. Then he gets the crazy idea of raising pigeons on their apartment鈥檚 rooftop. Little by little the pigeons take over the entire house, nesting in rooms. Now the main character becomes a slave to the pigeons as well, lugging food and water and cleaning up after them.
The Spanish Civil War comes along and of course her husband is a casualty. She never learns how or where he died or where he is buried. All his buddies and essentially every male she ever knew also died in the war. But she has bigger problems. As the war drags on she and her children are starving to the point where she plans to kill them and then herself to end the suffering. The pigeons are gone now and so is every item in the home, sold for food 鈥� the bed and mattress, clothing, curtains, furniture.
Yet the women and her children survive. The war ends, she remarries, and the new family even achieve a measure of prosperity. But the story takes a new twist. Let鈥檚 call it PTSD. You can鈥檛 go through all that hell and years later just 鈥渒eep calm and carry on.鈥�
A great story that has been translated into 20 languages. The author, who died in 1983, has a literary award named in her honor. She lived in exile in France and Switzerland during the War and is best known for her first novel, Aloma. Here鈥檚 a couple of examples of her great writing: 鈥溾€ thought I should rein my sadness in, keep it small, not let it surround me, or spread to my bloodstream or thereabouts. Turn it into a ball, bullet or pellet. Swallow it quick.鈥� Writing of boys at an orphans camp: 鈥淭hey all had shaved heads covered in scabs and their faces were all eyes.鈥� Well worth a read.
We learn about their brief courtship and their life before the war started. This is early 1900鈥檚, so he鈥檚 a tyrant; jealous, suspicious, demanding everything his way. He a furniture maker and he makes himself a chair that his wife and children are forbidden to sit in. Then he gets the crazy idea of raising pigeons on their apartment鈥檚 rooftop. Little by little the pigeons take over the entire house, nesting in rooms. Now the main character becomes a slave to the pigeons as well, lugging food and water and cleaning up after them.
The Spanish Civil War comes along and of course her husband is a casualty. She never learns how or where he died or where he is buried. All his buddies and essentially every male she ever knew also died in the war. But she has bigger problems. As the war drags on she and her children are starving to the point where she plans to kill them and then herself to end the suffering. The pigeons are gone now and so is every item in the home, sold for food 鈥� the bed and mattress, clothing, curtains, furniture.
Yet the women and her children survive. The war ends, she remarries, and the new family even achieve a measure of prosperity. But the story takes a new twist. Let鈥檚 call it PTSD. You can鈥檛 go through all that hell and years later just 鈥渒eep calm and carry on.鈥�
A great story that has been translated into 20 languages. The author, who died in 1983, has a literary award named in her honor. She lived in exile in France and Switzerland during the War and is best known for her first novel, Aloma. Here鈥檚 a couple of examples of her great writing: 鈥溾€ thought I should rein my sadness in, keep it small, not let it surround me, or spread to my bloodstream or thereabouts. Turn it into a ball, bullet or pellet. Swallow it quick.鈥� Writing of boys at an orphans camp: 鈥淭hey all had shaved heads covered in scabs and their faces were all eyes.鈥� Well worth a read.
March 23, 2022
鈥淟a plaza del diamante鈥� es una novela bella y triste. La voz que nos cuenta su vida, la de aquella Natalia joven en la fiesta de la Plaza del Diamante, luego la Colometa del Quimet, despu茅s Natalia de nuevo, ya mayor, en la misma plaza, es de una sencillez po茅tica conmovedora, casi naif, una voz que solo puede surgir de una sensibilidad innata que las circunstancias impidieron un florecimiento mayor.
鈥淓n casa viv铆amos sin palabras y las cosas que yo llevaba por dentro me daban miedo porque no sab铆a si eran m铆as鈥︹€�Quimet encontr贸 a una Natlia que no hab铆a empezado a ser, que no 鈥渟ab铆a muy bien para qu茅 estaba en el mundo鈥�.
鈥淢i madre muerta hac铆a a帽os y sin poder aconsejarme y mi padre casado con otra. Mi padre casado con otra y yo sin madre, que s贸lo hab铆a vivido para cuidarme. Y mi padre casado y yo jovencita y sola en la Plaza del Diamante...鈥�Por su parte, Natalia se vio deslumbrada por la vitalidad y la seguridad de Quimet, y este le meti贸 a la Colometa en el cuerpo y como la Colometa vivi贸 al lado de Quimet, sumisa y resignada ella, manipulador y controlador, 茅l.
鈥淪i quer铆a ser su mujer ten铆a que empezar a encontrar bien todo lo que 茅l encontraba bien.鈥�Una historia de violencia machista cuando no se sab铆a qu茅 era eso de la violencia machista, en la que Quimet redujo la vida de su Colometa a sus propios amigos, a la se帽ora Enriqueta, una segunda madre, y a sus hijos. Los acontecimientos del mundo exterior a ese reducido n煤cleo familiar solo aparecen en sus consecuencias, de pronto llega la rep煤blica, de pronto llega la guerra, que ni se nombra como tal (鈥渧ino lo que vino, que parec铆a una cosa que ten铆a ser muy corta鈥�), de pronto termina la guerra y Colometa tiene que sacar a su familia adelante con el estigma de ser la mujer de un rojo.
鈥溾€a se帽ora Enriqueta me hab铆a dicho que ten铆amos muchas vidas, entrelazadas unas con otras, pero que una muerte o una boda, a veces, no siempre, las separaba, y la vida de verdad, libre de todos los lazos de vida peque帽a que la hab铆an atado, pod铆a vivir como habr铆a tenido que vivir siempre si las vidas peque帽as y malas la hubieran dejado sola.鈥�La historia de Colometa termina con un grito, 鈥渦n grito de infierno鈥�. Hay qui茅n lo interpreta feliz, aunque鈥� bueno, ustedes lo interpretar谩n como quieran, yo no soy de esa opini贸n.
鈥淯n grito que deb铆a hacer muchos a帽os que llevaba dentro y con aquel grito, tan ancho que le cost贸 mucho pasar por la garganta, me sali贸 de la boca una pizca de cosa de nada, como un escarabajo de saliva鈥� y aquella pizca de cosa de nada que hab铆a vivido tanto tiempo encerrada dentro, era mi juventud que se escapaba con un grito que no sab铆a bien lo que era鈥︹€�
February 9, 2017
There's a reason why Gabriel Garcia Marquez learned Catalan just read to this novel. He called it "the most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War."
Great translation by poet David Rosenthal that captures the gorgeously off-handed rhythms and glowing repetitions of Rodereda's prose. Avoid the newer version called "In Diamond Plaza."
Great translation by poet David Rosenthal that captures the gorgeously off-handed rhythms and glowing repetitions of Rodereda's prose. Avoid the newer version called "In Diamond Plaza."
June 23, 2019
螆谓伪 尾喂尾位委慰 纬蔚渭维蟿慰 伪谓胃蟻蠅蟺喂维, 伪胃蠅蠈蟿畏蟿伪, 渭喂伪蟼 维位位畏蟼 蔚蟺慰蠂萎蟼 蟺慰蠀 胃伪 胃苇位伪渭蔚 蟿伪 蠂伪蟻伪魏蟿畏蟻喂蟽蟿喂魏维 蟿畏蟼 谓伪 萎蟿伪谓 味蠅谓蟿伪谓维 蟽蟿畏 未喂魏喂维 渭伪蟼 蔚蟺慰蠂萎.
December 30, 2015
I'm writing this on the back of my doctor's note because it's the only paper I have with me at the coffee shop and a bad bout of illness has me out of sickness-induced superstition loathe to leave this composing till I go home. Yes, I know, not the best place/activity for an invalid, but I (not contagious, mind you) already had one and one too many of those days two yesters ago where no writing and a mere twelve pages of reading left me with the feeling of a small bone rotting away from lack of use. Lack of structure. I'll not compare being too ill to engage in literary matters to surviving the Spanish Civil War, but the style of prose fit the motion of my stomach-swamped brain, a pinball autopilot where not much seems to help and even less is not a threat and one obliges the familiar for as long as one can.
This work creeps up on you. Maybe more so to me with my usual "Is this abuse? Is this misogyny?" until nightmarish paranoia of years and years set three-quarters in to the novel deemed, yes. That the author meant. It's a book where the soldiers would be better off not coming home and the conditioning of peacetime kills quicker than the complicity of wartime, albeit wartime being an uncertain word when civilization incorporates so much. In short, there's a woman who was once a girl, children who were once eggs, friends of the family who were once alive, and the revenge of a much taken for granted housewife that happens to convulse with the bloodborne seizures of a country. There's losing and winning for this small scale woman and her small scale children, and what she knows of the war is drawn from the availability of work, of food, of hydrochloric acid. I could go into gender politics and bigotry and yadda yadda yadda, but I'm too tired to belittle this much grappling with the trauma of hallucinatory life.
In terms of kudoes, how often do you read Catalan literature penned by a woman? In terms of references for swift comparison purposes, an single self internalized of another country, another time, another gender, another breed of PTSD, but a similar refrain: nothing is worth this. Nothing.
This work creeps up on you. Maybe more so to me with my usual "Is this abuse? Is this misogyny?" until nightmarish paranoia of years and years set three-quarters in to the novel deemed, yes. That the author meant. It's a book where the soldiers would be better off not coming home and the conditioning of peacetime kills quicker than the complicity of wartime, albeit wartime being an uncertain word when civilization incorporates so much. In short, there's a woman who was once a girl, children who were once eggs, friends of the family who were once alive, and the revenge of a much taken for granted housewife that happens to convulse with the bloodborne seizures of a country. There's losing and winning for this small scale woman and her small scale children, and what she knows of the war is drawn from the availability of work, of food, of hydrochloric acid. I could go into gender politics and bigotry and yadda yadda yadda, but I'm too tired to belittle this much grappling with the trauma of hallucinatory life.
In terms of kudoes, how often do you read Catalan literature penned by a woman? In terms of references for swift comparison purposes, an single self internalized of another country, another time, another gender, another breed of PTSD, but a similar refrain: nothing is worth this. Nothing.
August 4, 2023
Literatura de alto nivel. Do帽a Merce Rodoreda es capaz de poner al descubierto de una forma franca el alma humana, el alma de una mujer asfixiada por la condici贸n que le ha tocado en suerte. Usa un estilo depurado (creo que a base de mucho reescribir) de escritora con much铆simo oficio. Es imposible no apreciar alguna influencia de V. Woolf en ese desasosiego existencial que ambas logran transmitir de manera magistral en sus mujeres protagonistas. Aunque pudiera resultar curioso, tambi茅n encuentro conexiones entre la autora y la posterior Toni Morrison, aparte de la peque帽a dosis de lo que despu茅s se llamar铆a realismo m谩gico, adem谩s en un punto central del libro, en la trama se ve una similitud que no se puede obviar con la de Beloved y la forma de enfrentar sus problemas y el de sus hijos, el cap铆tulo 36 es sobresaliente, y el final de ese cap铆tulo...buaahh.
La Colometa es un personaje de ficci贸n que permanece en la cultura y tradici贸n espa帽ola por la proyecci贸n en los 80 de una serie que protagonizaba la genial Silvia Munt, al leer el libro resulta mucho m谩s f谩cil ponerle a la protagonista el rostro de de esa gran actriz catalana, aunque realmente s铆 soy sincero, creo que el libro est谩 por encima de lo que recuerdo de la serie, gana en profundidad esa narraci贸n en primera persona que te hace sentir lo arduo de la vida.
La Colometa es un personaje de ficci贸n que permanece en la cultura y tradici贸n espa帽ola por la proyecci贸n en los 80 de una serie que protagonizaba la genial Silvia Munt, al leer el libro resulta mucho m谩s f谩cil ponerle a la protagonista el rostro de de esa gran actriz catalana, aunque realmente s铆 soy sincero, creo que el libro est谩 por encima de lo que recuerdo de la serie, gana en profundidad esa narraci贸n en primera persona que te hace sentir lo arduo de la vida.
April 5, 2023
Pigeons, pigeons everywhere for a while in Natalia鈥檚 married life, as her young husband goes nuts for them and breeds them at home, letting them fly through one end of the apartment to the other. She鈥檚 left to clean up after them whereas her husband goes to his workshop during the day, as an independent furniture maker. These birds made for a few arresting chapters in a book that was full of them.
Set in the first half of the 20th century, in a Barcelona that carried on without tourists at the time but would soon face the Spanish Civil War, In Diamond Square offers a colorful blue-collar perspective of times long gone, setting before the reader鈥檚 eyes everyday marvels that are sure to make an impression.
A doe-eyed young woman when we first meet her, though soon to be married, Natalia will preserve an engaging candor as she relates her marital and parental experiences, then her work life and her growing older, and faces domestic and personal challenges alike, dealing with mourning, dealing with poverty, overcoming it all while never quite losing her sweet innocence.
Hers is a sensory existence, in which colors, smells, sounds and textures are often referenced, and Natalia's personal mythologies draw from the very essence of everything that surrounds her, from birds to flowers to people, to wooden furniture. Her tale is often sad in ways that go from big to small, but also rife with images pulled straight out of an imaginative urban dweller鈥檚 dreaming heart 鈥� regardless of her age. She is one with her home, one with her neighborhood, given to noticing low-key beauty in modest surroundings, and closing In Diamond Square鈥檚 cover a final time, I feel like the author鈥檚 heart spoke directly to mine despite all the differences in time, place, and culture.
Thanks to Emily M for putting this slim novel on my literary path. It took me a while to get around to it, but the enchantment took.
Set in the first half of the 20th century, in a Barcelona that carried on without tourists at the time but would soon face the Spanish Civil War, In Diamond Square offers a colorful blue-collar perspective of times long gone, setting before the reader鈥檚 eyes everyday marvels that are sure to make an impression.
A doe-eyed young woman when we first meet her, though soon to be married, Natalia will preserve an engaging candor as she relates her marital and parental experiences, then her work life and her growing older, and faces domestic and personal challenges alike, dealing with mourning, dealing with poverty, overcoming it all while never quite losing her sweet innocence.
Hers is a sensory existence, in which colors, smells, sounds and textures are often referenced, and Natalia's personal mythologies draw from the very essence of everything that surrounds her, from birds to flowers to people, to wooden furniture. Her tale is often sad in ways that go from big to small, but also rife with images pulled straight out of an imaginative urban dweller鈥檚 dreaming heart 鈥� regardless of her age. She is one with her home, one with her neighborhood, given to noticing low-key beauty in modest surroundings, and closing In Diamond Square鈥檚 cover a final time, I feel like the author鈥檚 heart spoke directly to mine despite all the differences in time, place, and culture.
Thanks to Emily M for putting this slim novel on my literary path. It took me a while to get around to it, but the enchantment took.
July 28, 2024
And Mrs Enriqueta once told me we live many lives and they all get entangled and a death or a wedding couldn't always untangle them
Rodoreda has written a sensual narrative of life full of movement, sounds, taste, smells and sights. The prose in this English translation is plain but Natalia's voice is vibrant and colourful even when telling of desperation and despair. This reads almost like a journal or diary in that it's episodic and fragmented.
I've seen this called a Spanish Civil War book but although that conflict certainly takes place in the background, it barely makes a dent in the narrative in explicitly political terms. Instead, this is attentive to the workings of power and authority in more domestic settings: the gendered divisions in the marriage of Natalia and Joe, the class affects in Natalia's relations with her employers.
The first half is all about Natalia's voice and her meeting and marriage to Joe, a woodworker whose macho behaviour tips over into abuse in twenty-first century terms. Natalia is both resistant and complicit and the book helps us see the marriage through her eyes.
The second half changes mood as Joe goes to the front with the Republican cause (though without any discussion as to the politics) leaving Natalia in Barcelona with two young children. The harsh conditions in Spain are expressed through this young mother's desperation and the choices she has to make to survive.
In lots of ways this is a book which is, oddly, easy to read, even race through. Life happens, there is loss and despair, but things also circle back and it's significant that the final word is 'happy'.
I'm struggling a little to put a helpful label on this book: it's not a deep character study though we certainly live alongside Natalia over a large part of her life-time; it's not an analytical book about politics, war, power: these things happen and are accepted; I guess it's a sort of slice-of-life book through the consciousness of an ordinary, even mundane, woman who lives the same life as many of her compatriots. There's objectively nothing singular about Natalia, her marriage or her decisions: but the power of Rodoreda's unobtrusive writing make her into an Everywoman to love and live through.
June 5, 2018
Solitamente si tende a identificare nei bambini la bocca della verit脿, la massima espressione di sincerit脿 in quanto creature innocenti. Io trovo che questo sia inesatto, un bambino che sia in grado di parlare 猫 gi脿 un essere giunto a un certo livello di complessit脿, ed 猫 perfettamente in grado di affettare pose, eventualmente fingere e recitare e mentire se questo pu貌 agevolare il suo tornaconto o mitigare una punizione e/o una umiliazione. Gli esseri veramente puri e semplici sono solo gli sciocchi, quelli la cui semplicit脿 sfocia nella stupidit脿.
Un'amica di mia mamma aveva un figlio autistico. Entrambi i genitori hanno molto accudito il ragazzo e fatto tutto il possibile perch茅 ricevesse sempre tutti gli stimoli e gli spunti che il suo cervello poteva essere in grado, anche solo per un poco, di assorbire. Con lui viaggiavano molto, e in occasione di uno di quei viaggi la madre cercava come sempre di entusiasmarlo: "Vedrai quante cose belle, vedrai come ci divertiremo, quando saremo l脿 potremo fare questo, potremo fare quello...". In realt脿 in quel viaggio and貌 tutto storto, una pioggia torrenziale e una serie di altri disguidi lo resero uno di quei week-end memorabili per tale livello di disdetta. E all'ennesimo imprevisto, mentre erano sulla strada fradici di pioggia e stanchi morti, il ragazzo 鈥� memore delle parole della madre 鈥� con il suo sorriso pacato le chiede conferma: "Ci stiamo divertendo, mamma?". La disarmante voce della verit脿.
Ecco, la protagonista di questo racconto non 猫 autistica ma il suo essere sempliciotta rasenta effettivamente la stupidit脿; la sua incertezza nel trovare le parole adatte ad esprimere i propri sentimenti, anzi diciamo pure la sua inadeguatezza e insufficienza nel mettere a fuoco sentimenti e sensazioni umane, tutto questo insieme di carenze la rendono quanto di pi霉 simile vi possa essere alla voce della verit脿. Ho notato una certa qual somiglianza tra Nat脿lia/Colometa e Arturo della Morante: entrambi incapaci di comprendere appieno ed esprimere le proprie sensazioni. Cos矛 come il marito di Nat脿lia ha molti punti in comune con il padre di Arturo: entrambi ostentano forza per nascondere una debolezza pi霉 profonda.
Ed 猫 dunque con la voce semplice di Nat脿lia che l'autrice ci racconta di una vita nella Barcellona degli gli anni '30 e della guerra civile. Una storia limpida e cristallina, fatta di persone ma anche di case e di oggetti: agli occhi di Nat脿lia, una teiera o un imbuto smaltato o un nastro colorato o una conchiglia, sono come amuleti, sono catalizzatori di vita.
Il cuore pulsante e magnetico del racconto 猫 una faccenda seria, non ha nulla a che spartire con la frivolezza e la superficialit脿 della voce narrante. C'猫 la frustrazione, c'猫 la guerra, c'猫 il baratro della miseria e della fame. Ha a che fare con l'ingenuit脿, certo, perch茅 Nat脿lia 猫 ingenua: una vittima ingenua. E l'ingenuit脿 con cui questa vittima si sottomette alla vita 猫 un tema quanto mai attuale, dato che oggi viviamo in tempi non meno difficili di quelli in cui 猫 ambientato il racconto: magari pi霉 agiati, ma altrettanto difficili. Concordo con quanto era gi脿 stato scritto da altri nei panegirici: qui si dimostra il tema dell'annullamento. Il titolo fa riferimento al luogo in cui tutto ha avuto inizio: lui, da vero galletto, e forse anche in maniera un po' prepotente, la invita a ballare. E lei semplicemente accetta. Prima di quel momento, la giovinezza nella mente di lei 猫 solo una indistinta foschia. E dal quel momento in avanti, la vita sar脿 per lei una sorta di assenza a s茅 stessa e annullamento del suo essere nel gorgo degli eventi che - come in ogni buon romanzo - 猫 il vortice formato dalla vita di tutti i giorni ma anche dai contraccolpi che questa subisce a causa della Storia.
E' un racconto in crescendo, e sostiene bene la tensione fino al finale ottimamente strutturato, con una chiusura dolceamara perch茅 il lieto fine nella realt脿 non esiste, e tuttavia esiste la possibilit脿 di scaricarsi un peso di dosso. Quattro stelle sicure, magari ripensandoci nei prossimi mesi potrebbero anche diventare qualcosina in pi霉.
"Le dissi che mi sarebbe davvero piaciuto passare una notte come quella che lei aveva passato cos矛 innamorata, ma che lavoravo a pulire uffici e a spolverare e a occuparmi dei bambini e tutte le cose belle della vita, come il vento e l'edera e i cipressi che bucavano l'aria e le foglie di un giardino svolazzanti qua e l脿, non erano fatte per me. Per me tutto era finito e mi aspettavano solo tristezza e grattacapi."
"Mentre camminavamo per la strada tutti e tre, io mezzo e un figlio per parte, senza sapere perch茅 mi sal矛 da dentro un fiotto caldo di pena, e mi si incastr貌 in gola."
"...cos矛 l'avremmo fatta finita e tutti sarebbero stati contenti, perch茅 non facevamo male a nessuno e nessuno ci voleva bene."
Un'amica di mia mamma aveva un figlio autistico. Entrambi i genitori hanno molto accudito il ragazzo e fatto tutto il possibile perch茅 ricevesse sempre tutti gli stimoli e gli spunti che il suo cervello poteva essere in grado, anche solo per un poco, di assorbire. Con lui viaggiavano molto, e in occasione di uno di quei viaggi la madre cercava come sempre di entusiasmarlo: "Vedrai quante cose belle, vedrai come ci divertiremo, quando saremo l脿 potremo fare questo, potremo fare quello...". In realt脿 in quel viaggio and貌 tutto storto, una pioggia torrenziale e una serie di altri disguidi lo resero uno di quei week-end memorabili per tale livello di disdetta. E all'ennesimo imprevisto, mentre erano sulla strada fradici di pioggia e stanchi morti, il ragazzo 鈥� memore delle parole della madre 鈥� con il suo sorriso pacato le chiede conferma: "Ci stiamo divertendo, mamma?". La disarmante voce della verit脿.
Ecco, la protagonista di questo racconto non 猫 autistica ma il suo essere sempliciotta rasenta effettivamente la stupidit脿; la sua incertezza nel trovare le parole adatte ad esprimere i propri sentimenti, anzi diciamo pure la sua inadeguatezza e insufficienza nel mettere a fuoco sentimenti e sensazioni umane, tutto questo insieme di carenze la rendono quanto di pi霉 simile vi possa essere alla voce della verit脿. Ho notato una certa qual somiglianza tra Nat脿lia/Colometa e Arturo della Morante: entrambi incapaci di comprendere appieno ed esprimere le proprie sensazioni. Cos矛 come il marito di Nat脿lia ha molti punti in comune con il padre di Arturo: entrambi ostentano forza per nascondere una debolezza pi霉 profonda.
Ed 猫 dunque con la voce semplice di Nat脿lia che l'autrice ci racconta di una vita nella Barcellona degli gli anni '30 e della guerra civile. Una storia limpida e cristallina, fatta di persone ma anche di case e di oggetti: agli occhi di Nat脿lia, una teiera o un imbuto smaltato o un nastro colorato o una conchiglia, sono come amuleti, sono catalizzatori di vita.
Il cuore pulsante e magnetico del racconto 猫 una faccenda seria, non ha nulla a che spartire con la frivolezza e la superficialit脿 della voce narrante. C'猫 la frustrazione, c'猫 la guerra, c'猫 il baratro della miseria e della fame. Ha a che fare con l'ingenuit脿, certo, perch茅 Nat脿lia 猫 ingenua: una vittima ingenua. E l'ingenuit脿 con cui questa vittima si sottomette alla vita 猫 un tema quanto mai attuale, dato che oggi viviamo in tempi non meno difficili di quelli in cui 猫 ambientato il racconto: magari pi霉 agiati, ma altrettanto difficili. Concordo con quanto era gi脿 stato scritto da altri nei panegirici: qui si dimostra il tema dell'annullamento. Il titolo fa riferimento al luogo in cui tutto ha avuto inizio: lui, da vero galletto, e forse anche in maniera un po' prepotente, la invita a ballare. E lei semplicemente accetta. Prima di quel momento, la giovinezza nella mente di lei 猫 solo una indistinta foschia. E dal quel momento in avanti, la vita sar脿 per lei una sorta di assenza a s茅 stessa e annullamento del suo essere nel gorgo degli eventi che - come in ogni buon romanzo - 猫 il vortice formato dalla vita di tutti i giorni ma anche dai contraccolpi che questa subisce a causa della Storia.
E' un racconto in crescendo, e sostiene bene la tensione fino al finale ottimamente strutturato, con una chiusura dolceamara perch茅 il lieto fine nella realt脿 non esiste, e tuttavia esiste la possibilit脿 di scaricarsi un peso di dosso. Quattro stelle sicure, magari ripensandoci nei prossimi mesi potrebbero anche diventare qualcosina in pi霉.
"Le dissi che mi sarebbe davvero piaciuto passare una notte come quella che lei aveva passato cos矛 innamorata, ma che lavoravo a pulire uffici e a spolverare e a occuparmi dei bambini e tutte le cose belle della vita, come il vento e l'edera e i cipressi che bucavano l'aria e le foglie di un giardino svolazzanti qua e l脿, non erano fatte per me. Per me tutto era finito e mi aspettavano solo tristezza e grattacapi."
"Mentre camminavamo per la strada tutti e tre, io mezzo e un figlio per parte, senza sapere perch茅 mi sal矛 da dentro un fiotto caldo di pena, e mi si incastr貌 in gola."
"...cos矛 l'avremmo fatta finita e tutti sarebbero stati contenti, perch茅 non facevamo male a nessuno e nessuno ci voleva bene."
December 8, 2016
3.5 stars
Lacking a mother to advise her, Natalia, whose ideas of romance and beauty seem to be symbolised by the colour white, which she loves to wear, is picked up by a douchecanoe so selfish and arrogant he takes her name from her and proceeds to arrange her life and possessions at his service. Eventually he fills their home with doves, another white creature coerced violently into confinement. Natalia is living in hell, but it seems there is a hell below this one because along comes the civil war and a famine that sucks the heart and spirit and flesh from the shell of the body
We learn all of this from Natalia's stream of consciousness, creating a special sense of melancholy since she has no interlocutor to share her thoughts. In giving Natalia a voice, Rodoreda extends a feminist solidarity that is absent from her life. Her sympathisers include two women friends but neither of them offer sufficient emotional support; Natalia remains materially dependent on men and her life is defined by them for better or worse.
I think this is a helpful novel of trauma because I felt it demanded a lot of me to understand Natalia's strange thoughts, the bizarre shapes her world took, the tenderness of odd things that mattered to her, and that it is a kind of violence to be forced to care for someone who has abused you and that this is one of the violences of war. Some suffering poisons the wells and the roots of the crops but nonetheless becomes a solid shaft that you climb and cling onto and when it's pulled out it's touch and go with you whether you survive...
Lacking a mother to advise her, Natalia, whose ideas of romance and beauty seem to be symbolised by the colour white, which she loves to wear, is picked up by a douchecanoe so selfish and arrogant he takes her name from her and proceeds to arrange her life and possessions at his service. Eventually he fills their home with doves, another white creature coerced violently into confinement. Natalia is living in hell, but it seems there is a hell below this one because along comes the civil war and a famine that sucks the heart and spirit and flesh from the shell of the body
We learn all of this from Natalia's stream of consciousness, creating a special sense of melancholy since she has no interlocutor to share her thoughts. In giving Natalia a voice, Rodoreda extends a feminist solidarity that is absent from her life. Her sympathisers include two women friends but neither of them offer sufficient emotional support; Natalia remains materially dependent on men and her life is defined by them for better or worse.
I think this is a helpful novel of trauma because I felt it demanded a lot of me to understand Natalia's strange thoughts, the bizarre shapes her world took, the tenderness of odd things that mattered to her, and that it is a kind of violence to be forced to care for someone who has abused you and that this is one of the violences of war. Some suffering poisons the wells and the roots of the crops but nonetheless becomes a solid shaft that you climb and cling onto and when it's pulled out it's touch and go with you whether you survive...
March 25, 2025
4,5*
Em casa viv铆amos sem palavras e as coisas que eu tinha dentro faziam-me medo porque n茫o sabia se eram minhas鈥�
Merc猫 Rodoreda (1908-1983) admirava Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust e James Joyce, e isso 茅 flagrante tanto no estilo modernista da escrita, como no uso de certos leitmotives e na urdidura da vida interior das personagens.
A minha m茫e nunca me falara nos homens. Ela e o meu pai tinham passados in煤meros anos a discutir e muitos anos sem dizerem nada um ao outro. Passavam as tardes de domingo sentados na sala de jantar sem se falarem. Quando a minha m茫e morreu, este viver sem palavras ainda se acentuou mais. E quando ao fim de alguns anos o meu pai voltou a casar, n茫o havia, em minha casa, nada a que eu pudesse agarrar-me. Vivia como deve viver um gato: de um lado para o outro, com a cauda baixa, com a cauda levantada, agora s茫o horas de ter fome, agora s茫o horas de ter sono, com a diferen莽a de que um gato n茫o tem de trabalhar para viver.
鈥淎 Pra莽a do Diamante鈥� 茅 um livro complexo e profundo de uma autora paradoxal que me suscitou v谩rias d煤vidas. Devemos levar as declara莽玫es de um escritor 脿 letra ou ignor谩-las interpretando uma obra a nosso bel-prazer? Vale mais o percurso ou o discurso de um escritor? Quando devemos parar de ler nas entrelinhas de um texto s贸 para satisfazer a nossa tese? Apesar de ser considerada protofeminista por alguns, Merc猫 Rodoreda deixou a sua posi莽茫o bem clara:
鈥淎cho que o feminismo 茅 como o sarampo. Na 茅poca das sufragistas tinha um sentido, mas na 茅poca atual, onde todos fazem o que quiserem, acho que o feminismo n茫o tem sentido.鈥�
E, no entanto, h谩 tanto na sua vida e na leitura de 鈥淎 Pra莽a do Diamante鈥� que contradiz este seu coment谩rio. Com apenas 20 anos, Merc猫 casou com o seu tio (yikes!), de quem teve um filho, tendo pouco depois retomado os estudos e come莽ado a escrever com o intuito de se tornar autossuficiente. Em 1939, dois anos depois de se ter separado do marido, com a derrota dos republicanos, para os quais trabalhara como revisora de catal茫o, optou pelo ex铆lio at茅 1972, tendo deixado o filho aos cuidados da av贸.
Se se torna dif铆cil ignorar a problem谩tica do casamento e da maternidade na biografia desta mulher independente e determinada, n茫o h谩 como contornar a forma como estas duas institui莽玫es s茫o postas em causa em 鈥淎 Pra莽a do Diamante鈥�. Desde o primeiro encontro, quando Quimet decide unilateralmente que a protagonista ser谩 sua mulher, passando por cada interac莽茫o no namoro e atitude na vida de rec茅m-casados, tudo aponta para a submiss茫o de Natalia鈥�
Disse-me que se queria ser sua mulher tinha de come莽ar a achar bem tudo o que ele achasse bem. Fez-me um grande serm茫o sobre o homem e a mulher e os direitos de um e do outro e quando consegui interromp锚-lo perguntei-lhe:
- E se n茫o gostar mesmo nada de uma coisa?
- Tens de gostar, porque tu n茫o percebes.
鈥ue culmina na anula莽茫o da sua identidade ao passar a chamar-lhe Pombinha, pois Quimet desenvolve uma obsess茫o tal com estas aves que acaba por transformar o apartamento do casal num aut锚ntico pombal onde, a dada altura, vivem 80 pombos. Visto que o dinheiro que o marido ganha como marceneiro e com o eventual neg贸cio dos pombos n茫o 茅 o suficiente para o sustento do casal e dos seus dois filhos, Natalia v锚-se obrigada a fazer limpezas por fora, at茅 que o marido se junta aos milicianos durante a guerra civil espanhola e a situa莽茫o se torna dram谩tica.
Seria neste ponto da narrativa que teria de concordar com o desprezo de Rodoreda pelo feminismo. Natalia 茅 uma personagem totalmente passiva, a quem a vontade alheia 茅 imposta sem que ela lhe ofere莽a muita resist锚ncia, que anda 脿 merc锚 dos homens; o primeiro que 茅 a sua perdi莽茫o e o segundo que 茅 a sua salva莽茫o. H谩, por茅m, alguma rebeldia fatalista nesta mulher que, acossada pela for莽a das circunst芒ncias, tende a agir como um anjo da morte, tanto em rela莽茫o aos pombos como aos pr贸prios filhos.
Essa puls茫o de morte acompanha a protagonista at茅 ao final no que parece ser uma espiral de loucura, na qual ela entra e sai em passagens de cortar a respira莽茫o.
Virei-me de costas para a porta e descansei e havia muita escurid茫o dentro de mim. E virei-me outra vez de frente para a porta e com letras de imprensa escrevi Pombinha bem gravado e, sem saber como, comecei a andar e eram as paredes que me conduziam e n茫o os passos e entrei na Pra莽a de Diamante. (鈥�) E com os bra莽os a tapar a cara para evitar n茫o sei bem o qu锚, soltei um grito infernal. Um grito que devia haver muitos anos que trazia dentro de mim e com aquele grito, t茫o comprido que lhe tinha custado a passar-me pela garganta, saiu-me da boca um bocadinho de coisa, quase nada, que parecia uma bola de saliva鈥� e aquele bocadinho de coisa, quase nada, que tinha vivido tanto tempo fechado dentro de mim, era a minha mocidade que fugia com um grito que n茫o sabia muito bem o que significava鈥� desamparo?
Em casa viv铆amos sem palavras e as coisas que eu tinha dentro faziam-me medo porque n茫o sabia se eram minhas鈥�
Merc猫 Rodoreda (1908-1983) admirava Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust e James Joyce, e isso 茅 flagrante tanto no estilo modernista da escrita, como no uso de certos leitmotives e na urdidura da vida interior das personagens.
A minha m茫e nunca me falara nos homens. Ela e o meu pai tinham passados in煤meros anos a discutir e muitos anos sem dizerem nada um ao outro. Passavam as tardes de domingo sentados na sala de jantar sem se falarem. Quando a minha m茫e morreu, este viver sem palavras ainda se acentuou mais. E quando ao fim de alguns anos o meu pai voltou a casar, n茫o havia, em minha casa, nada a que eu pudesse agarrar-me. Vivia como deve viver um gato: de um lado para o outro, com a cauda baixa, com a cauda levantada, agora s茫o horas de ter fome, agora s茫o horas de ter sono, com a diferen莽a de que um gato n茫o tem de trabalhar para viver.
鈥淎 Pra莽a do Diamante鈥� 茅 um livro complexo e profundo de uma autora paradoxal que me suscitou v谩rias d煤vidas. Devemos levar as declara莽玫es de um escritor 脿 letra ou ignor谩-las interpretando uma obra a nosso bel-prazer? Vale mais o percurso ou o discurso de um escritor? Quando devemos parar de ler nas entrelinhas de um texto s贸 para satisfazer a nossa tese? Apesar de ser considerada protofeminista por alguns, Merc猫 Rodoreda deixou a sua posi莽茫o bem clara:
鈥淎cho que o feminismo 茅 como o sarampo. Na 茅poca das sufragistas tinha um sentido, mas na 茅poca atual, onde todos fazem o que quiserem, acho que o feminismo n茫o tem sentido.鈥�
E, no entanto, h谩 tanto na sua vida e na leitura de 鈥淎 Pra莽a do Diamante鈥� que contradiz este seu coment谩rio. Com apenas 20 anos, Merc猫 casou com o seu tio (yikes!), de quem teve um filho, tendo pouco depois retomado os estudos e come莽ado a escrever com o intuito de se tornar autossuficiente. Em 1939, dois anos depois de se ter separado do marido, com a derrota dos republicanos, para os quais trabalhara como revisora de catal茫o, optou pelo ex铆lio at茅 1972, tendo deixado o filho aos cuidados da av贸.
Se se torna dif铆cil ignorar a problem谩tica do casamento e da maternidade na biografia desta mulher independente e determinada, n茫o h谩 como contornar a forma como estas duas institui莽玫es s茫o postas em causa em 鈥淎 Pra莽a do Diamante鈥�. Desde o primeiro encontro, quando Quimet decide unilateralmente que a protagonista ser谩 sua mulher, passando por cada interac莽茫o no namoro e atitude na vida de rec茅m-casados, tudo aponta para a submiss茫o de Natalia鈥�
Disse-me que se queria ser sua mulher tinha de come莽ar a achar bem tudo o que ele achasse bem. Fez-me um grande serm茫o sobre o homem e a mulher e os direitos de um e do outro e quando consegui interromp锚-lo perguntei-lhe:
- E se n茫o gostar mesmo nada de uma coisa?
- Tens de gostar, porque tu n茫o percebes.
鈥ue culmina na anula莽茫o da sua identidade ao passar a chamar-lhe Pombinha, pois Quimet desenvolve uma obsess茫o tal com estas aves que acaba por transformar o apartamento do casal num aut锚ntico pombal onde, a dada altura, vivem 80 pombos. Visto que o dinheiro que o marido ganha como marceneiro e com o eventual neg贸cio dos pombos n茫o 茅 o suficiente para o sustento do casal e dos seus dois filhos, Natalia v锚-se obrigada a fazer limpezas por fora, at茅 que o marido se junta aos milicianos durante a guerra civil espanhola e a situa莽茫o se torna dram谩tica.
Seria neste ponto da narrativa que teria de concordar com o desprezo de Rodoreda pelo feminismo. Natalia 茅 uma personagem totalmente passiva, a quem a vontade alheia 茅 imposta sem que ela lhe ofere莽a muita resist锚ncia, que anda 脿 merc锚 dos homens; o primeiro que 茅 a sua perdi莽茫o e o segundo que 茅 a sua salva莽茫o. H谩, por茅m, alguma rebeldia fatalista nesta mulher que, acossada pela for莽a das circunst芒ncias, tende a agir como um anjo da morte, tanto em rela莽茫o aos pombos como aos pr贸prios filhos.
Essa puls茫o de morte acompanha a protagonista at茅 ao final no que parece ser uma espiral de loucura, na qual ela entra e sai em passagens de cortar a respira莽茫o.
Virei-me de costas para a porta e descansei e havia muita escurid茫o dentro de mim. E virei-me outra vez de frente para a porta e com letras de imprensa escrevi Pombinha bem gravado e, sem saber como, comecei a andar e eram as paredes que me conduziam e n茫o os passos e entrei na Pra莽a de Diamante. (鈥�) E com os bra莽os a tapar a cara para evitar n茫o sei bem o qu锚, soltei um grito infernal. Um grito que devia haver muitos anos que trazia dentro de mim e com aquele grito, t茫o comprido que lhe tinha custado a passar-me pela garganta, saiu-me da boca um bocadinho de coisa, quase nada, que parecia uma bola de saliva鈥� e aquele bocadinho de coisa, quase nada, que tinha vivido tanto tempo fechado dentro de mim, era a minha mocidade que fugia com um grito que n茫o sabia muito bem o que significava鈥� desamparo?
February 25, 2017
Ah, this was a beautiful book. It is tragic and sad so how did she make it so beautiful? The author, a Catalonian woman who came of age during the Spanish Civil War, saw her early novels burned by the authorities of the time as she became a refugee in France and did not write again for eight years. The Time of the Doves was her first novel after that hiatus.
Though I have not ever had to live where a war was being fought, this novel was personal to me for other reasons. I was raised by parents whose childhoods were shadowed by the Great Depression and whose young adult years were crimped by the fears and deprivations of WWII. In the 50s we had all we needed, though the Cold War was a distant but ever-present threat. My sisters and I were taught to believe that happiness was ours if we behaved ourselves, trusted that Jesus loved us, and did well in school.
So I grew up thinking that happiness was the goal and I pursued it madly, not by being a well-behaved believer in Jesus, but still sure it was my birthright. It was not! Now as I approach my elderly years, I know that happiness is as fleeting as spring flowers.
Suddenly, while reading The Time of the Doves, I realized, as the Eastern sages have been saying for eons, that happiness and sorrow are only polarities as are riches and poverty, success and failure, and on and on. There is a strange beauty in all of it.
Natalia, whose mother died when she was young and whose father barely acknowledged her existence, meets Quimet during a dance in one of the town squares of Barcelona. He woos her away from her current fiance, he bullies her yet holds for her a strange fascination. They marry and have two children but Quimet becomes obsessed with raising doves on the roof of their apartment building and stops making money. Natalia goes to work as a cleaning woman, the Spanish Civil War begins, and eventually she loses her husband, her job, and barely survives with those kids, all nearly starving to death.
Finally rescue, safety, and even love come back into her life but she cannot recover from the trauma or believe in love anymore. It is only because of Merce Rodoreda's exquisite prose (probably even more so in Catalan) that the whole picture of this woman's desires, fortitude, despair, and finally hope kept me from collapsing under all of Natalia's misfortune. I was sure she was doomed but there was beauty everywhere in the writing.
By the end, another one of my mother's lessons finally made sense to me. Only if one keeps going, one foot in front of the other, doing one's duties, does one have a chance at happiness, survival, and even life itself. As a child I thought she meant it was my duty to be happy. But she knew how fleeting happiness is, she already knew how long life could be, and that there is no sense crying about it. Instead she grew flowers, played the piano, and kept an orderly home. Thanks Mom. Thanks Merce Rodoreda. They both knew that beauty matters.
February 28, 2025
This book is very sad, but also very beautiful; and I think as other reviewers have noted, it is very much about the horrors, and privations of war from a woman's perspective. It was originally published in 1962 - ahead of the 60s Women's Movement; and then Virago republished in 2013, with an English translation by Paul Bush.
As I read I can certainly understand why Virago would add this to their list of translated fiction. It is most definitely a feminist voice with Natalia writing about her husband Joe who behaves with all the traditions of male privilege. Joe proposes they strip the wallpaper from the house he has found, but it is Natalia and Joe's friends, who spend hours and hours stripping the layers of paper and so it goes for all of Joe's projects - including the pigeons. It is Natalia who carries the heavy bags of bird seed to the top of the house; feeds the pigeons, cleans their water troughs and ensures the broody females are not disturbed in their nest boxes.
Our narrator Natalia tells in detail how the men cut a hole through the ceiling into the box-room so the pigeons can wander freely from the terrace through the windowless box room to the front balcony; they put a ladder so the pigeons can climb back through the trapdoor; but sometimes someone forgets to close the room door and Natalia finds pigeons all over her house - pigeon droppings everywhere. She doesn't complain. And when Joe stops with his carpentry job, because work is slow, it is Natalia who finds cleaning work to support her family - two small children she must lock up in the dining room - for their safety while she is out, cleaning for the high-class family who pay her two and a half pesetas for the four hours!
Many readers will find the style a little odd, but I think it is a deliberate choice by Rodoreda. Natalia is a working-class woman with minimal education. Her mother died when Natalia is young and her father takes little interest in her. She quickly falls for the charms of the handsome Joe and her only counsellor is Mrs Enriqueta - who later helps with the children. There are several whole chapters devoted to descriptions of houses new to Natalia - both being places of work. She writes in great detail, over-awed I think by their size and attractions - the sunken bath with a glass window directly above, the curved staircase to the first floor. It is only towards the end of the book, when Natalia returns to the impoverished neighbourhood of her first home, that we see how it truly is:
And I started walking through my old life until I was opposite our old house, under the bay window . . . The front door was shut. I looked up and saw Joe in the middle of a field near the sea, when I was pregnant with Anthony, and he was offering me a little blue flower and laughing at me. I wanted to go upstairs, back to my flat, to my terrace, to the scales and run my hand over them as I passed. I'd gone in through that door for years and years as Joe's wife and had left through it to marry Anthony trailing my kids behind me. The street was ugly, the building was ugly, and the paving was paving fit only for carts and horses. The street lamp was a long way off and the entrance was dingy.
That piece of writing reveals so much. Natalia or Pidgey as Joe had called her is a woman whose life is ordered by the wishes and desires of men - they have jobs, they own businesses or property - the second husband, Anthony who rescues them from starvation. And we see Natalia's lack of perspective. She remembers the beginning years with Joe full of love and excitement. She has forgotten his feckless ways; she can only think to return to this house of her youth - and when she arrives all she finds is the poverty and dirt of that earlier existence. Her first years of marriage to Anthony, the first time in her life when she doesn't have to work are years of mourning; to leave her children alone so she can work, the death of Joe and most of all her youth. Her daughter Rita marries a young and handsome man, Vincent with a prospering business; and Natalia sees the same pattern, but everything is so much better, easier for her daughter. Her daughter and son have education, with opportunities she never had.
This book is not easy to read. It seems simple - on the surface, the sentences are plain, there is little conversation, and we are mostly closed within Natalia's head, seeing everything through her eyes. The "simple" narrative, however is structurally very competent. Our author doesn't provide explanations. We have to understand that Rita's wedding causes great turmoil in Natalia's heart for all she has missed in life.
There is a "purple prose" chapter when Natalia reunites with her friend, Julie and we see the war through the eyes of two young women, one who is in love and Natalia who wishes how much she could have again the carefree life of a young girl: " . . . without really knowing why a ball of hot, raw pain came up from deep inside me and lodged in my throat".
This chapter, the whole book, this style of writing was frowned upon in the past, by the Male Establishment, but it is Virago who have firmly established that this writing; this perspective, is also worthy of reading. is now a Classic. Here's a small sample which literary critics may have dared to describe as female writing!
And Mrs Enriqueta took the children off and Julie came and blurted out how she was really frightened they would kill her fianc茅 and if they did she'd throw herself into the sea because she loved him so much and they'd spent the night together but nothing had happened, and that was why she was so much in love because he was such a good lad and seemed to love her in a way that was quite out of the world. They'd spent the night together in a requisitioned mansion where he did his guard duty because he belonged to some party.
The run-on sentence, full of 'and, and, and' - gushing and emotional, but exactly as a young girl might speak. And then we hear Natalia's response:
. . . I told her I'd have given anything to enjoy a night of love like the one she'd enjoyed, but I had my work cut out cleaning offices and dusting and looking after my children and all the beautiful things in life like the wind and the creeping ivy and cypresses spearing the air and leaves blowing this way and that in a garden weren't meant for me. It was all over for me and I could only look forward to headaches and sadness.
That readers, is a profound invocation of the Cinderella dream - all the little girls dreaming of falling for the handsome prince etc. Then marriage - and your life is over.
Natalia reports back to the older women, her good friend, Mrs Enriqueta, and this is what she has to say about Julie's adventure.
When I told Mrs Enriqueta, she got very angry and said these revolutionary hussies were shameless, and how could anyone think of spending a night alone in a house where the owners might have been executed, let alone with a young man, and putting on a lady's dresses to lure the young man on, then stealing them into the bargain. She said one shouldn't do such things, not even for fun. And she said the kids had eaten lots of jam and . . .
Do you see how all those flat sentences reflect the mundane quality of a life full of work and looking after small children. Natalia loves her children, there is no doubt about that; but Rodoreda exquisitely high-lights those extremes in life. The fantasies of love and romance against the hardships of daily existence.
Let me remind all - Elena Ferrante's didn't burst onto the literary scenes until 2011.
Allow me to end with The Dress:
They found a wardrobe full of evening dresses and fur coats and she said she couldn't resist and tried on a backless black tulle dress that billowed like a cloud with yellow roses on the bust and skirt and she said he stared and didn't say anything and then they went into a long gallery full of sofas and cushions where they lay down, wrapped in each other's arms and listened to the wind scattering leaves and swaying branches and spent the night like that: half asleep, alone in the world, surrounded by all the dangers of war, and the moon came up and striped everything white through the slats of the shutters. It was their first and last night for everything and they fled before dawn and the whole garden was a tumult of branches and wind; the tendrils of ivy seemed to be alive, chasing them and reaching for their faces, and she took that dress because she thought it wasn't stealing if the owners were dead and put it in a box, and when she was missing him a lot, she put the dress on and heard the wind blowing in that garden again, like no other wind anywhere.
I have read two other books about the Spanish civil war - Laurie Lee's evocative descriptions in and Carmen Laforet's - both are powerful, and well worth reading. The other book that came to mind as I was reading was Janet Frame's . It it the third and for me my favourite part of her autobiography. As I read I remembered quite distinctly Frame's travels to Barcelona and then up into the Andorra Mountains where she is befriended by a Catalan family - who want her to marry a local boy. The writing has that same loss of agency that you can feel in Rodoreda's text. A woman buffeted by the trials of her existence, lost, unable to steer her own destiny, reliant upon the structures of a man providing security through marriage. The style is so similar - Frame writing in 1985, and just for those few chapters - that sense of being pushed and pulled with no choice of her own.
As I read I can certainly understand why Virago would add this to their list of translated fiction. It is most definitely a feminist voice with Natalia writing about her husband Joe who behaves with all the traditions of male privilege. Joe proposes they strip the wallpaper from the house he has found, but it is Natalia and Joe's friends, who spend hours and hours stripping the layers of paper and so it goes for all of Joe's projects - including the pigeons. It is Natalia who carries the heavy bags of bird seed to the top of the house; feeds the pigeons, cleans their water troughs and ensures the broody females are not disturbed in their nest boxes.
Our narrator Natalia tells in detail how the men cut a hole through the ceiling into the box-room so the pigeons can wander freely from the terrace through the windowless box room to the front balcony; they put a ladder so the pigeons can climb back through the trapdoor; but sometimes someone forgets to close the room door and Natalia finds pigeons all over her house - pigeon droppings everywhere. She doesn't complain. And when Joe stops with his carpentry job, because work is slow, it is Natalia who finds cleaning work to support her family - two small children she must lock up in the dining room - for their safety while she is out, cleaning for the high-class family who pay her two and a half pesetas for the four hours!
Many readers will find the style a little odd, but I think it is a deliberate choice by Rodoreda. Natalia is a working-class woman with minimal education. Her mother died when Natalia is young and her father takes little interest in her. She quickly falls for the charms of the handsome Joe and her only counsellor is Mrs Enriqueta - who later helps with the children. There are several whole chapters devoted to descriptions of houses new to Natalia - both being places of work. She writes in great detail, over-awed I think by their size and attractions - the sunken bath with a glass window directly above, the curved staircase to the first floor. It is only towards the end of the book, when Natalia returns to the impoverished neighbourhood of her first home, that we see how it truly is:
And I started walking through my old life until I was opposite our old house, under the bay window . . . The front door was shut. I looked up and saw Joe in the middle of a field near the sea, when I was pregnant with Anthony, and he was offering me a little blue flower and laughing at me. I wanted to go upstairs, back to my flat, to my terrace, to the scales and run my hand over them as I passed. I'd gone in through that door for years and years as Joe's wife and had left through it to marry Anthony trailing my kids behind me. The street was ugly, the building was ugly, and the paving was paving fit only for carts and horses. The street lamp was a long way off and the entrance was dingy.
That piece of writing reveals so much. Natalia or Pidgey as Joe had called her is a woman whose life is ordered by the wishes and desires of men - they have jobs, they own businesses or property - the second husband, Anthony who rescues them from starvation. And we see Natalia's lack of perspective. She remembers the beginning years with Joe full of love and excitement. She has forgotten his feckless ways; she can only think to return to this house of her youth - and when she arrives all she finds is the poverty and dirt of that earlier existence. Her first years of marriage to Anthony, the first time in her life when she doesn't have to work are years of mourning; to leave her children alone so she can work, the death of Joe and most of all her youth. Her daughter Rita marries a young and handsome man, Vincent with a prospering business; and Natalia sees the same pattern, but everything is so much better, easier for her daughter. Her daughter and son have education, with opportunities she never had.
This book is not easy to read. It seems simple - on the surface, the sentences are plain, there is little conversation, and we are mostly closed within Natalia's head, seeing everything through her eyes. The "simple" narrative, however is structurally very competent. Our author doesn't provide explanations. We have to understand that Rita's wedding causes great turmoil in Natalia's heart for all she has missed in life.
There is a "purple prose" chapter when Natalia reunites with her friend, Julie and we see the war through the eyes of two young women, one who is in love and Natalia who wishes how much she could have again the carefree life of a young girl: " . . . without really knowing why a ball of hot, raw pain came up from deep inside me and lodged in my throat".
This chapter, the whole book, this style of writing was frowned upon in the past, by the Male Establishment, but it is Virago who have firmly established that this writing; this perspective, is also worthy of reading. is now a Classic. Here's a small sample which literary critics may have dared to describe as female writing!
And Mrs Enriqueta took the children off and Julie came and blurted out how she was really frightened they would kill her fianc茅 and if they did she'd throw herself into the sea because she loved him so much and they'd spent the night together but nothing had happened, and that was why she was so much in love because he was such a good lad and seemed to love her in a way that was quite out of the world. They'd spent the night together in a requisitioned mansion where he did his guard duty because he belonged to some party.
The run-on sentence, full of 'and, and, and' - gushing and emotional, but exactly as a young girl might speak. And then we hear Natalia's response:
. . . I told her I'd have given anything to enjoy a night of love like the one she'd enjoyed, but I had my work cut out cleaning offices and dusting and looking after my children and all the beautiful things in life like the wind and the creeping ivy and cypresses spearing the air and leaves blowing this way and that in a garden weren't meant for me. It was all over for me and I could only look forward to headaches and sadness.
That readers, is a profound invocation of the Cinderella dream - all the little girls dreaming of falling for the handsome prince etc. Then marriage - and your life is over.
Natalia reports back to the older women, her good friend, Mrs Enriqueta, and this is what she has to say about Julie's adventure.
When I told Mrs Enriqueta, she got very angry and said these revolutionary hussies were shameless, and how could anyone think of spending a night alone in a house where the owners might have been executed, let alone with a young man, and putting on a lady's dresses to lure the young man on, then stealing them into the bargain. She said one shouldn't do such things, not even for fun. And she said the kids had eaten lots of jam and . . .
Do you see how all those flat sentences reflect the mundane quality of a life full of work and looking after small children. Natalia loves her children, there is no doubt about that; but Rodoreda exquisitely high-lights those extremes in life. The fantasies of love and romance against the hardships of daily existence.
Let me remind all - Elena Ferrante's didn't burst onto the literary scenes until 2011.
Allow me to end with The Dress:
They found a wardrobe full of evening dresses and fur coats and she said she couldn't resist and tried on a backless black tulle dress that billowed like a cloud with yellow roses on the bust and skirt and she said he stared and didn't say anything and then they went into a long gallery full of sofas and cushions where they lay down, wrapped in each other's arms and listened to the wind scattering leaves and swaying branches and spent the night like that: half asleep, alone in the world, surrounded by all the dangers of war, and the moon came up and striped everything white through the slats of the shutters. It was their first and last night for everything and they fled before dawn and the whole garden was a tumult of branches and wind; the tendrils of ivy seemed to be alive, chasing them and reaching for their faces, and she took that dress because she thought it wasn't stealing if the owners were dead and put it in a box, and when she was missing him a lot, she put the dress on and heard the wind blowing in that garden again, like no other wind anywhere.
I have read two other books about the Spanish civil war - Laurie Lee's evocative descriptions in and Carmen Laforet's - both are powerful, and well worth reading. The other book that came to mind as I was reading was Janet Frame's . It it the third and for me my favourite part of her autobiography. As I read I remembered quite distinctly Frame's travels to Barcelona and then up into the Andorra Mountains where she is befriended by a Catalan family - who want her to marry a local boy. The writing has that same loss of agency that you can feel in Rodoreda's text. A woman buffeted by the trials of her existence, lost, unable to steer her own destiny, reliant upon the structures of a man providing security through marriage. The style is so similar - Frame writing in 1985, and just for those few chapters - that sense of being pushed and pulled with no choice of her own.
Read
August 17, 2017
Merc猫 Rodoreda i Gurgu铆 (1908-1983)
We went up a narrow stone staircase with very high steps and a ceiling over it and walls on each side and came out in a yard full of boys. Their heads were all shaved and covered with lumps and their faces were nothing but eyes.
One of the unfortunate many to have been born in Europe during the first third of the 20th century, the Catalonian Merc猫 Rodoreda started publishing early, but the Spanish Civil War intervened and when it ended in 1939 Rodoreda - a fervent supporter of the Republican cause - had to spend the Franco years in exile in France and Switzerland running from the Nazis. Franco forbade the public use of the many regional languages of Spain, so Catalan literature rarely saw the light of day; Rodoreda herself didn't publish for two decades. But the success of a collection of short stories (Vint-i-dos contes, 1958) encouraged her to write and publish La pla莽a del diamant (available in English translation under the title The Time of the Doves) in 1962, a popular and critical success translated meanwhile into thirty languages and taught in Catalonia's schools.
Unsurprisingly, La pla莽a del diamant is set during the Civil War but the means by which Rodoreda chose to approach the Spanish trauma is quite unexpected. Working class Barcelona before, during and after the Civil War is presented via the stream of consciousness of a young, naive and submissive woman, Natalia, who understands next to nothing of the world and is swept off her feet by a pushy, possessive, domineering jerk. A match made in Heaven.
Joan Mir贸, Nocturne - 1940
The quotidian, the trivial, the completely normal life of hard work, of bearing and raising young children - told with a certain apt poetic flair and with a plentiful supply of eccentric characters - gives way at the halfway point to the war as seen by poor Natalia. Her husband is off to the front, and each time he returns it is with less food and in a more bedraggled state. The utilities fail and there are rumors of mass executions by the Falangists. And then things get really bad.
The excruciating poetry of survival in extremis is followed by the quotidian, the trivial, the completely normal life of hard work, of children growing, marrying and having children of their own, but this life reverberates with the memory of that excruciating poetry...no, it is more than memory.
May 1, 2022
孝褉谐 写懈褬邪屑邪薪褌邪 (懈谢懈 袛懈褬邪屑邪薪褌褋泻懈 褌褉谐 褍 褋褉锌褋泻芯屑 锌褉械胁芯写褍) 薪邪褬锌芯蟹薪邪褌懈褬懈 褬械 褉芯屑邪薪 泻邪褌邪谢芯薪褋泻械/褕锌邪薪褋泻械 泻褮懈卸械胁薪懈褑械 袦械褉褋械 袪褍写褍褉械写械.
袞懈胁芯褌 褍 袘邪褉械褋谢芯薪懈 褌褉懈写械褋械褌懈褏 谐芯写懈薪邪 啸啸 胁械泻邪 卸懈胁芯锌懈褋薪芯 褬械 锌褉懈泻邪蟹邪薪 泻褉芯蟹 胁懈蟹褍褉褍 褬械写薪芯褋褌邪胁薪械, 锌芯屑邪谢芯 懈 薪邪懈胁薪械 写械胁芯褬泻械 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬械, 锌褉芯写邪胁邪褔懈褑械 褍 锌芯褋谢邪褋褌懈褔邪褉薪懈褑懈. 袧械锌褉芯屑懈褕褭械薪芯 芯褋褌邪胁褭邪褮械 写械褔泻邪 泻芯褬械谐 褬械 胁芯谢械谢邪 蟹斜芯谐 谢械褌褮械 邪胁邪薪褌褍褉械, 泻芯褬邪 褯械 锌褉械褉邪褋褌懈 褍 (屑褍泻芯褌褉锌邪薪) 斜褉邪泻, 写芯薪械褯械 褬芯褬 写芯褋褌邪 屑褍泻械. 袦褍卸 褬械 锌芯褋械褋懈胁邪薪, 褭褍斜芯屑芯褉邪薪, 褔械褋褌芯 褬械 褮懈褏芯胁 芯写薪芯褋 薪邪 谐褉邪薪懈褑懈 锌褋懈褏懈褔泻芯谐 懈 褎懈蟹懈褔泻芯谐 薪邪褋懈褭邪. 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬懈薪 卸懈胁芯褌 褋械 褍谐谢邪胁薪芯屑 胁芯写懈 褍 褔械褌懈褉懈 蟹懈写邪, 褋邪 写胁芯褬械 写械褑械 懈 薪械锌褉械泻懈写薪懈屑 写芯屑邪褯懈褔泻懈屑 锌芯褋谢芯胁懈屑邪, 邪 褋胁械 褍蟹 锌褉械褌胁邪褉邪褮械 褋褌邪薪邪 褍 褋胁芯褬械胁褉褋薪懈 谐芯谢褍斜邪褉薪懈泻 蟹斜芯谐 谐芯谢褍斜芯胁邪 泻芯褬械 褮械薪 屑褍卸 锌邪褋懈芯薪懈褉邪薪芯 谐邪褬懈 (蟹邪薪懈屑褭懈胁邪 褬械 褌邪 褋懈屑斜芯谢懈泻邪 谐芯谢褍斜芯胁邪 懈 芯薪芯 褕褌芯 褋械 褋邪 褮懈屑邪 薪邪锌芯褋谢械褌泻褍 写芯谐邪褣邪, 邪 懈 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬邪 褬械 蟹邪 屑褍卸邪 - 袚芯谢褍斜懈褑邪).
校褋泻芯褉芯 写芯谢邪蟹懈 楔锌邪薪褋泻懈 谐褉邪褣邪薪褋泻懈 褉邪褌 懈 褋胁械 芯薪芯 褕褌芯 褋胁邪泻懈 褉邪褌 褋邪 褋芯斜芯屑 薪芯褋懈 鈥� 褋屑褉褌, 锌邪褌褮邪, 谐谢邪写 懈 薪械屑邪褕褌懈薪邪. 袠锌邪泻, 芯胁写械 褋械 褉邪褌 械泻褋锌谢懈褑懈褌薪芯 锌褉邪泻褌懈褔薪芯 薪懈 薪械 锌芯屑懈褮械, 薪械屑邪 芯胁写械 胁械谢懈泻懈褏 写芯谐邪褣邪褬邪, 褎褉芯薪褌芯胁褋泻懈褏 斜芯褉斜懈 懈谢懈 褎懈谢芯蟹芯褎褋泻懈褏 懈 锌芯谢懈褌懈褔泻懈褏 褌褉邪泻褌邪褌邪. 袩褉懈泻邪蟹褍褬械 褋械 卸懈胁芯褌 屑邪谢芯谐, 芯斜懈褔薪芯谐 褔芯胁械泻邪 褍 褌械褕泻懈屑 懈 褋屑褍褌薪懈屑 胁褉械屑械薪懈屑邪. 袣邪写邪 褬芯褬 屑褍卸 锌芯谐懈薪械 薪邪 褎褉芯薪褌褍, 薪械屑邪褕褌懈薪邪 褯械 锌芯褋褌邪褌懈 褋胁械 薪械懈蟹写褉卸褭懈胁懈褬邪. 小胁械 褌芯 芯薪邪 锌芯写薪芯褋懈 斜械蟹 薪械锌芯褌褉械斜薪芯谐 褉芯锌褌邪褮邪 懈 褋邪屑芯褋邪卸邪褭械褮邪. 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬懈薪 褬械蟹懈泻 褬械 褬械写薪芯褋褌邪胁邪薪, 褋胁械写械薪, 写芯谐邪褣邪褬懈 褋械 锌褉懈泻邪蟹褍褬褍 芯薪邪泻胁懈屑 泻邪泻胁懈屑 褬械褋褍, 斜械蟹 褍谢械锌褕邪胁邪褮邪 懈谢懈 斜械褋泻褉邪褬薪芯谐 邪薪邪谢懈蟹懈褉邪褮邪. 袠蟹 褋懈褉芯屑邪褕褌胁邪 懈 褉邪褌薪械 薪械屑邪褕褌懈薪械, 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬邪 褯械 褋械 懈蟹斜邪胁懈褌懈 褍写邪褬芯屑 蟹邪 褋懈褌薪芯谐 褌褉谐芯胁褑邪, 薪芯 懈锌邪泻, 薪械褕褌芯 褯械 褋械 褍 褮芯褬 锌褉芯屑械薪懈褌懈 懈 薪邪写邪褭械 褌芯 薪械褯械 斜懈褌懈 芯薪邪 懈褋褌邪 芯褋芯斜邪...
袣邪褌邪谢芯薪褋泻邪 泻褮懈卸械胁薪芯褋褌 褬械 锌褉邪泻褌懈褔薪芯 薪械锌芯蟹薪邪褌邪 泻芯写 薪邪褋, 邪谢懈 褋械 锌芯褋谢械写褮懈褏 谐芯写懈薪邪 褋胁械 胁懈褕械 锌褉械胁芯写懈, 褕褌芯 褬械 蟹邪懈褋褌邪 褋褬邪褬薪芯. 袗, 袦械褉褋械 袪褍写褍褉械写褍 褋胁邪泻邪泻芯 胁褉械写懈 褔懈褌邪褌懈.
袞懈胁芯褌 褍 袘邪褉械褋谢芯薪懈 褌褉懈写械褋械褌懈褏 谐芯写懈薪邪 啸啸 胁械泻邪 卸懈胁芯锌懈褋薪芯 褬械 锌褉懈泻邪蟹邪薪 泻褉芯蟹 胁懈蟹褍褉褍 褬械写薪芯褋褌邪胁薪械, 锌芯屑邪谢芯 懈 薪邪懈胁薪械 写械胁芯褬泻械 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬械, 锌褉芯写邪胁邪褔懈褑械 褍 锌芯褋谢邪褋褌懈褔邪褉薪懈褑懈. 袧械锌褉芯屑懈褕褭械薪芯 芯褋褌邪胁褭邪褮械 写械褔泻邪 泻芯褬械谐 褬械 胁芯谢械谢邪 蟹斜芯谐 谢械褌褮械 邪胁邪薪褌褍褉械, 泻芯褬邪 褯械 锌褉械褉邪褋褌懈 褍 (屑褍泻芯褌褉锌邪薪) 斜褉邪泻, 写芯薪械褯械 褬芯褬 写芯褋褌邪 屑褍泻械. 袦褍卸 褬械 锌芯褋械褋懈胁邪薪, 褭褍斜芯屑芯褉邪薪, 褔械褋褌芯 褬械 褮懈褏芯胁 芯写薪芯褋 薪邪 谐褉邪薪懈褑懈 锌褋懈褏懈褔泻芯谐 懈 褎懈蟹懈褔泻芯谐 薪邪褋懈褭邪. 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬懈薪 卸懈胁芯褌 褋械 褍谐谢邪胁薪芯屑 胁芯写懈 褍 褔械褌懈褉懈 蟹懈写邪, 褋邪 写胁芯褬械 写械褑械 懈 薪械锌褉械泻懈写薪懈屑 写芯屑邪褯懈褔泻懈屑 锌芯褋谢芯胁懈屑邪, 邪 褋胁械 褍蟹 锌褉械褌胁邪褉邪褮械 褋褌邪薪邪 褍 褋胁芯褬械胁褉褋薪懈 谐芯谢褍斜邪褉薪懈泻 蟹斜芯谐 谐芯谢褍斜芯胁邪 泻芯褬械 褮械薪 屑褍卸 锌邪褋懈芯薪懈褉邪薪芯 谐邪褬懈 (蟹邪薪懈屑褭懈胁邪 褬械 褌邪 褋懈屑斜芯谢懈泻邪 谐芯谢褍斜芯胁邪 懈 芯薪芯 褕褌芯 褋械 褋邪 褮懈屑邪 薪邪锌芯褋谢械褌泻褍 写芯谐邪褣邪, 邪 懈 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬邪 褬械 蟹邪 屑褍卸邪 - 袚芯谢褍斜懈褑邪).
校褋泻芯褉芯 写芯谢邪蟹懈 楔锌邪薪褋泻懈 谐褉邪褣邪薪褋泻懈 褉邪褌 懈 褋胁械 芯薪芯 褕褌芯 褋胁邪泻懈 褉邪褌 褋邪 褋芯斜芯屑 薪芯褋懈 鈥� 褋屑褉褌, 锌邪褌褮邪, 谐谢邪写 懈 薪械屑邪褕褌懈薪邪. 袠锌邪泻, 芯胁写械 褋械 褉邪褌 械泻褋锌谢懈褑懈褌薪芯 锌褉邪泻褌懈褔薪芯 薪懈 薪械 锌芯屑懈褮械, 薪械屑邪 芯胁写械 胁械谢懈泻懈褏 写芯谐邪褣邪褬邪, 褎褉芯薪褌芯胁褋泻懈褏 斜芯褉斜懈 懈谢懈 褎懈谢芯蟹芯褎褋泻懈褏 懈 锌芯谢懈褌懈褔泻懈褏 褌褉邪泻褌邪褌邪. 袩褉懈泻邪蟹褍褬械 褋械 卸懈胁芯褌 屑邪谢芯谐, 芯斜懈褔薪芯谐 褔芯胁械泻邪 褍 褌械褕泻懈屑 懈 褋屑褍褌薪懈屑 胁褉械屑械薪懈屑邪. 袣邪写邪 褬芯褬 屑褍卸 锌芯谐懈薪械 薪邪 褎褉芯薪褌褍, 薪械屑邪褕褌懈薪邪 褯械 锌芯褋褌邪褌懈 褋胁械 薪械懈蟹写褉卸褭懈胁懈褬邪. 小胁械 褌芯 芯薪邪 锌芯写薪芯褋懈 斜械蟹 薪械锌芯褌褉械斜薪芯谐 褉芯锌褌邪褮邪 懈 褋邪屑芯褋邪卸邪褭械褮邪. 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬懈薪 褬械蟹懈泻 褬械 褬械写薪芯褋褌邪胁邪薪, 褋胁械写械薪, 写芯谐邪褣邪褬懈 褋械 锌褉懈泻邪蟹褍褬褍 芯薪邪泻胁懈屑 泻邪泻胁懈屑 褬械褋褍, 斜械蟹 褍谢械锌褕邪胁邪褮邪 懈谢懈 斜械褋泻褉邪褬薪芯谐 邪薪邪谢懈蟹懈褉邪褮邪. 袠蟹 褋懈褉芯屑邪褕褌胁邪 懈 褉邪褌薪械 薪械屑邪褕褌懈薪械, 袧邪褌邪谢懈褬邪 褯械 褋械 懈蟹斜邪胁懈褌懈 褍写邪褬芯屑 蟹邪 褋懈褌薪芯谐 褌褉谐芯胁褑邪, 薪芯 懈锌邪泻, 薪械褕褌芯 褯械 褋械 褍 褮芯褬 锌褉芯屑械薪懈褌懈 懈 薪邪写邪褭械 褌芯 薪械褯械 斜懈褌懈 芯薪邪 懈褋褌邪 芯褋芯斜邪...
袣邪褌邪谢芯薪褋泻邪 泻褮懈卸械胁薪芯褋褌 褬械 锌褉邪泻褌懈褔薪芯 薪械锌芯蟹薪邪褌邪 泻芯写 薪邪褋, 邪谢懈 褋械 锌芯褋谢械写褮懈褏 谐芯写懈薪邪 褋胁械 胁懈褕械 锌褉械胁芯写懈, 褕褌芯 褬械 蟹邪懈褋褌邪 褋褬邪褬薪芯. 袗, 袦械褉褋械 袪褍写褍褉械写褍 褋胁邪泻邪泻芯 胁褉械写懈 褔懈褌邪褌懈.
May 26, 2020
Marquez鈥檌n hayran oldu臒u anla艧谋lan Katalan yazar Rodoreda (1908-1983), sade bir 眉slupla, 枚ncesi ve sonras谋yla, ana kahraman Natalia鈥檔谋n a臒z谋ndan 陌spanya i莽 sava艧谋 d枚neminde Barcelona鈥檇aki ya艧amdan etkileyici bir kesit sunmu艧. Natalia鈥檔谋n gen莽 k谋zl谋臒谋ndan ba艧layarak, 枚nce k枚t眉 bir insan olmayan ancak bencilli臒iyle 枚ne 莽谋kan kocas谋yla ili艧kileri, sonra da, iki k眉莽眉k 莽ocu臒uyla sava艧谋n getirdi臒i zorluklarla m眉cadelesi, hayata tutunma 莽abas谋 anlat谋lm谋艧. Kitab谋n 枚zellikle ikinci yar谋s谋, sava艧 patlak verdikten sonraki b枚l眉m眉 i莽inize i艧liyor. Ama kafan谋za vurmadan. Rodoreda, s枚ylemedikleriyle etki yaratabilen yazarlardan oldu臒unu g枚stermi艧. Sava艧谋n ba艧lamas谋 bile belli belirsiz yans谋t谋lm谋艧. Zaten sava艧 derken, cephe, kan, 艧an, 艧eref gibi konulara girilmemi艧. Bunlar arkaplana itilirken, sava艧谋n cephe gerisinde yaratt谋臒谋 y谋k谋c谋 etkilere odaklan谋lm谋艧. Kitab谋n sonuna konulan Yazar谋n S枚z眉鈥檔de belirtildi臒i gibi yal谋n ve insanc谋l bir roman G眉vercinler Gitti臒inde. K谋y谋da k枚艧ede kalm谋艧 b枚ylesine iyi bir roman谋 bast谋klar谋 i莽in yay谋nc谋 Alef鈥檈 te艧ekk眉r edelim. Ama arka kapak yaz谋lar谋nda bu kadar abart谋ya ka莽malar谋 pek 艧谋k de臒il. 脟eviri de (Suna K谋l谋莽) iyi.
January 11, 2020
4.5. La pluma de Merc猫 Rodoreda me ha resultado muy personal. Al principio, te cuesta introducirte en su prosa, en lo que te quiere decir. Tienes que dejarte llevar, y llega un momento en que algo hace "clic", y la historia te lleva como mecida por las olas.
La plaza del diamante es la historia de Natalia (de la "Palometa"), una mujer crecida en el barrio de Gracia de Barcelona de principios del siglo XX. Es una mujer de su 茅poca, que sigue la vida que la sociedad espera de ella: encontrar un novio, casarse, tener hijos, cuidar de su familia...... Pero la mala suerte hace que le toque vivir una guerra, unas circunstancias familiares dif铆ciles y una situaci贸n econ贸mica complicada. Pero ella, con su tes贸n, su fuerza y su adaptaci贸n a los tiempos, consigue salir adelante, prosperar y dar un futuro a sus hijos.
Voy a seguir con la obra de esta escritora, a mi parecer, poco conocida.
La plaza del diamante es la historia de Natalia (de la "Palometa"), una mujer crecida en el barrio de Gracia de Barcelona de principios del siglo XX. Es una mujer de su 茅poca, que sigue la vida que la sociedad espera de ella: encontrar un novio, casarse, tener hijos, cuidar de su familia...... Pero la mala suerte hace que le toque vivir una guerra, unas circunstancias familiares dif铆ciles y una situaci贸n econ贸mica complicada. Pero ella, con su tes贸n, su fuerza y su adaptaci贸n a los tiempos, consigue salir adelante, prosperar y dar un futuro a sus hijos.
Voy a seguir con la obra de esta escritora, a mi parecer, poco conocida.
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November 19, 2015
You should never ignore the signs. In a relationship, I mean. It is easy to tell yourself that you are overreacting, or imagining things, that your doubts are unreasonable or that what you see or feel is insignificant relative to the positives, but you ought to trust your instincts [or your counter-instincts, if your instincts are telling you that things will work out ok with someone who is giving you the impression of being a douche]. The reality is that, contrary to what we are repeatedly told, no one ever 鈥榮uddenly flips鈥�, no one鈥檚 personality completely changes for the worse with a snap of the fingers; the clues to someone鈥檚 future behaviour or attitudes are always there, sometimes subtly disguised perhaps, but there nevertheless.
I was once talking to a friend of mine and she told me about a guy she had been seeing and how he would get aroused when she cried. I鈥檓 not making this up. He got an erection鈥hen she cried. And as I listened to this story I was sure that the conclusion would be that she had freaked out and ended the relationship, but no. She thought it was 鈥榓 bit odd鈥�, sure, but it never crossed her mind to stop seeing the man who was made horny by her unhappiness. No doubt some of you will dismiss my example as a one-off, as an extreme or unusual incident that is not representative of anything, that is not applicable to people-in-general. You might say 鈥榥o right thinking person would have given him the benefit of the doubt in those circumstances鈥�, and yet I have heard hundreds of similar anecdotes and stories, often with unpleasant outcomes.
All of which is to say that as I was reading Merc猫 Rodoreda鈥檚 La pla莽a del diamant [or The Time of the Doves in the best English translation] I was struck by how depressingly familiar, how predictable, the trajectory of Natalia鈥檚 and Quimet鈥檚 relationship is. In the early stages, one鈥檚 impression of Natalia, who narrates the novel, is that she is kind and gentle, but green or na茂ve, perhaps even weak. The book opens with the young woman attending a party, dressed all in white. I do not think that this is a coincidence. White is, of course, traditionally worn by brides, and in this way the dress is a hint at her forthcoming marriage, but it also says something about her character, in that the colour is representative of virginity, of purity, even innocence. Likewise, Quimet鈥檚 name for Natalia, 鈥楥olometa鈥� or dove, which he bestows upon her almost immediately, is obviously significant. Doves are regarded as an emblem of peace and love, which is ironic because Quimet delivers little of either of these two things.
It is worth noting that Quimet is sweating heavily when Natalia first meets him at the party in the pla莽a del diamant, for this suggests manliness, and, as the sweating is caused by him having been dancing, sensuality too. Moreover, Natalia compares his eyes to those of a monkey, indicating a brutish animality. From the very beginning Quimet dictates to Natalia, informing her that one day she will be his wife. Even giving her a nickname is an attempt to establish ownership; it is a way of making her his. As the couple continue to spend time together these negative signs, or indications, as to his character become more pronounced. He jealously accuses Natalia of taking a walk with her ex-boyfriend [and she, who is innocent, almost comes to believe that she had done so]; he attempts to make her quit her job; he grabs her around the throat. He is, then, quite clearly a possessive, self-centred bully; he is, as we in Yorkshire might say, a wrong 鈥榰n, and Natalia ought to get rid, because life with him will not be happy, but she, of course, does not.
As a result of all this, one cannot help but read The Time of the Doves with a heavy heart, with frustration and a sense of helplessness. It is like watching, from a safe distance, a car skid off the road and into a ditch. However, although on the surface this appears to be a novel about family and responsibility, poverty and suffering, it struck me that it is ultimately about power and control. And, yes, this refers to Quimet鈥檚 desire to dominate his wife, to have her, as he himself says, like everything he likes [which results in the ridiculous situation with the doves], but it relates to Natalia also, and her efforts to wrest control of her life back, from her spouse and from the world-at-large. For example, when Quimet鈥檚 dove-mania reaches its apex, and he has them moved into the family apartment, Natalia sabotages them, and tries to murder the chicks. Then, later, when the family are starving, she makes the decision to kill her two children and herself.
[La pla莽a del diamant in Barcelona]
It has been said that The Time of the Doves is a political novel, and, although the action takes place over thirty years, covering Franco鈥檚 ascension, the Spanish Civil War, and World War Two, and although all of these things are mentioned in the text, it may still strike one as a strange claim. That is because these events are kept in the background; they are never the primary focus. Natalia appears to do her best to not acknowledge politics, or at least not take a serious interest in it outside of the effect it has upon her day-to-day life; and she certainly does not choose a side, being, for example, neither obviously in favour of the republicans or the revolutionaries.
In order to understand the political nature of the story it is necessary to return to what I was discussing previously: power and control. First of all, to be an ordinary citizen in times of conflict or strife is to be at the mercy of a bunch of madmen who will decide the direction of your life, who are, specifically, fighting in order to have that level of control over you. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that the novel is set in Barcelona, and that Natalia is Catalan, as was the author. Francisco Franco, who was Head of State from the 1930鈥檚 until his death in 1975, was a brutal dictator, and one of his policies was to make Spanish or Castilian the dominant language in Spain. In order to achieve this he made it the official language, and banned the public use of any others, including Catalan. I don鈥檛 want to speak for Catalans, but it seems reasonable to suggest that they would have felt as though they could not be themselves, as though they were being forced to be something other than who they were, as though they were being stripped of their identity, and this is similar to how Natalia is portrayed, as someone always constrained, but who is looking to be at ease, to be free like the doves.
I was once talking to a friend of mine and she told me about a guy she had been seeing and how he would get aroused when she cried. I鈥檓 not making this up. He got an erection鈥hen she cried. And as I listened to this story I was sure that the conclusion would be that she had freaked out and ended the relationship, but no. She thought it was 鈥榓 bit odd鈥�, sure, but it never crossed her mind to stop seeing the man who was made horny by her unhappiness. No doubt some of you will dismiss my example as a one-off, as an extreme or unusual incident that is not representative of anything, that is not applicable to people-in-general. You might say 鈥榥o right thinking person would have given him the benefit of the doubt in those circumstances鈥�, and yet I have heard hundreds of similar anecdotes and stories, often with unpleasant outcomes.
All of which is to say that as I was reading Merc猫 Rodoreda鈥檚 La pla莽a del diamant [or The Time of the Doves in the best English translation] I was struck by how depressingly familiar, how predictable, the trajectory of Natalia鈥檚 and Quimet鈥檚 relationship is. In the early stages, one鈥檚 impression of Natalia, who narrates the novel, is that she is kind and gentle, but green or na茂ve, perhaps even weak. The book opens with the young woman attending a party, dressed all in white. I do not think that this is a coincidence. White is, of course, traditionally worn by brides, and in this way the dress is a hint at her forthcoming marriage, but it also says something about her character, in that the colour is representative of virginity, of purity, even innocence. Likewise, Quimet鈥檚 name for Natalia, 鈥楥olometa鈥� or dove, which he bestows upon her almost immediately, is obviously significant. Doves are regarded as an emblem of peace and love, which is ironic because Quimet delivers little of either of these two things.
鈥淚 covered my face with my arms to protect myself from i don鈥檛 know what and i let out a hellish scream. A scream I must have been carrying around inside me for many years, so thick it was hard for it to get through my throat, and with that scream a little bit of nothing trickled out of my mouth, like a cockroach made of spit鈥nd that bit of nothing that had lived so long trapped inside me was my youth and it flew off with a scream of I don鈥檛 know what鈥etting go?鈥�
It is worth noting that Quimet is sweating heavily when Natalia first meets him at the party in the pla莽a del diamant, for this suggests manliness, and, as the sweating is caused by him having been dancing, sensuality too. Moreover, Natalia compares his eyes to those of a monkey, indicating a brutish animality. From the very beginning Quimet dictates to Natalia, informing her that one day she will be his wife. Even giving her a nickname is an attempt to establish ownership; it is a way of making her his. As the couple continue to spend time together these negative signs, or indications, as to his character become more pronounced. He jealously accuses Natalia of taking a walk with her ex-boyfriend [and she, who is innocent, almost comes to believe that she had done so]; he attempts to make her quit her job; he grabs her around the throat. He is, then, quite clearly a possessive, self-centred bully; he is, as we in Yorkshire might say, a wrong 鈥榰n, and Natalia ought to get rid, because life with him will not be happy, but she, of course, does not.
As a result of all this, one cannot help but read The Time of the Doves with a heavy heart, with frustration and a sense of helplessness. It is like watching, from a safe distance, a car skid off the road and into a ditch. However, although on the surface this appears to be a novel about family and responsibility, poverty and suffering, it struck me that it is ultimately about power and control. And, yes, this refers to Quimet鈥檚 desire to dominate his wife, to have her, as he himself says, like everything he likes [which results in the ridiculous situation with the doves], but it relates to Natalia also, and her efforts to wrest control of her life back, from her spouse and from the world-at-large. For example, when Quimet鈥檚 dove-mania reaches its apex, and he has them moved into the family apartment, Natalia sabotages them, and tries to murder the chicks. Then, later, when the family are starving, she makes the decision to kill her two children and herself.
[La pla莽a del diamant in Barcelona]
It has been said that The Time of the Doves is a political novel, and, although the action takes place over thirty years, covering Franco鈥檚 ascension, the Spanish Civil War, and World War Two, and although all of these things are mentioned in the text, it may still strike one as a strange claim. That is because these events are kept in the background; they are never the primary focus. Natalia appears to do her best to not acknowledge politics, or at least not take a serious interest in it outside of the effect it has upon her day-to-day life; and she certainly does not choose a side, being, for example, neither obviously in favour of the republicans or the revolutionaries.
In order to understand the political nature of the story it is necessary to return to what I was discussing previously: power and control. First of all, to be an ordinary citizen in times of conflict or strife is to be at the mercy of a bunch of madmen who will decide the direction of your life, who are, specifically, fighting in order to have that level of control over you. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that the novel is set in Barcelona, and that Natalia is Catalan, as was the author. Francisco Franco, who was Head of State from the 1930鈥檚 until his death in 1975, was a brutal dictator, and one of his policies was to make Spanish or Castilian the dominant language in Spain. In order to achieve this he made it the official language, and banned the public use of any others, including Catalan. I don鈥檛 want to speak for Catalans, but it seems reasonable to suggest that they would have felt as though they could not be themselves, as though they were being forced to be something other than who they were, as though they were being stripped of their identity, and this is similar to how Natalia is portrayed, as someone always constrained, but who is looking to be at ease, to be free like the doves.
March 28, 2018
Kitab谋n ilk b枚l眉m眉 roman kahraman谋 Natalia鈥檔谋n sonradan kocas谋 olacak Quimet ile tan谋艧mas谋n谋, evliliklerini ve ya艧amlar谋n谋 anlat谋yor. Bu b枚l眉mde hikaye yer yer b眉y眉k bo艧luklar bar谋nd谋r谋yor, sanki yazar谋n acelesi varm谋艧cas谋na nefes nefese yaz谋lm谋艧 k谋s k谋sa c眉mlelelerle tats谋z bir anlat谋m var. 脺莽 y谋ld谋z谋 zor hak eder.
陌kinci b枚l眉m ise 陌spanya 陌莽 Sava艧谋 s谋ras谋ndaki Barselona鈥檡谋 anlat谋yor, kocas谋 ve 莽evresinin sava艧ta yapt谋klar谋n谋 ve sava艧谋n y谋k谋c谋l谋臒谋n谋 resmediyor. Bu b枚l眉m ilk b枚l眉mden tamamen farkl谋, k谋sa olmalar谋na ra臒men derinlikli ve duyarl谋kl谋 c眉mleler, g眉zel tan谋mlamalar ve s眉r眉kleyici bir okuma ile kitab谋n sonuna ula艧谋l谋yor. Be艧 y谋ld谋zl谋k bir b枚l眉m bu.
Sonunda yazar谋n bir 鈥渟ons枚z鈥� b枚l眉m眉 var ki neden buna gerek d谋ymu艧 anlamad谋m. Adeta bir yorumcu,bir ele艧tirmen gibi kendi kitab谋n谋 okuyuculara anlat谋yor, 鈥渁nlamad谋ysan谋z ben bunu demek istedim鈥� der gibi. Kitab谋n beni etkiledi臒ini s枚yleyemem ama Bask ve Katalan Edebiyat谋鈥檔谋n kredisi y眉ksek bende...
陌kinci b枚l眉m ise 陌spanya 陌莽 Sava艧谋 s谋ras谋ndaki Barselona鈥檡谋 anlat谋yor, kocas谋 ve 莽evresinin sava艧ta yapt谋klar谋n谋 ve sava艧谋n y谋k谋c谋l谋臒谋n谋 resmediyor. Bu b枚l眉m ilk b枚l眉mden tamamen farkl谋, k谋sa olmalar谋na ra臒men derinlikli ve duyarl谋kl谋 c眉mleler, g眉zel tan谋mlamalar ve s眉r眉kleyici bir okuma ile kitab谋n sonuna ula艧谋l谋yor. Be艧 y谋ld谋zl谋k bir b枚l眉m bu.
Sonunda yazar谋n bir 鈥渟ons枚z鈥� b枚l眉m眉 var ki neden buna gerek d谋ymu艧 anlamad谋m. Adeta bir yorumcu,bir ele艧tirmen gibi kendi kitab谋n谋 okuyuculara anlat谋yor, 鈥渁nlamad谋ysan谋z ben bunu demek istedim鈥� der gibi. Kitab谋n beni etkiledi臒ini s枚yleyemem ama Bask ve Katalan Edebiyat谋鈥檔谋n kredisi y眉ksek bende...
August 21, 2020
Si alguien me pregunta qu茅 libro despert贸 en m铆 el amor por la literatura, la respuesta es clara:
路
La Pla莽a del Diamant de Merc猫 Rodoreda.
路
Ya van cuatro lecturas de esta obra may煤scula de la literatura universal (s铆, universal, no s贸lo catalana) y siempre descubro matices y sutilezas nuevas. Jam谩s defrauda. Jam谩s se hace tediosa. Siempre me aporta m谩s y m谩s.
路
La elegancia y sencillez de Rodoreda te llama, te agarra y no te suelta. Te remueve por dentro hasta sentir que caes en el abismo. Que te falta el aire y no puedes respirar.
路
Y es que si el mism铆simo Garc铆a M谩rquez aprendi贸 a leer en catal谩n para apreciar esta obra en su idioma origial... ser铆a por algo.
路
La Pla莽a del Diamant de Merc猫 Rodoreda.
路
Ya van cuatro lecturas de esta obra may煤scula de la literatura universal (s铆, universal, no s贸lo catalana) y siempre descubro matices y sutilezas nuevas. Jam谩s defrauda. Jam谩s se hace tediosa. Siempre me aporta m谩s y m谩s.
路
La elegancia y sencillez de Rodoreda te llama, te agarra y no te suelta. Te remueve por dentro hasta sentir que caes en el abismo. Que te falta el aire y no puedes respirar.
路
Y es que si el mism铆simo Garc铆a M谩rquez aprendi贸 a leer en catal谩n para apreciar esta obra en su idioma origial... ser铆a por algo.
July 28, 2023
Hay libros que cuando los leo y voy subrayando, deseo que lo que estoy subrayando no se me olvide nunca y lo tenga siempre presente. Este libro est谩 lleno de cosas as铆, y por eso me ha dado una pena enorme que se me acabara.
Ten铆a miedo de que fuera una lectura seca, sobria y exigente, y todo lo contrario. Es fresco, entretenido, dinamiqu铆simo. Adem谩s es una escritura muy interesante, que, parapetada tras una aparente sencillez, utiliza el lenguaje de una forma tan h谩bil como potente. 隆Lleva a muchos sitios este libro!
Ten铆a miedo de que fuera una lectura seca, sobria y exigente, y todo lo contrario. Es fresco, entretenido, dinamiqu铆simo. Adem谩s es una escritura muy interesante, que, parapetada tras una aparente sencillez, utiliza el lenguaje de una forma tan h谩bil como potente. 隆Lleva a muchos sitios este libro!
May 16, 2024
"Auf der Pla莽a del Diamant" von Merc猫 Rodoreda wird als "der ber眉hmteste Roman der neueren katalanischen Literatur" beworben. In der Suhrkamp Taschenbuchausgabe wird der Roman aus dem Jahr 1962 dar眉ber hinaus mit einem lobenden Nachwort von Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez aus dem Jahr 1983 geadelt. Die hohen Erwartungen, die dadurch bei mir geweckt wurden, haben sich vollst盲ndig erf眉llt. Es ist eine fesselnde Geschichte, die mich vor allem durch die Form des inneren Monologes, die Sprache und den Symbolismus begeistert hat. Durch den Blickwinkel und die Sprache ist man als Leser nah dran an der Protagonistin. Die Autorin verwendet viele starke Symbole (z.B. Tauben, die Farbe Wei脽, Schnee, Affenaugen, Waage). Das wirkt aber nie aufdringlich sondern wie ein ganz nat眉rlicher Bestandteil der Geschichte.
Erz盲hlt wird die Geschichte von Nat脿lia, die selbst spricht. Sie lernt auf einem Fest auf der Pla莽a del Diamant den Tischler Quimet kennen. Sie trennt sich von ihrem Verlobten und heiratet den toxischen Quimtet. Er unterdr眉ckt Nat脿lia. Das beginnt damit, dass er ihr ihren Namen nimmt und sie als T盲ubchen bezeichnet. Sie hei脽t jetzt nur noch Colometa. Neben Psychoterror wird Nat脿lia in einer bedr眉ckenden Szene auch geschlagen. Sie l盲sst alles 眉ber sich ergehen. Die beiden bekommen zwei Kinder. Quimtet beginnt eine Taubenzucht. Schlie脽lich geht er als K盲mpfer in den Spanischen B眉rgerkrieg. Das Elend wird aufgrund der Hungernot f眉r Nat脿lia zun盲chst sogar noch gr枚脽er. Doch letztendlich kommt es zur Wende. Nat脿lia bekommt ihren Namen und ein besseres Leben zur眉ck.
"Auf der Pla莽a del Diamant" ist nach "Der Garten 眉ber dem Meer" der zweite Roman, den ich von Merc猫 Rodoreda gelesen habe. Wenn ich nicht gewusst h盲tte, dass beide Romane von derselben Autorin stammen, w盲re ich nicht darauf gekommen. Im Gegensatz zum "Garten" ist "Pla莽a del Diamant" wild und ruppig. Ich mag beide Romane, aber mir gef盲llt der atemlose und direkte Ton von Nat脿lia viel besser als der ruhige Ton im "Garten".
Erz盲hlt wird die Geschichte von Nat脿lia, die selbst spricht. Sie lernt auf einem Fest auf der Pla莽a del Diamant den Tischler Quimet kennen. Sie trennt sich von ihrem Verlobten und heiratet den toxischen Quimtet. Er unterdr眉ckt Nat脿lia. Das beginnt damit, dass er ihr ihren Namen nimmt und sie als T盲ubchen bezeichnet. Sie hei脽t jetzt nur noch Colometa. Neben Psychoterror wird Nat脿lia in einer bedr眉ckenden Szene auch geschlagen. Sie l盲sst alles 眉ber sich ergehen. Die beiden bekommen zwei Kinder. Quimtet beginnt eine Taubenzucht. Schlie脽lich geht er als K盲mpfer in den Spanischen B眉rgerkrieg. Das Elend wird aufgrund der Hungernot f眉r Nat脿lia zun盲chst sogar noch gr枚脽er. Doch letztendlich kommt es zur Wende. Nat脿lia bekommt ihren Namen und ein besseres Leben zur眉ck.
"Auf der Pla莽a del Diamant" ist nach "Der Garten 眉ber dem Meer" der zweite Roman, den ich von Merc猫 Rodoreda gelesen habe. Wenn ich nicht gewusst h盲tte, dass beide Romane von derselben Autorin stammen, w盲re ich nicht darauf gekommen. Im Gegensatz zum "Garten" ist "Pla莽a del Diamant" wild und ruppig. Ich mag beide Romane, aber mir gef盲llt der atemlose und direkte Ton von Nat脿lia viel besser als der ruhige Ton im "Garten".
Read
February 20, 2023I was thinking how I had done everything I had ever done not knowing where I was or when, as if it were all planted and rooted in a time that had no memory...
Natalia, the first person narrator of this deeply disturbing novel, speaks these words very near the end, in a passage where at last she seems able to connect. Everything before is marked by a sense of dissociation, everything happens to her, without her active participation, often without her consent. She is a person without desires of her own.
My mother had never told me about men. She and my father spent years and years together arguing and a good few more not saying a word. They'd spend Sunday afternoons sitting in the dining room not saying a word. When my mother died, this life without words extended. And when my father remarried several years later I had nothing at home to latch on to. I lived a cat's life, running all over, tail up, tail down, time to eat, time to sleep, except a cat doesn't have to work to survive. We lived in a house without words and I found the things that came to me frightening because I never knew what sparked them off...
And the things that come to her are frightening: a husband who recognizes the blankness that he can fill.
... he said that if I wanted to be his wife I'd have to start liking every single thing he liked. He gave me a long sermon about men and women and their respective rights and when I managed to get a word in I asked, 'And what if I don't like something one little bit?'
'You've just got to, you don't have a clue.'
Then come pigeons; frightening, smelly birds that take over the living space, take over the children, like some alien life form invading this planet.
And then war.
The whole thing is nightmarish, which throws the one and only tender scene in the novel into such sharp relief. Natalia has survived, she has married again. A kind man, a gentle man. At last she dares to feel, and see, and know. She can connect with this husband, Anthony. She climbs into bed to warm him.
I pressed my cheek against his back, against his knobbly bones, and it was as if I could hear everything alive inside, that was also him: his heart, his lungs and his liver, all swimming in juices and blood. And I began to move my hand gingerly over his belly because he was my cripple and pressing my head against his back I thought how I didn't want him to die on me and I wanted to tell him everything I was thinking, that I thought more than I said, and thoughts you can't say, and said nothing and my feet were warming up and we went to sleep like that...
Happy...
Natalia, the first person narrator of this deeply disturbing novel, speaks these words very near the end, in a passage where at last she seems able to connect. Everything before is marked by a sense of dissociation, everything happens to her, without her active participation, often without her consent. She is a person without desires of her own.
My mother had never told me about men. She and my father spent years and years together arguing and a good few more not saying a word. They'd spend Sunday afternoons sitting in the dining room not saying a word. When my mother died, this life without words extended. And when my father remarried several years later I had nothing at home to latch on to. I lived a cat's life, running all over, tail up, tail down, time to eat, time to sleep, except a cat doesn't have to work to survive. We lived in a house without words and I found the things that came to me frightening because I never knew what sparked them off...
And the things that come to her are frightening: a husband who recognizes the blankness that he can fill.
... he said that if I wanted to be his wife I'd have to start liking every single thing he liked. He gave me a long sermon about men and women and their respective rights and when I managed to get a word in I asked, 'And what if I don't like something one little bit?'
'You've just got to, you don't have a clue.'
Then come pigeons; frightening, smelly birds that take over the living space, take over the children, like some alien life form invading this planet.
And then war.
The whole thing is nightmarish, which throws the one and only tender scene in the novel into such sharp relief. Natalia has survived, she has married again. A kind man, a gentle man. At last she dares to feel, and see, and know. She can connect with this husband, Anthony. She climbs into bed to warm him.
I pressed my cheek against his back, against his knobbly bones, and it was as if I could hear everything alive inside, that was also him: his heart, his lungs and his liver, all swimming in juices and blood. And I began to move my hand gingerly over his belly because he was my cripple and pressing my head against his back I thought how I didn't want him to die on me and I wanted to tell him everything I was thinking, that I thought more than I said, and thoughts you can't say, and said nothing and my feet were warming up and we went to sleep like that...
Happy...
July 30, 2022
A aquestes al莽ades, seria una mica absurd posar-me a fer aqu铆 una sinopsi de 'La pla莽a del Diamant', per貌 s铆 que vull compartir amb vosaltres les meves impressions i destacar-ne alguns factors.
- La Nat脿lia ens explica la seva hist貌ria personal des de ben joveneta, per貌 tamb茅 ens explica la hist貌ria d'una Barcelona, concretament la del barri de Gr脿cia, que viu la prosperitat de les classes treballadores, la decad猫ncia que va portar la guerra civil i la mis猫ria que es vivia despr茅s. El retrat que fa 茅s tan realista, tan versemblant, que 茅s pr脿cticament una lli莽贸 d'hist貌ria social.
- L'evoluci贸 de la protagonista, des de la m茅s tendra innoc猫ncia, fins l'acceptaci贸 de la maduresa, passant per fases de desesperaci贸, 茅s meravellosa. En cap cas m'ha semblat beneita, ni fleuma, 茅s una hero茂na que topa amb un marit masclista, controlador i maltractador, una persona impulsiva i penques de qui n'est脿 molt, per貌 que pel lector actual no li fa ni un bri d'ombra a la Nat脿lia.
- Aquelles que diuen que Rodoreda 茅s 'la jefa' tenen ra贸. Aquest llibre va aconseguir enganxar-me des de la primera p脿gina, i aix貌 t茅 molt de m猫rit perqu猫 narra una vida amb totes les seves fases, desgr脿cies i alegries, derrotes i petits 猫xits. Aix貌 s'ha de saber fer. L'estil, la capacitat descriptiva, el saber novel路lar temes que li preocupen. Destresa i talent desbordants. Un exemple nom茅s: com exposa diferents sensibilitats ideol貌giques respecte el conflicte b猫l路lic.
- No llegia Rodoreda des de l'institut. Em van fer llegir 'Mirall trencat' i en tenia un record tedi贸s, el vaig trobar molt avorrit. Llegida de gran l'autora m'ha semblat brillant i voldr茅 llegir-la m茅s. Aix貌 em porta a fer la pregunta que us deixo a baix. Per貌 des d'ara mateix la meva percepci贸 de Merc猫 Rodoreda canvia. Tot un tresor de les nostres lletres.
(SERGI)
- La Nat脿lia ens explica la seva hist貌ria personal des de ben joveneta, per貌 tamb茅 ens explica la hist貌ria d'una Barcelona, concretament la del barri de Gr脿cia, que viu la prosperitat de les classes treballadores, la decad猫ncia que va portar la guerra civil i la mis猫ria que es vivia despr茅s. El retrat que fa 茅s tan realista, tan versemblant, que 茅s pr脿cticament una lli莽贸 d'hist貌ria social.
- L'evoluci贸 de la protagonista, des de la m茅s tendra innoc猫ncia, fins l'acceptaci贸 de la maduresa, passant per fases de desesperaci贸, 茅s meravellosa. En cap cas m'ha semblat beneita, ni fleuma, 茅s una hero茂na que topa amb un marit masclista, controlador i maltractador, una persona impulsiva i penques de qui n'est脿 molt, per貌 que pel lector actual no li fa ni un bri d'ombra a la Nat脿lia.
- Aquelles que diuen que Rodoreda 茅s 'la jefa' tenen ra贸. Aquest llibre va aconseguir enganxar-me des de la primera p脿gina, i aix貌 t茅 molt de m猫rit perqu猫 narra una vida amb totes les seves fases, desgr脿cies i alegries, derrotes i petits 猫xits. Aix貌 s'ha de saber fer. L'estil, la capacitat descriptiva, el saber novel路lar temes que li preocupen. Destresa i talent desbordants. Un exemple nom茅s: com exposa diferents sensibilitats ideol貌giques respecte el conflicte b猫l路lic.
- No llegia Rodoreda des de l'institut. Em van fer llegir 'Mirall trencat' i en tenia un record tedi贸s, el vaig trobar molt avorrit. Llegida de gran l'autora m'ha semblat brillant i voldr茅 llegir-la m茅s. Aix貌 em porta a fer la pregunta que us deixo a baix. Per貌 des d'ara mateix la meva percepci贸 de Merc猫 Rodoreda canvia. Tot un tresor de les nostres lletres.
(SERGI)
January 26, 2021
Esta obra de arte literario de los pies a la cabeza no solo me ha puesto delante de un abismo, me ha lanzado a 茅l, y el vac铆o del abismo se me ha quedado dentro para siempre.
Si alguien me pregunta 驴qu茅 es la literatura? le dir铆a, es La plaza del Diamante.
禄
Si alguien me pregunta 驴qu茅 es la literatura? le dir铆a, es La plaza del Diamante.
禄
May 15, 2025
qu茅 adorado adorado libro
lo encuentro en una librer铆a de Israel, cubierta de piso a techo de libros en hebreo
cuando pregunto si tienen algo en espa帽ol, me sientan en el piso, destapan el mantel que cubre una peque帽a mesa y ah铆, debajo de la mesa, como resguardados de algo, o escondidos, me encuentro con que hay dos pilas de libros de segunda mano en espa帽ol
casi todos los conoc铆a, o al libro o a su autor, ninguno de mi inter茅s
y de pronto...
es una ternura, la protagonista, Natalia, la amo, c贸mo mira el mundo, y lo relata y lo sufre y lo vive y casi desiste y aguanta y aguanta y narra cada emoci贸n de una forma que suspiras, y describe una gota de lluvia como nadie lo ha hecho, y se describe a s铆 misma como un "corcho" y con un "coraz贸n de nieve" y a sus hijos, ufff, a sus hijos
hay que buscar este tesoro, leerlo y aliviarse las penas con 茅l
olvidarse de esta literatura barata que abunda y tratar de encontrar esta literatura po茅tica que es escasa
adorado adorado libro...
September 12, 2024
Qu茅 novela m谩s triste y bella al mismo tiempo. La historia de Natalia empieza con una historia de amor y termina con otra, pero por el camino hay muerte, miseria, hambre y, sobre todo, falta de libertad y opresi贸n. Lo que sufrieron las mujeres espa帽olas a mediados del siglo XX en Espa帽a est谩 personificado en la figura de nuestra protagonista, llamada Colometa (paloma) por su marido, que la enjaula, la reprime y la hace m谩s y m谩s peque帽ita sin ella darse apenas cuenta.
Pero nada m谩s lejos de la realidad. Porque es una mujer que debe hacerse fuerte para sobrevivir. Y lo hace en la m谩s estricta soledad, como madre de dos hijos a los que apenas puede mantener durante la guerra. Que sufre de hambre, miseria y una identidad "robada", apropiada por su marido. Pero que lucha por encontrarla, a煤n en el sometimiento.
Una historia que podr铆a haber sido la de nuestras abuelas o bisabuelas y, quiz谩s, en parte lo sea. Lo que m谩s me ha gustado de es ver que, detr谩s de la fachada de mujer "que todo lo puede", est谩 muchas veces una mujer que sufre la soledad del machismo trag谩ndose sus sentimientos para sobrevivir y sacar adelante a sus hijos.
Y, respecto al estilo, aunque sigue una estructura tradicional con un lenguaje sencillo, ya que la narradora (Natalia) es de clase humilde y nos lo cuenta todo desde su punto de vista, la novela tiene fragmentos que te atrapan, que te hacen pensar, narrados de una forma bell铆sima. Fragmentos a los que es inevitable querer volver de vez en cuando.
Os dejo algunos de ellos:
芦Y el muchacho dijo cuando estemos solos, y todo el mundo est茅 metido dentro de sus casas y las calles vac铆as, usted y yo bailaremos un vals de puntas en la plaza del Diamante... gira que gira禄.
芦Baj茅 la cabeza porque no sab铆a qu茅 decir y pens茅 que ten铆a que estrujar la tristeza, hacerla peque帽a enseguida para que no me vuelva, para que no est茅 ni un minuto m谩s corri茅ndome por las venas y rond谩ndome. Hacer con ella una pelota, una bolita, un perdig贸n. Trag谩rmela禄.
芦Y sent铆 intensamente el paso del tiempo. No el tiempo de las nubes y del sol. El que rueda y rueda dentro del coraz贸n y le hace rodar con 茅l y nos va cambiando por dentro y por fuera y poco a poco nos va haciendo tal y como seremos el 煤ltimo d铆a禄.
Pero nada m谩s lejos de la realidad. Porque es una mujer que debe hacerse fuerte para sobrevivir. Y lo hace en la m谩s estricta soledad, como madre de dos hijos a los que apenas puede mantener durante la guerra. Que sufre de hambre, miseria y una identidad "robada", apropiada por su marido. Pero que lucha por encontrarla, a煤n en el sometimiento.
Una historia que podr铆a haber sido la de nuestras abuelas o bisabuelas y, quiz谩s, en parte lo sea. Lo que m谩s me ha gustado de es ver que, detr谩s de la fachada de mujer "que todo lo puede", est谩 muchas veces una mujer que sufre la soledad del machismo trag谩ndose sus sentimientos para sobrevivir y sacar adelante a sus hijos.
Y, respecto al estilo, aunque sigue una estructura tradicional con un lenguaje sencillo, ya que la narradora (Natalia) es de clase humilde y nos lo cuenta todo desde su punto de vista, la novela tiene fragmentos que te atrapan, que te hacen pensar, narrados de una forma bell铆sima. Fragmentos a los que es inevitable querer volver de vez en cuando.
Os dejo algunos de ellos:
芦Y el muchacho dijo cuando estemos solos, y todo el mundo est茅 metido dentro de sus casas y las calles vac铆as, usted y yo bailaremos un vals de puntas en la plaza del Diamante... gira que gira禄.
芦Baj茅 la cabeza porque no sab铆a qu茅 decir y pens茅 que ten铆a que estrujar la tristeza, hacerla peque帽a enseguida para que no me vuelva, para que no est茅 ni un minuto m谩s corri茅ndome por las venas y rond谩ndome. Hacer con ella una pelota, una bolita, un perdig贸n. Trag谩rmela禄.
芦Y sent铆 intensamente el paso del tiempo. No el tiempo de las nubes y del sol. El que rueda y rueda dentro del coraz贸n y le hace rodar con 茅l y nos va cambiando por dentro y por fuera y poco a poco nos va haciendo tal y como seremos el 煤ltimo d铆a禄.
January 27, 2020
螡慰蟽蟿伪位纬喂魏蠈 蠀蠁慰蟼, 渭蔚 渭喂伪 蔚喂魏蠈谓伪 伪胃蠅慰蟿畏蟿伪蟼 谓伪 伪喂蠅蟻蔚委蟿伪喂 , 蟽蟿伪 慰蟻喂伪 蟿畏蟼 伪未喂伪蠁慰蟻委伪蟼 蟿慰 蟺蟻蠅蟿慰 渭喂蟽蠈
危蠀纬魏位慰谓喂蟽蟿喂魏蠈 蟿慰 未蔚蠀蟿蔚蟻慰 , 蟿伪 蠂蟻慰谓喂伪 蟿慰蠀 蔚渭蠁蠀位委慰蠀 渭蔚蟽伪 伪蟺慰 蟿伪 渭维蟿喂伪 伪蠀蟿蠋谓 蟺慰蠀 渭苇谓慰蠀谓 蟺喂蟽蠅 伪蟺慰 蟿慰 渭苇蟿蠅蟺慰
危蠀纬魏位慰谓喂蟽蟿喂魏蠈 蟿慰 未蔚蠀蟿蔚蟻慰 , 蟿伪 蠂蟻慰谓喂伪 蟿慰蠀 蔚渭蠁蠀位委慰蠀 渭蔚蟽伪 伪蟺慰 蟿伪 渭维蟿喂伪 伪蠀蟿蠋谓 蟺慰蠀 渭苇谓慰蠀谓 蟺喂蟽蠅 伪蟺慰 蟿慰 渭苇蟿蠅蟺慰
August 15, 2020
El libro me gust贸 mucho y la serie me encant贸.
February 23, 2024
鈥渋 li volia dir tot el que pensava, que pensava m茅s del que dic, i coses que no es poden dir, i no vaig dir res i els peus se m'anaven escalfant i ens vam adormir aix铆 i,鈥�
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