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Title: The Hive by Camilo Jose Cela, J. M. Cohen, Arturo Barea ISBN: 1-56478-268-9 Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The fellowship of the cafe
Comment: In "The Hive", a most appropriate title, Cela recreates the everyday life of Madrid in the 1940's, centered around a small cafe and the life of its employees and clients. This place is the real protagonist of the novel, as we are witnesses to the small tragedies, triumphs, fights and passions of the people who live around it. It is verily a hive, an endless show of life with all its grandiosity, sordidness, pettiness and small acts of love and redemption. For those who know the modern-day Madrid, a cosmopolitan, prosperous place, it should be reminded that this book portrays the city right after the bitter Spanish Civil War, during the first days of Franco's dictatorship. Under Franco, Spain was a poor, provincial, backwards place where the most primitve form of Roman Catholicism was the religion of state, where the Catholic Church reigned supreme and where political repression was everywhere. Life wasn't easy in Spain in those days, and though this is not by any means a political novel, it is useful to remember this as we look at the lives of the many characters in this moving and excellent story.
Rating: 4
Summary: A canvas and people's lives
Comment: It's a very refreshing book. Particularly how it's composed and how the stories develop. There is something about the artist's technique that will make you remember this book. Imagine yourself thousands of feet above the ground from where you can view the neighbourhoods of a big city. All at once. And you observe people in space and time creating a beautiful pattern of life and its richness. This could be any city anywhere in any age (though we know its Spain) because this pattern of human life is very central to our existence. Each paragraph is an incident that relates to other paragraphs in a very sketchy way and picks up its thread somewhere else when you least expect it. Also be prepared for a multi-dimensional story with one very important dimension missing - time and I think on purpose. Because it's a snapshot, it does not aspire to be a video, there in lies its beauty. Take a blank canvas and put threads of various colors in a random design and then step back. You may not remember the threads but you will not forget the impression.
Rating: 3
Summary: A day in the life of Franco's Spain.
Comment: "The Hive" is the story of a coffee shop in Spain, frequented by a wide assortment of every-day Spanish citizens. It is an interesting narrative of colorful characters. There are a few tense moments when one realizes the fact that this is the Spain of Franco's rule, and a character runs afoul of the authorities once or twice, but by and large, this is a normal novel with an interesting story to tell. It is enjoyable to read and nice to follow the various characters, but Cela will remind the astute reader in a very subtle fashion, but an unequivocal one, that this is Franco's Spain, an isolated universe of political peril, giving this novel a second tier, a dark cloud which overhangs the proceedings. Readers who enjoy the multivarious tales of small town inhabitants and their common taverns, or readers who enjoy stories of early twentieth-century Spain will enjoy this story particularly.
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Title: The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo Jose Cela, Anthony Kerrigan ISBN: 0316134317 Publisher: Little Brown & Co (Pap) Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: LA Familia De Pascual Duarte by Camilo Jose Cela ISBN: 8484504352 Publisher: Plaza & Janes Editores, S.A. Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Labyrinth of Solitude: The Other Mexico, Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude, Mexico and the United States, the Philanthropic Ogre by Octavio Paz, Lysander Kemp ISBN: 080215042X Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: June, 1985 List Price(USD): $14.50 |
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Title: Count Julian by Juan Goytisolo, Helen Lane ISBN: 1852421584 Publisher: Serpent's Tail Pub. Date: May, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Mist: A Tragicomic Novel by Miguel De Unamuno, Warner Fite, Theodore Ziolkowski ISBN: 0252068947 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Pro Ref) Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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