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Catholic Iconography in the Novels of Juan Marsé
The prize-winning novelist Juan Marsé, born in Barcelona in 1933, is widely-read not only within Spain but also in translation, for his often provocative portrayals of life in post-war Barcelona. Clark's study discusses Marsé's engagement with Catholic popular culture, Spanish National Catholicism and Catalan Catholic Nationalism, exploring his subversion of iconic imagery as an ironic sub-textual commentary on political ideology, by which he is able to experiment with outer reality and inner reconstructions of experience. Dr Clark shows how religious and profane visions of love are subtly intertwined, how the tales told by children and the novel form itself are interrelated, and finally how a variety of biblical topoi, ranging from the Garden of Eden to the Song of Songs, are deployed in Marsé's fiction. Particular attention is paid to La oscura historia de la prima Montse, Si te dicen que ca and Im genes y recuerdos. -- Amazon.com.
The Snares of Memory
In January 1949 on an otherwise unremarkable day in an unremarkable Barcelona neighbourhood cinema, a prostitute is murdered in cold blood in the projection booth by the assistant projectionist, one Fermín Sicart. More than thirty years later, a screenwriter resolves to determine the truth behind her murder, and seeks out Fermin, who has served his time. But though Fermin remembers killing his victim, and exactly how he did it, he cannot for the life of him recall why. The Snares of Memory, by one of the great Spanish men of letters, is at once an investigation of memory, motive and murder and a pointed dig at the Spanish film industry of the second half of the twentieth century.
Shanghai Nights
For fourteen-year-old Daniel growing up in a poverty-stricken district of post-war Barcelona, a city where memories of the agonising Civil War were still fresh, life was grey and rarely easy. His father had not returned from war and he lived with his mother, filling in time between school and starting work as a jeweller's apprentice by looking after an elderly, eccentric, retired sea captain.All that enlivened the daily grind of economic hardship and dull routine were the occasional cross-border raids over the Pyrenees made by Republican sympathisers determined to destabilise Franco's government, and visits to the cinema. But there were also the magical stories told by the many colourful characters in this novel that are interwoven with the main narrative. Chief among them is that of Kim and his thrilling adventures in a mythical Shangai populated by gun-runners, ex-Nazis, beautiful women and sinister night club owners.Dreams and reality fuse in this enchanting tale of human spirit and imagination triumphing over misery told by a master craftsman.
Lizard Tails
Explores the experiences of the adolescent David, son of a Spanish Republican family. Throughout the novel, various members of the family are still recovering from defeat in Spain's harrowing Civil War, while the rest of the world is turned upside down by World War Two.
The Calligraphy of Dreams
When Señora Mir lays her body across the abandoned tracks for a tram that will never arrive, she presents Ringo Kid with a riddle he will not unravel until after her death. In Ringo's Barcelona, life endures in the shadow of civil war - the Fascist regime oversees all. Inspired by glimpses of Hollywood glamour, he finds his own form of resistance, escaping into myths of his own making, recast as a heroic cowboy or an intrepid big-game hunter. But when he finds himself inveigled as a go-between into an affair far beyond his juvenile comprehension, he is forced to turn from his interior world and unleash his talent for invention on the lives of others. And all the while he is left to wonder - what could have happened to Señora Mir that day to send her so far beyond the edge of reason? The Calligraphy of Dreams is a luminescent coming-of-age novel with a devilish twist. Reminiscent of Atonement and The Go-between, it is the culmination of the life's work of one of the greatest living Spanish men of letters.
The Fallen
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Reading the World
'A brilliant, unlikely book' Spectator How can we celebrate, challenge and change our remarkable world? In 2012, the world arrived in London for the Olympics...and Ann Morgan went out to meet it. She read her way around all the globe's 196 independent countries (plus one extra), sampling one book from every nation. It wasn't easy. Many languages have next to nothing translated into English; there are tiny, tucked-away places where very little is written down; some governments don't like to let works of art escape their borders. Using Morgan's own quest as a starting point, Reading the World explores the vital questions of our time and how reading across borders might just help us answer them. 'Revelatory... While Morgan's research has a daunting range...there is a simple message: reading is a social activity, and we ought to share books across boundaries' Financial Times
Last Evenings with Teresa
'Spain's finest contemporary novelist' Guardian 'Juan Marsé's contribution to European fiction has been consistently remarkable' Times Literary Supplement From one of Spain's most acclaimed authors, comes an extraordinary novel about ambition and longing set against the backdrop of post-war Barcelona. Teresa is everything he wants. She is beautiful, charming, rebellious, and born with every advantage in life. He has only ever existed on the margins. A poor immigrant from Murcia, earning his living stealing and selling motorbikes, he could only ever dream of being with the daughter of the Catalan bourgeoisie. When their desires take hold, they must face the realities of a world designed to k...
Language, the Novelist and National Identity in Post-Franco Catalonia
"Kathryn Crameri reveals some of the complex responses of writers and literary critics to the new possibilities for the expression of Catalan identities which resulted from Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy. The study begins by considering the cultural and political context of the Catalan novel from the 'Renaixenca' to the present day, and then offers a detailed analysis of novels by four very different writers - Montserrat Roig, Manuel de Pedrolo, Juan Marse (who writes in Spanish) and Biel Mesquida - all of whom seem to share an underlying thematic preoccupation with both individual and national 'transitions' and the intricate relationship between language and identity. These writers challenge institutionalised visions of the link between Catalanism, the Catalan language and Catalan literature, and offer a more pluralistic and personalised version of what it is to call oneself a Catalan."
