18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Extraordinary Poet - An Extraordinary Human Being - A Life Well Led!,, July 27, 2005
This review is from: Confieso Que He Vivido (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)
Pablo Neruda's "Memoirs" is not a comprehensive autobiographical document. It is a personal memoir, recounted as if the author were sitting around a table, with good friends and a bottle of excellent Chilean wine, telling tales of the people, anecdotes and incidents that were so important in his life. "Confieso Que He Vivido," means I confess that I have lived. And Sr. Neruda certainly did that...with zest, zeal and so much talent. I read Neruda's book in Spanish, but feel more comfortable writing this review in English. The translation by Hardie St. Martin is a good one, but it does not do justice to Neruda's extraordinary writing skills. He romances the Spanish language, like no other, even with his prose.
Neruda was born, the son of a railroad worker, in the then frontier wilderness of Southern Chile in 1904. He led a bohemian lifestyle, dressing in black "like the true poets of the last century," during his university years in Santiago. His shyness, the "kink in the soul,"...especially of women, took him a while to overcome. He describes the people and places of that period with great 'carino' (love). His political ideology began to form at that time also, and politics became an integral part of his writing. The Student Federation, student demonstrations and the subsequent repression, had a great impact on the young intellectual.
Neruda led a rich and fascinating life. World traveled, he served as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java. He was the consul in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and during this time "Nine Love Poems" from "Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada" was published. It was at this time also, that his friend Federico Garcia Lorca was killed. Neruda was present in Paris to organize a worldwide anti-Facist congress of writers that would be held in Madrid. His writing about Spain during the war is heartbreaking. Returning to Chile in 1938, he found a burgeoning Fascist movement in his own beloved land.
I particularly enjoyed his account of the time he spent in Mexico, as consul. He tells of his encounters with the great Mexican painters there.
After returning home, Neruda ran for political office and was elected to Chile's Senate in 1945. He was later removed from his Senate seat after joining the Communist Party.
His friends included: Garcia Lorca, Ehrenburg, Picasso, Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Miguel Angel Asturias, Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and most sadly, Salvador Allende.
Pablo Neruda's death, just weeks after the brutal murder of Chile's President Allende, is something I will never forget. I was living in Colombia at that time, and remember where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Allende's death, and later heard of Neruda's passing. It called to mind, then and now, my recollections, as a young girl, when President Kennedy's assassination was announced. I always thought Neruda died of a broken heart.
This is an exceptionally good memoir, told with great charm, in a series of vignettes. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who has read and enjoyed Pablo Neruda's poetry - to my mind some of the most beautiful in the world. It also gives us a glimpse of the politics of the left from the point of view of a Latin American - not the usual perspective, and well worth while.
JANA
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
La historia contemporanea vista por los ojos de Neruda, June 11, 2000
Aunque la primera vez que lei este libro fue porque me lo prestaron, quiero afirmar con un poco de verguenza que no quise devolverlo. Neruda y su estilo unico de narrativa nos presentan su diario de una forma poetica y a la vez tragicomica. Me identifique mucho con sus vivencias, muchas de estas a veces pasan por nuestra vida sin que les demos importancia pero Neruda nos enseña que aun las anecdotas por mas insignificantes que parecieran ser nos dejan una enseñanza perenne. Sin duda, una de los libros que mas me han ayudado en mi desarrollo humano, se los recomiendo con mis ojos cerrados y mi alma abierta. Abran ese libro y profundicenlo., y por supuesto, no se lo roben, yo no lo hice, preferi devolverlo. Hubiese sido un crimen dejar a mi amiga Luisa sin tan preciado tesoro.
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