Customer Reviews

The Hive (Neglected books of the twentieth century)

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"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.

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.

A masterpiece -- and a superb translation.

The Hive is the best known work by the Spanish novelist and 1989 Nobel Laureate, Camilo Jose Cela. It's set in Madrid during World War II and in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Cela's intent was to show us a panoramic view of the sufferings of the lower-middle class after the war. To do this, he gives us over 300 character in a series of over 200 short scenes, about one every page or two. They are many scenes in cafes, at homes, on the street. There are romances, affairs, arguments, deceptions--in other words, every slice of life. The scenes act like film exposures, and it's through the repetition of themes and emotions that we get the overall effect Cela is going for. The characters work together, like a hive of bees, to show us more about post-Civil War Spanish society through their interactions than any one of them could individually.

At first, I enjoyed how the book flowed, and didn't mind the choppy structure. Occasionally I would have to go back and re-read a character's previous scene to remember who they were, but that didn't bother me much. I understood what Cela was trying to do, and was interested to see how it would play out. As the book proceeded however, I actually became less interested in what was happening. I eventually came to realize that the chapters are out of time sequence, and I never really figured out why, or what that was supposed to add to the experience. At the end of the novel, I was still flipping back to re-read some parts to understand where I was. I suppose I spent most of the novel waiting for something big to happen. But nothing ever does. This novel is truly a reflection of these lives and their times, with all its banality. So in that sense, it's a social novel, whose intent is more to educate than entertain.

With that in mind, this book isn't for everybody. I read it because I try to read at least one book from each of the Nobel winners. Unless you're really interested in Spanish history, or the art of novel composition, I'd skip this book.

"La Colmena" pasará a la historia como la obra hispana contemporánea más estudiada en las Universidades Americanas. Entre los diversos estudios destaca una tesis doctoral de la Universidad de California firmada por una tal "Loreena M." que intenta analizar el número de personajes que intervienen en la novela llegando a la conclusión de que son 232 aunque plantea la duda sobre un personaje llamado "Manolo" que aparece en dos ocasiones y que la autora de la tesis no puede asociar. Esta anécdota demuestra el interés suscitado por esta obra publicada a mediados de la década de los 50 y que sirve de puente entre el realismo de Posguerra y las nuevas tendencias de los años 60. La técnica narrativa, denominada por los críticos como calidoscopio, se basa en una estructura coral de los personajes que describen un entorno concreto, el Madrid de la posguerra, haciendo un exhaustivo repaso a la sociedad de la época con sus grandezas y miserias en un periodo temporal muy determinado: cinco días.
Como antesala de esta obra hay que mencionar "Café de Artistas", un relato que Cela escribió a finales de los años cuarenta aunque se público bastante después que "La Colmena". En definitiva una obra compleja que invita a ser releída una y otra vez descubriendo a cada pagina un nuevo matiz con el que completar ese espectro narrativo que surge de la descomposición de la realidad, cuando pasa a través de un prisma óptico llamado Camilo José Cela.

For me Cela is one of the best Spaniard authors ever. This novel is a master piece. The only advice I can give you is: read it!