Customer Reviews

Lorca: A Dream of Life

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The editor, Leslie Stainton must be given due credit for taking such painful details to record García Lorca's life in this full-scale authoritative biography. It provides very intimate details of Lorca's life from his childhood to tragic death. It contains detailed accounts of his life, travels, writing and other intimate details which have been craftily captured by Stainton.

The bonus of the book is pictures of Lorca, his family and friends. It includes very rare pictures from Lorca's childhood to his adult life. One picture taken in 1899 shows Lorca when he was just one year old. Another picture shows Lorca in Arab dress taken in 1918. In this context it records rare pictures of this poet-playwright who electrified his audiences until a Fascist firing squad killed him in 1936. Leslie Stainton captures this sad but fascinating life of Lorca whose life itself is like a drama he wrote. The book places Lorca in a cultural and historical context providing unusual insights into his life and major works.

A must read for anyone interested in Lorca's life and work.

Don't let the title of LORCA: A DREAM OF LIFE fool you into thinking that this book is about the fantasies that wove the character of the great Spanish writer/artist. This is a well researched document that should be an essential volume in all libraries. There is much to be learned here: how many Americans understand the magnitude of the Spanish American War which resulted in skeletonizing the empire of Spain, annexing the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to the US? It is this era of defeat into which Lorca was born - author Stainton begins her book this way and continues the entire biography uniting the changes in Lorca's development as an artist with the political upheavals of WWI and WWII. This history in context technique at times absorbs too many pages, giving us less information about the soul of the subject than about the country of the subject.

Given this direction as her modus operandi, Stainton still manages to illuminate the works of Lorca and even has the courage to tackle his sexuality and the consequent influences on his work. While other biographers have given us a more fleshed out image of one of the truly great writers of the 20th century, LORCA: A DREAM LIFE is written with consummate attention to detail and enlightens us as to the milieu which contributed to the intensity of experiences tha shaped Lorca's output. This is definitely a good read and recommended to round out your understanding of Lorca's Spain and Spirit.

Stainton's biography of Lorca is meticulously researched and well-conceived. Her style is compelling but unobtrusive, and, as her vast bibliography and acknowledgements attest, she has done her homework, giving an account of the enigmatic poet that draws on an extremely wide variety of sources.

Stainton's attention to Lorca's oeuvre is consistently thoughtful and concise: she offers explication and analysis of the poetry to support her depiction of Lorca's nature and aesthetic philosophy, and introduces us to the dramatic works, always with a detailed account of their origins, performance history and context.

Stainton also offers key connections between works, and, as such, generates a clear chronological sense of Lorca's artistic development.

I have not read the highly-acclaimed Ian Gibson biography of Lorca, and as such cannot offer a comparison. However, all in all, Stainton provides a complete and rewarding picture of the great poet that will surely endure as one of the finest of its kind.

I tend to find biographies boring. Even when it comes to biographies of famous people who interest me, I tend to be picky. If I find text to be plain, or if the writer does not engage me, I won't bother continuing the book. But this biography is very well-written. Why? The writer seems to be aware that her readers are most likely generally familiar with Lorca's basic timeline, his influences, his writings, etc. And her chapters focus on the interesting details about these things. There's a chapter on Falla, another on Dali, and she's scattered thoughtful details about his writings throughout the book. I've enjoyed reading the biography, and if you have an interest in the life of Garica Lorca, I recommend reading this biography. I promise it will capture and keep your attention.