Customer Reviews

Nada: A Novel (Modern Library Classics)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
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The setting is around 1941-42, after the Spanish Civil War, when Spain is not involved in World War II but feeling the claustrophobic and repressive aftermath of their national implosion. Other readers will have told you the plot of this novel, but the grand metaphor you need to know about Nada is that Andrea arrives in Barcelona at midnight, and the following year leaves in broad daylight. What joy!

The setting might be Barcelona, Spain, but there is something alarmingly universal about a girl's attempt to overcome the limitations of her family and discover who she is through university-level study. How does a young woman create herself under adverse circumstances? (It's a kind of third-world story that also happens in the so-called first-world.) Early in the novel, Andrea's Aunt Angustias notes that Andrea went to a sort of high school run by nuns, but that it was in a village (one assumes where scholarly achievement was not expected); and we learn that the Barcelona home of her grandmother (with miserable aunt and uncles) is her only chance of creating herself, of attending a university, and escaping through studying literature. In the course of the year, Andrea must navigate some extremely uncomfortable emotions; she loses her best friend, Ena (but finds her again, later). Boyfriends elude her. The irony of all such novels is that it's the horrible family who gives the author the story (in which case there are no villains, only fellow victims). This notion is fully realized in her often vile Uncle Roman, who plays the violin so poignantly that you can hear it in Laforet's words, Grossman's elegant translation.

As a final note, since this novel, Nada, has been brilliantly translated into an affordable Modern Library edition, university faculty should make it assigned reading (high school students will love this, too). But only now that I'm older, can I understand that Andrea gets an exquisite experience of Barcelona when she strolls (or runs) through the streets after dark: the cool air, the quiet, the stars in the night sky, "an anguished harmony without light," an aesthetic experience all her own. On a winter stroll, Andrea recounts, "Then I knew what I longed for: I wanted to see the Cathedral enveloped in the charm and mystery of the night. . . . Nothing could calm and astound my imagination like that Gothic city. . ." (92). Ah!"

I wasn't sure I'd like this book at first as so many reviews I'd found called it despondent, sad, etc. I found the book to have sad parts, and yet I found it moving and I liked the heroine for not getting corrupted by all the things surrounding her. I wasn't saddened by the book nor did it depress me. In fact I actually liked the ending and thought it brought closure in a neat way but not an American way with artifice and quaintness.

I don't give many books 5 stars. Most that I really like get 4. Yet there was something about this book that merited this response. I am sad that more young people do not read this book. Then again, I find that Spanish history isn't covered very much in American schools. More English/French and then later Germany/Russia, but not Iberia. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

If I had read this when I was younger I suspect it would have been one of those books I kept rereading growing up. As it is, I will reread it again at some point.

I also agree with others that this book captures the feel of Barcelona. If you like this, try Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

I always wonder what else people read when they love/hate books because I wonder if I would agree with their review or not. Sometimes the things that lead people to give a book a good score would lower its score in my eyes or vice versa. So in that spirit, here's a bit about my reading habits to help you sort that out - I read a lot of European and Asian literature. I don't like most things that make the US Bestseller lists. I do love good mysteries for fun, and some speculative literature. I don't watch much tv.

I really enjoyed this book. I wrote my Master's Thesis on Spanish Literature on this book. I have read it 3 times and each time I find myself going deeper and deeper into the psychological journey towards adulthood for Andrea.
I truly hope you will enjoy this book as much as I have. I find myself wanting to read it again. I would also recommend 'el arbol de la ciencia' by Pio Baroja.

Nada is a coming-of-age novel about an 18-year-old orphan, Andrea, who moves from the Spanish countryside to Barcelona to live with her hyper-religious aunt, abusive uncles, and confused grandmother. Although Andrea has escaped her provincial background, the once-grand house of her relatives is now dirty and decaying. In the post-Civil-War Barcelona of the 1940s, food is scarce, and Andrea's relatives spend most of their time bickering and beating each other or chastising Andrea.

Nada is bleak, but Andrea's cool, somewhat detached first-person narrative makes the dark situation more bearable. Edith Grossman's translation vividly evokes the beauty and mystery of Barcelona, along with its decrepitude. More than the flesh-and-blood characters in this novel, Barcelona is a living, breathing force. This is an enjoyable read, particularly for those interested in Barcelona and its history.

Small town girl Andrea comes to live with her relatives in 1940s Barcelona in order to study at the university. During the year that follows, the allure of life in the exciting city quickly degenerates as Andrea's demanding and volatile family suffocates her spirit.

Andrea's relatives are the probably one of the most dysfunctional I've ever come across in literature . Laforet runs away with the stereotype of explosive Spanish temperament with enraged uncles trying to kill each other or beating their wives. It seems as if every other chapter has a murderous fight, whether verbal or physical. If they're not fighting, then they're trying to stifle Andrea.

The beginning seems to promise adventure as Andrea arrives in the Barcelona train station in the dead of night. Instead, however, it goes jaggedly downhill from there. Her aunt is obsessed with making sure Andrea remains chaste and pure from the influence of the city, its inhabitants, and rebellious ideas. Her Uncles Roman and Juan hate each other and everybody else. Juan beats his wife, Gloria, regularly. The maid is surly. Her grandmother suffers the violence between her sons and their neglect of her.

Andrea's home life goes from bad to worse, then even worse until she befriends the rich and beautiful Ena at the university. Their friendship introduces her to a more civilized and pampered existence and Ena becomes her refuge from the horrible fights at home. That is, until their friendship and her unstable family unexpectedly collide.

As the innocent lamb who comes into the den of lions, I kept expecting Andrea either be swallowed whole by her crazy family or turn crazy herself. Neither happened. Everyone around her explodes in fury and behaves outrageously, yet Andrea, other than indulging in a little rebellion, somehow hangs onto her sanity.

"One twilight near the Cathedral I heard the slow tolling of a bell that made the city older. I looked up at the sky, turning a softer, bluer color with the first stars, and I had an impression of almost mystical beauty. A desire to die there, off to the side, looking up, under the great sweetness of the night that was beginning to fall. And my chest ached with hunger and unconfessable desires when I breathed. It was as if I were smelling the scent of death and finding it good for the first time after it had caused terror in me."

Very little is revealed about Andrea's life before coming to live in Barcelona, as if, like the title, she was nothing, a clean slate upon which her family's rages and unreasonable demands become written. Will she become as they are or will she escape their tortured legacy?

I have not had a chance to read this book, but according to comments by classmates, this is a very good book that was required for my mulitcultural class. The author is very explicit and interesting book to read.

An orphan student, Andrea, comes to Barcelona in the post Spanish Civil war years to study at the University while staying with her family there.

She is thrown into a family that is both crazy and poor. An aunt that is authoritative, Angustias, who had a love affair with a married man and when rejected enters the convent.

Juan, Andrea's uncle, who's married to Gloria and has a son. Juan is a loser, and abusive with his wife, beats her for almost any reason. Juan wants to be an artist but his painting don't sell. Gloria arranges to trade them for a few pennies so she can gamble at her sister's house and earn a living for the family.

Then there is Román, the uncle who is a talented but cruel pianist and artist.

The only "sane" one is Andrea's grandmother that shows some compassion in the midst of the craziness.

Andrea befriends Ena, whose mother had been tricked and hurt by Román. Ena knew the story and in a mysterious way, takes revenge on Román, aided bu Andrea.

Román made money through contraband and Gloria denounces him after Román being hurt by Ena. Román commits suicide.

Finally after a year of "Nothing" (Nada) Andrea is saved from that house by Ena who takes her o Madrid to finish her studies.

The book is a very depressing read and even though it is well written and the characters are very well developed, it is a hard read.

i love this novel. i have not finished it, yet, because i don't want it to end. don't be scared by its designation as a classic; the writing style is quite modern and readable. this novel had me at the first page, and i haven't been able to put it down since. highly recommended!