7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Viva! Carmen Laforet, an author so young and wise, April 28, 2009
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!"
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book, October 17, 2008
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Un viaje a un mundo sin esperanza, November 7, 2009
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.
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