Customer Reviews

Soldados de Salamina (Coleccion Andanzas, 433) (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's easy to see why this award-winning book -- which is selling like crazy in Spain -- has gone through eleven printings in just seven months. On the surface, it's a well-researched nonfiction story about an incident in 1939, during the final days of the Spanish Civil War, and the story of one of the men who sparked that catastrophic three-year conflict. It's also the tale of the book's creation, the journalist who wrote it, and the colorful people he met while trying to unearth the story that comprises the final two-thirds of the book.

In 1937, Sánchez -Mazas a fascist writer and main ideologist of Spanish Falange was living as a refugee in the neutral embassy of Chile at Madrid, as the rebellion has caught him in the capital, ruled by the Republicans. He tempts to escape to France in a truck, but was detected in Barcelona also in the Republican side, and imprisoned. But when troops of Franco won and advanced in 1939, Sánchez- Mazas with some dozens of less important prisoners was driven into a forest to be shot before the arrival of the nationalists. Some prisoners attempted to escape. Almost none got to survive, but Sánchez -Mazas did, because although he was effectively found by a Republican soldier in a hole, it seems that man, feeling that cruel war was over and lost, and tired of killing, refused to shot him and said his mates he hadn't seen nobody. Mazas survived during some weeks hungry and suffering intense cold, aided sometimes by the inhabitants of the rural masías. Later, he joined the Franco's troops and was named a minister, mostly honorary than real.
This is the skeleton of this novel, and these facts are true, but the narration includes more. At the beginning, the author, a journalist and writer of dubious talent -truly the own Javier Cercas if you want- hears to tell this story to a son of Sánchez - Mazas, also a real figure and excellent writer, Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio. Cercas wants to know more about this strange episode, but Ferlosio, an old man something extravagant, eludes to explain more details, divagates with irony, as he has an ideology frontally opposite to his father, and refers to the soldiers of Salamina, the ancient battle when the Greeks defeated Persian fleet, as he thinks soldiers as these are capable to save mankind from disaster. The search of the identity of that mysterious, perhaps dead man that saved a prominent enemy sixty years ago is the full plot of this novel. Effectively, Sánchez- Mazas wrote a diary of these terrible days now almost lost in a library. The difficult searching of these possible soldier of Salamina has to end in France, when an eighty old year Spanish man named Miralles, ex combatant of both Spanish Civil and World War II with the Foreign Legion of general Leclerc survives in Dijon with terrible scars, now under French nationality. The author interviews that old soldier, an exceptional creation of the author and perhaps the best part of the novel, but the reader must decide if he was the man which didn't killed his enemy or not. Cercas does a reflection: "One doesn't find those things he search, but only those than life wants to give him".

Un libro inteligentemente escrito, original y sensible : yo digo que un libro perfecto que cuenta una historia no tan perfecta. Me costo leer las ultimas paginas por las lagrimas. Llore por aquella guerra civil espanola que lamentablemente me recuerda el presente, las divisiones en Venezuela, lo absurdo y terrible que son las guerras. Un libro obligatorio por su contenido y para los amantes de la buena literatura, por su forma.

A gripping tale, about a historically almost insignificant incident in the last days of the Spanish civil war (a leader of the Spanish falange, an ideologically right-wing movement adopted by Franco's nationalist as their ideology, flees into the woods during a mass execution of high-level prisoners. Although a soldier finds him, he does not report him and therefore allows him to conserve his life) and, more importantly, the reasons behind why it happened.

I found the author's treatment of the story a good reflection of the topic's worth, and he skilfully extracts much from what could arguably have been covered in a newspaper article (largely by dedicating much of the book to the process by which he arrives at his reconstruction of those fateful days).

Unfortunately, I could not shake off the feeling that a better wordsmith and more detached observer might have been able to render the work of a higher standard. Written from the author's perspective in researching the events, Cercas seems intent on casting himself in the role of the blase and flawed character that one would expect from a 50s hollywood movie. I found this often reflected negatively on his ability to truly humanize the other characters in the story (some received much kinder treatment than others, for sure).

But overall, the book keeps a breezey pace and is a joy to read. I recommend to everyone, though I would underscore the author's insistence that it is a historical novel -- the line between fiction and fact can get blurry and I found myself doubting the truth of some of the author's retellings. But it did not detract from its overall quality, and it deserves a solid 4 stars.

One of the best books I've read. The author's command over the narrtive techniques is amazing. He creates a story inside of another one; both of them could be real, historical events... or not. But it just does not matter, because the main aim of the book is to evoke emotions, and it sure does. Especially, it is a tribute to the old people who fought in the Spanish Civil War and are now living in the most absolute and unfair oblivion. I found it deeply moving, as well as the movie (by Spanish director David Trueba), and wonderfully written. In Spain it sold like crazy without any serious campaign behind it, all by itself. I higlly recomnend it.

De lo mejor que se ha publicado en la última década: un trabajo puntilloso y aparte conmovedor. Una maravilla de novela y punto. Que nadie se la pierda.

Es un buen libor menor, como dice el narrador de los libros de Sánchez Maza. El autor logra captar el
espíritu de un tiempo y de una guerra díficiles-sobretodo díficiles de entender en la época actual. Lo
mejor del libro para mí era el fin cuando el personaje Miralles habla de sus amigos de juventud meurtos
todos haciendo la guerra. Cuando dice ¨ninguno conoció una mujer para él sólo, ninguno conoció la
maravilla de tener un hijo y de que su hijo, con tres o cuatro años, se metiera en su cama, entre su
mujer y él...:. Como padre la escena me era tan patetica que casi me puso a llorar.

Un excelente trabajo acerca de la Guerra Civil Espanola. Bien investigado, y mejor trabajado. En pocas paginas, una muy buena vision de los traumas y desenfrenos de la guerra y sus protagonistas...."las guerras siempre la pierden los poetas..."

This is a terrific novel that not only traces the last days of the Loyalist resistance to Franco's fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War with a redemptive and moving -and unexpected- action by the book's hero but italso reveals some very interesting glimpses [through the device of an interview 50+ years later] with the great Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño. For those interested in contemporary literature, historical accounts of the Spanish Civil War, or the life and thoughts of Bolaño, highly recommended.

This has become one of my favorite novels after having read it for a Spanish class during our Spanish Civil War unit. I find the writing style very straightforward and appealing, and the fact that there are autobiographical elements incorporated into the character of the aspiring novelist creates an incredibly interesting, almost meta-novelistic read. The plot line is excellent and almost like a detective case, weaving both present and past in order to uncover the identity of the mysterious soldier in the forest. Great details and poignant moments -- an excellent and recommended read.