Customer Reviews

The Mule

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This is a ubiquitous subject in Spain: the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. This story is about a humble packer who left the Revolutionary side to join Franco's insurgent nationalist army. This work is a fascinating story, which tries to understand how a person who has so much to lose by joining the nationalists still takes such a decision. What I found attractive of this work is that it helps understand how people would follow ideas, and even sacrifice themselves, for causes that are harmful to them. Galán writes with elegance, humor and a philosophical sophistication hardly found on topics of this nature. The Spanish version is much better, of course. Yet the translation captures some of the linguistic turns and the power of language that Galán pours on this historical novel.

Perez-Reverte must be a good friend of this author, given his warm endorsement. It is a well-written work, with some fine passages, but very trite; a Spanish take on Catch 22, The Good Soldier Schweik and a number of other anti-war morality tales, with little originality. If you can discern the metaphysical importance of the mule to this story, you're much more astute than I am. But screen writers will have their usual way with this plot, when the projected movie is filmed, and who knows what will emerge from that process. A good script writer might, for once, improve the original greatly.