novel, Spain, tr R Nugent & M Jose de la Camara
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The subheading "Disordered Diary," which appears at the start of this novel, is all too apropos. While there are passages of beautiful writing here, and the translation flows easily, it is unrelentingly difficult to grab a foothold in this dense work filled with numerous changes of heart. The narrator feels that she has always been at the mercy of men and recalls that while she was chatty and behaved badly in school before the Spanish Civil War, afterward she became first subdued and docile as a boarding student and then completely mute. A boy named Bear, born to the narrator while his father was at war, grows up during the course of the novel as well and is often the focus of endless deliberation: "Why have I accepted the fact that Bear might get used to it here, in this country? I am not tied to countries, I am indifferent to origins and ties, to old concepts of land and lineage, like a fly." Scattered among other fragments are the narrator's recollections of her brief marriage to David, Bear's father, before he had to leave for the war. These fragments are too disparate and come too infrequently to create a story, however, and the narrator's agonized storytelling begins to grate. "I am going to tell the story of my life. No, I am going to tell the story of my story. I am not going to tell anything," the narrator pours out at one point. All too true.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
In her powerful novel, The Trap, Ana Maria Matute explores the ties that bind family, society and culture. Through her compelling use of a powerful feminine first-person narrative, Matute highlights the experience of women during the tumultuous years of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Matute delicately weaves a feminist subtext into the larger context of Spain's difficulties in dealing with gender, class and cultural distinctions. She draws from her own experiences to paint a literary picture of the conflict between two groups: the people she calls the merchants (who deny the vitality of life) and the soldiers (who believe in tolerance). The Trap examines the lasting effects of social upheaval, discrimination and lives trapped in conflict. Matute is a novelist well deserving of her literary acclaim and is ably translated in her latest work by Robert Nugent and Maria Jose de la Camara, bringing the vitality and power of Matute's fiction to an English speaking readership. -- Midwest Book Review
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