From Publishers Weekly
This accomplished novel by a distinguished Spanish writer purports to be the transcript of a week's conversations between psychiatrist Burgueno Lopez and Pacifico Perez, a peasant serving a prison sentence for murder. Guided by the doctor's gentle inquiries, Pacifico relates the unfortunate developments that led to his incarceration. Pacifico recalls his father's, grandfather's and great-grandfather's constant exhortations to be a man, and remembers their relish in describing their successful participation in military campaigns. Yet the aptly named Pacifico is more like his brooding, thoughtful grandmother. Rejected by the army, he becomes a beekeeper and is seduced by a girl from a nearby village. When her brother finds out about their affair and appears to challenge them, Pacifico kills him. Although he is relieved to be imprisoned, freed of responsibility, he becomes involved in a botched escape plan in which a guard is killed. Will he be executed for this new crime? Delibes ( Five Hours with Mario ) explores the social dynamics of the Perez family and, by extrapolation, modern society, producing in Pacifico a natural storyteller through whom the tragicomic antics of the villagers quicken and pulse. A heightened sensitivity to nature informs both his breathtaking descriptions and his resolutely unromantic view of peasant life.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Through the apocryphal transcript of seven nights of dialog between a sanatorium psychologist and his criminal patient, one of Spain's great contemporary writers explores the themes of hereditary intergenerational violence and progress that is "messing up the world." If thematically it resembles the five Delibes novels already translated into English (most recently The Stuff of Heroes , LJ 9/1/90), stylistically its closest kin are Five Hours with Mario (Columbia Univ. Pr., 1988) and even the experimental The Hedge ( LJ 12/1/83). Moncy, translator of Benito Perez Galdos's Fortunata and Jacinta ( LJ 11/1/86), capably conveys the doctor's analytical inquisition but is less convincing with the peasant's colloquial phrases. Still, the book remains powerful reading. Highly recommended for literary fiction collections.
-Law rence Olszewski, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Law rence Olszewski, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
