Often, I find a new favourite author when I read a Nobel Prize winner. Was that the same this time? I don't think so. The book was alright but nothing too special. Apparently, this was his best, his most important novel.
It was a bit too much of a jumble for me. In German, we have a good word for that, "Kuddelmuddel". There were too many short stories that somehow had a connection but the break between one and the next was so large that you often didn't even remember who he was talking about. Yes, he wanted to show how much life in Spain during the Franco regime resembled a beehive. Unfortunately, he succeeded all too well in that.
Funnily enough, he mentions a book that has been published by F. Sempere & Co. in Valencia. I don't think he has any relation to the one in Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" series but I've been speculating whether it is or is not a coincidence. Now, Ruiz Zafón was a great Spanish author, one of my favourites.
Anyway, the story was distorted, the characters not very amiable, the whole book didn't give us a way to see into the lives. What a pity.
This appears on the cover of my book (translated):
"The morning rises ever so gradually. It crawls like a caterpillar across the hearts of the city’s men and women. Almost coaxingly, it taps against half-awakened gazes—gazes that never discover new horizons, new landscapes, or new settings. The morning—this eternally recurring morning—plays a little, seeking to alter the face of the city. It is a grave, a climbing pole, a beehive."
And this is the book description I found on the internet:
"The Hive presents a panoramic view of the degradation and sufferings of the lower-middle class in post-civil war Spain. Readers are introduced to over a hundred characters through a series of starkly rendered interlocking vignettes. Filled with violence, hunger, and compassion, The Hive captures the buzzing ambitions and set-backs of Spanish society under the rule of Franco."
Camilo José Cela received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989 "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability."
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.
Here are all the books on my original Classics Club list.
And here is a list of all the books I read with the Classics Spin.
The German language has the best words! I love kuddelmuddel. But I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this one more. At least you got through it and can count it for two challenges. :D Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lark. Yes, we can be very imaginative when it comes to word buliding.
DeleteIt's fine. I am glad I read it. I still have another book by him on my TBR pile, maybe I will tackle it one day.
I can't even remember having seen this name. Maybe I did not follow the prize that much in 1989. Too busy with other things obviously. I must admit I do not like many of the authors that have received the prize. Most of them, but not all, are difficult authors. It seems the Academy have eased up a little bit in later years. However Modiano is an exception. Wonderful author. And, very few can beat Thomas Mann and Buddenbrocks.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean, Lisbeth. I do like the not so easy ones, maybe that's why I like many of the Nobel Prize winners. There are only a few that I don't care for that much. Modiano is not one of my favourites though better than this one. And, of course, Thomas Mann is one of my favourite authors ever. Another one that is on this list is Orhan Pamuk, though I knew him before and he had received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade the year before. And Günter Grass, Toni Morrison, Naguib Mahfouz, García Márquez, Solzhenitsyn, John Steinbeck, Albert Camus, Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Pearl S. Buck, of which I read many, many books and many others where I only read one or two but really liked them.
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