Stephen Burgen compiled a list of his favorite novels set in Spain “that will take you there”. This blogger read most of them and thinks Burgen made a good choice. For the climate, your purse and your health it might be a good idea to explore Spain remotely, rather than travelling there.
SOURCE: The Guardian (12 May 2020)
Toni Orensanz, Com vas perdre el braç, Balchowsky? [How did you lose your arm, Balchowsky?], 2022, 448 p.
publisher’s summary:
A young pianist from Chicago enrolls with the International Brigades and travels to Civil War Spain to fight fascism, where he loses the right arm. Back in the US, his story is one of overcoming and turns him into a legend of the artistic bohemia of Chicago, a prodigious storyteller and a counterculture pioneer; and it allows the readers, as if it was a book of chivalry, to fly over the history of the United States of the second half of the 20th century.
«He was a survivor who clung to life. A walking lesson of resistance and of smiling overcoming. A loser among losers for whom nothing turned out right, but who inspired affect in everybody. An idealist who was ferociously mistreated by life. A spiritual mentor and saving guru for many, though he didn’t know how to redeem himself, like the good messiahs. An essentially free man of a certain innocence. A good guy. A love. A dreaming idealist. A teacher of the streets [original]. The one-armed pianist. That agreeable sinner. The king of the alleys».
The Wikipedia has this article on Eddie Balchowsky (1916-1989) that talks about a missing hand – that sounds less dramatic than a missing arm, but would not make much of a difference as to practical every day life of a pianist.
This blogger has already read other books by Orensanz and generally liked them. The creative process often becomes part of the book, similar in style to those by Emmanuel Carrère.
There is a post on Orensanz’ 2013 novel “The summer of love”.
SOURCE: Columna (Grup 62, Planeta, publisher)
Camila Fabbri, Los Accidentes [The accidents], 2020, 140 p.
publisher’s summary:
Los accidentes is the first book by the Argentinian writer Camila Fabbri [originally published in 2015]. It is also the first narrative published by Paripé Books and it starts the “Camalote” collection, dedicated to Ibero-American narrative. These short stories seem to be made of elements of dreams; or to be more precise, of the matter of dreams that David Lynch could have. Their common link are not only the accidents of the book’s title but also an augmented mutation of the notion of discomfort.
The Wikipedia offers some biographical information on Camila Fabbri (Buenos Aires, 1989).
Your blogger must have read a positive review somewhere, otherwise there wouldn’t be this post. But he doesn’t like David Lynch movies; thus, it is quite unlikely he will ever read this book.
literary rambles 