My book reviews. El cartero de Neruda.

It´s been almost a whole month...

During these days I´ve been doing some reading, and it´s probably time to start reviewing like old times when I used to be an active reader...

I will also go back to the labels, as an easy way to group the posts by their topics. This is, so far, what I grouped as "literature" before I gave up labels:

http://surcosenlaarena.blogspot.com/search/label/Literatura

I must say, I had my serious doubts whether I should write this post in English or in Spanish, as the books I will talk about were originally written in Spanish... My excuses, then, for deciding in favor of English are these:
1. I have English speaking followers now... Not only that, but my English speaking follower might constitute about 30-50% of my current readers, so... that´s a good one.
2. It would be nice if by chance some non Spanish speaker passed by, and after reading got interested in Spanish literature! As this is one of the things from Spain that do make me feel proud of being Spanish. And yet it´s mostly latin-american literature that I will talk about here! But still...

This said, there are five books I´m gonna talk about in this and the next few posts. I started reading Saramago´s The elephant journey (yes, I know, not Spanish! But he is Iberian too...) but stumbled on some others in the process, so I will start with the ones I have already finished. (That way I will make sure that I actually did read all the 90 books in my list! - English use of brackets.)


Today:
NERUDA´S POSTMAN, by Antonio Skármeta

The cover of the edition I got says: "Mario Jiménez, a young fisherman, decides to give up his job to become a postman in Isla Negra, where the only person who ever sends or receives mail is the poet Pablo Neruda. By this plot, as original as seductive, the author gets an intense picture of the tumultuous 70´s in Chile, as well as a captivating love story and a poetic recreation of Pablo Neruda´s life."
Written in 1985, it was originally named "Ardent patience", until in 1995 it was re-named as "Neruda´s postman" ("The postman" in the English edition) after the success of an italian-french movie called "Il postino", which was nominated for five oscars (and got one).
I will be honest, the author is definitely not one of the best I´ve ever read. At some points of the story, especially when describing love scenes (or the girl object of our protagonist´s love), I had the feeling that he was actually trying to emulate Neruda, but he´s far from making it. Too artificial language breaking into the middle of a story that is otherwise quite plain, so it gives the impression that it´s an unnecessary mass of pompous words and twisted sentences. This of course is only my point of view but, as this is my blog so far, you will have to content with that.
But it´s also true that, when he puts Neruda aside and goes back to the simple, easy, plain, straightforward language that dominates the story, he is, in general, quite good, and then, from time to time, he has some brilliant points, like this ones (my faves, translated by yours truly, I´m sure you´ll get a better translation if you get the book!):
                               ..................................................
- My girl, if you mix poetry with politics, you will soon be a single mom. What did he say to you?
- Metaphores.
The mother held the knob of the rustic bronze cot, squeezing it until she thought she could melt it.
- What´s wrong, mom? What are you thinking?
The woman came to her side, let herself faint on the bed, and in a weak voice said:
- I never heard such a long word from you.
                                .................................................
The girl bit her pillow, and then, showing those teeth which, as well as seducing, were able to fray both clothes and flesh, yelled:
- This is ridiculous! Just because a man told me that my smile flapped in my face like a butterfly, I have to leave to Santiago!
- Don´t be stupid! - the mother exploded as well -. Now your smile is a butterfly, but tomorrow your tits will be two doves wanting to be cooed, your nipples will be two juicy raspberries, your tongue will be the gods´ warm carpet, your butt will be a ship´s canvas, and that thing now smoking between your legs will be the jet-black oven where the proud metal of the race is forged! Good night!
                               ................................................

And also, as unusual as it might seem, I enjoyed especially the prologue, where the author explains how he got to write that story.

In summary, it´s a short, touching story that will also help you learn about Neruda and about Chilean political history and the 1973 coup d'état. Easy reading, I recommend it.


... Coming soon: No one writes to the colonel.