Réquiem por un campesino español (Requiem for a Spanish peasant)

This short novel by Ramón J. Sender was first published in Mexico in 1953, under the title "Mosén Millán" (Father Millán), and censored in Spain until 1960, when it's finally published as "Réquiem por un campesino español" (Requiem for a Spanish peasant).

The novel has two different storylines: in the present time, a priest (mosén Millán) is waiting for his audience to start the requiem mass for Paco the peasant, one year after his death; in the meanwhile, we learn about Paco's life and death through the priest's remembrances.

The story takes place in a village somewhere in Spain, right before the start of the Spanish Civil War. In case you don't know, the Spanish Civil War took place during 1936-1939, the contingent bands were the "republicans" (legitimate government by that time) and the "nationals" (coup d'état), and it resulted in about 500.000 dead from both bands (source: wiki), victory of the "national" army and beginning of Franco's dictatorship, that would last until his death in 1975.

Now, a little subjective note: although Franco was a very bad guy who executed hundreds of people including civilians even after the war had ended, and planted the seed that led current Spanish society to think about ourselves the way we do today (see here), and led the country to an absolute isolation from the rest of the world that made our economy and culture fall way behind that of our European neighbors, and almost executed my grandfather..., despite all that, like I was saying, the truth is, the republicans were no angels either and, had victory been theirs, they would probably have been as cruel as their opponents. In fact during the war they executed their good amount of "nationals" as well... But I guess, as the defeated, they have the right to act as the victims... Like I told you, this is absolutely subjective and, paradoxically, it's also my attempt to be objective and not to pick sides so happily, so please, nobody hate me! If I had to pick a side, I'd never pick the bad guy's! And now, I'm gonna put my fist in my mouth and go back to the novel.

So anyhow, also as a result of the war, many republican artists were killed and many others were exiled. Sender was exiled to Mexico, where he wrote the novel in question. And Paco, the peasant, is a republican.

The novel, quite short (about 40 pages), written in plain language, easy vocabulary..., is boring as hell (given the case that hell is boring, which I doubt). Maybe it is because I was annoyed by an altar boy intermittently singing a romance that was meant to be clever but I found stupid and unnecessary, maybe I didn't give a fuck about the peasant's childhood and action seemed never to come, truth is it took about 25 pages to get me interested in the story. I picked the book at the library because it's one of the Spanish post-war literature masterpieces, but in my opinion, that's what it is. Post-war literature. Which is great, don't get me wrong, and I can absolutely see its value in the historical context where it was written, but I just didn't like it.

So, my recommendation on this novel... You totally have to read it if you are interested in Spanish contemporary history. Otherwise, there are better books in the world.