Literary Musings

I have recently noticed how little I read from Spain, and I don’t mean Spanish-language authors, such as from Latin America, but just Spain. This year I read Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós, but I feel like I barely scratched the surface with this author, and such lists as this one – The Greatest Spanish Literature of All Time – certainly inspire me to read more Spanish authors. Perhaps some of my readers are very versed in this, but I have only recently discovered that there are many great books and hidden gems. There are novels The Hive (La Colmena) and The Family of Pascual Duarte (La familia de Pascual Duarte) by Nobel Laureate Camilo José Cela, and The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán is also highly praised. When it comes to Javier Marías, I am now less convinced. Though I still want to read his novel A Heart So White, I found myself almost DNFing his book Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me. Though it is beautifully written, I found the story lacking in logic and believability. The situation there was really too preposterous, and I was not at all convinced that the main character was really “trapped” in an impossible situation. Then, there is Time of Silence by Luis Martín...