A Death in Zamora

Rating:
Summary: Amazing personal story applicable to many conflicts today
Review: Sender-Baryon's book evokes transcendent sadnesses by unfolding so artfully yet simply the story of one family's horrors under a style of political brutality all too familiar in the world.

The most poignant aspect, of course, as we have been told so many times in such stories, is the pain and guilt of the survivors tormenting themselves with their personal might-have-dones.

It never ends. There are 800,000 stories like this one about Franco's Spain waiting to be told by Rwandans about the Hutu massacre of the Tutsis. These stories, like those of Spain, await because the world knew of the evil and turned away, despite all we of Euro-American culture have learned about Hitler, Franco, Stalin, Milosevic, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing personal story applicable to many conflicts today
Review: Sender-Baryon's book evokes transcendent sadnesses by unfolding so artfully yet simply the story of one family's horrors under a style of political brutality all too familiar in the world.

The most poignant aspect, of course, as we have been told so many times in such stories, is the pain and guilt of the survivors tormenting themselves with their personal might-have-dones.

It never ends. There are 800,000 stories like this one about Franco's Spain waiting to be told by Rwandans about the Hutu massacre of the Tutsis. These stories, like those of Spain, await because the world knew of the evil and turned away, despite all we of Euro-American culture have learned about Hitler, Franco, Stalin, Milosevic, etc.

Rating:
Summary: An Intense Family History
Review: This book is astonishing. I found myself amused, curious, sad, and almost uncontrollably angry, sometimes all on the same page. The writing style is distinctive. As I progressed through the book I became consumed by it. In some passages the transition from the present to the past comes without warning, from interview to narrative without segue, as if the memories of the author or the memories of another have suddenly taken a life of their own and started writing themselves. An old adage I love goes something like this: "Disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." I found A Death in Zamora to be one of the most profoundly disturbing books I have ever read. I was aware of the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War but the story of the author's search for the truth about his mother brings them to the public on such a personal level. He has shown us a piece of his soul, a piece of his family'a soul, a piece of Spain's soul.

Rating:
Summary: An Intense Family History
Review: This book is astonishing. I found myself amused, curious, sad, and almost uncontrollably angry, sometimes all on the same page. The writing style is distinctive. As I progressed through the book I became consumed by it. In some passages the transition from the present to the past comes without warning, from interview to narrative without segue, as if the memories of the author or the memories of another have suddenly taken a life of their own and started writing themselves. An old adage I love goes something like this: "Disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." I found A Death in Zamora to be one of the most profoundly disturbing books I have ever read. I was aware of the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War but the story of the author's search for the truth about his mother brings them to the public on such a personal level. He has shown us a piece of his soul, a piece of his family'a soul, a piece of Spain's soul.

Rating:
Summary: The Crimes of Franco
Review: This is a deeply moving, indeed deeply upsetting book, which has much to say to several different audiences. The central narrative relates the quest by man brought up in the United States to discover the fate of his mother in Spain during the Civil War of the 1930s. His father was the world famous novelist, Ramón J.Sender, author of Seven Red Sundays and a well-known leftist. A target for the military rebels because of being married to Sender, Amparo Barayón fled to her native city of Zamora hoping to be safe there. In fact, she was imprisoned, tortured and eventually executed - her horrendous fate typical of what happened to many innocent women at the hands of the supporters of General Franco. In that sense, this book is a major contribution to the history of right-wing atrocities during the Spanish War. In addition, however, the subsequent story of how Ramón J. Sender took his two children to the United States and then virtually abandoned them is also horrific in its way and makes for a tragic psychological drama that will be of interest to many people not concerned with Spanish history. The story of Ramón Sender Barayón's quest also happens to be a rivetting detective story. I read the first edition of this book about six years ago and immediately bought several copies to give to friends and their reaction confirmed my own. An important and neglected masterpiece!

Rating:
Summary: The Crimes of Franco
Review: This is a deeply moving, indeed deeply upsetting book, which has much to say to several different audiences. The central narrative relates the quest by man brought up in the United States to discover the fate of his mother in Spain during the Civil War of the 1930s. His father was the world famous novelist, Ramón J.Sender, author of Seven Red Sundays and a well-known leftist. A target for the military rebels because of being married to Sender, Amparo Barayón fled to her native city of Zamora hoping to be safe there. In fact, she was imprisoned, tortured and eventually executed - her horrendous fate typical of what happened to many innocent women at the hands of the supporters of General Franco. In that sense, this book is a major contribution to the history of right-wing atrocities during the Spanish War. In addition, however, the subsequent story of how Ramón J. Sender took his two children to the United States and then virtually abandoned them is also horrific in its way and makes for a tragic psychological drama that will be of interest to many people not concerned with Spanish history. The story of Ramón Sender Barayón's quest also happens to be a rivetting detective story. I read the first edition of this book about six years ago and immediately bought several copies to give to friends and their reaction confirmed my own. An important and neglected masterpiece!