The Family of Pascual Duarte (Spanish Literature Series)

Rating:
Summary: Fate & free will
Review: I first came across Cela in a dual-language book of short stories and I found his description of everyday life in Spain quite entertaining and I loved his sense of humor.

The life of Pascual Duarte is very different from that however, definitely not a light hearted read. Like another reviewer said there is no sense of redemption in it, it is very fatalistic and I guess if you are used to fairytale endings, you could consider it disappointing.

What struck me about this book was the sense of futility that Pascual had when it came to dealing with situations around him. It was as if he had no part to play in his own life, that he was just a victim of fate.

Cela's descriptions of the motivations that drove Pascual draws the reader in and makes him a witness to this man's demise. There are some parts in the book where you know he is going to do the wrong thing but you hope and hope that somehow he will come to his senses and avoid disaster.

Although this is no "Crime and Punishment" it is an interesting study into the psychology of a killer. Unlike Crime and Punishment however, do not expect to come away from this with a sense of having being cleansed.

Recommended to those who can put up with pain and disappointment, probably not for everyone.


Rating:
Summary: Strongly recommended reading
Review: Pascual Duarte grew up in brutal and brutalizing poverty, hatred, depravity, and despair. From his prison cell where he is awaiting execution for a series of murders he has committed, Duarte writes down his confessions and in doing so, depicts the horrors of his life, foremost among which are a despicable mother, an unfaithful wife, and a lifetime of savage crimes. Duarte's account (written with a hauntingly childlike sense of the world) portrays a man twisted by the cruel hand of fate into a source of contributing evil. Strongly recommended reading, The Family Of Pascual Duarte is a unique and flawlessly written novel by the late Camilo Jose Cela (1916-2002) and will admirably serve to introduce a new generation to the work of this deftly talented author of more than fifty books during his lifetime.


Rating:
Summary: Kathy
Review: probably the most unredeeming book I've ever read...just awful, a waste of time, even though it's short

Rating:
Summary: Kathy
Review: Second only to the inestimable Don Quixote in the pantheon of Spanish Literature, Cela's Family of Pascual Duarte was published in the same year as The Stranger (Albert Camus) and, treating the same themes, is its superior. Cela was for many years denied the recognition he deserved due to his membership in the Falangist party and his service on Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War, but finally, in 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pascual Duarte is a brutal Spanish peasant, shaped by poverty, ignorance and hatred. The book recounts his mounting depravity as he goes from killing his dog to knifing a romantic rival to final horrific matricide. Duarte falls prey to the type of alienation and world weariness described by the Existentialists. He describes himself prior to killing his mother:

The day I decided I would have to use my knife on her, I was so weary of it all, so convinced in my bones that bloodletting was the only cure, that the thought of her dying didn't even quicken my pulse. It was something fated, it had to be and would be.

And even as he writes this account of his life as he sits in prison, awaiting death, he acknowledges:

...there are moments when the telling of my own story gives me the most honest of honest pleasures, perhaps because I feel so far removed from what I am telling that I seem to be repeating a story from hearsay about some unknown person.

But Cela, unlike Camus, seems to trace Duarte's pathologies to his environment, to the circumstances of his life, rather than trying to make a universal statement about the human condition. Duarte is a distinct type, but one that has been all too familiar in the Century. His alienation, amorality and brutality are summed up in a chilling assertion of his own inhumanity:

...I'm not made to philosophize, I don't have the heart for it. My heart is more like a machine for making blood to be spilt in a knife fight....

Nor does Cela offer much philosophical elaboration, neither to explain Duarte nor to offer a cure for the world's Duartes. Instead, what is really noticeable here is the absence of any institutions to inculcate values or venues in which to express individual aspirations. Missing are the Church, an open economy and participatory democratic structures, the triune basis of modern Western civil society. In this sense, the novel sounds a cautionary note about the sorts of men that arise in this kind of moral vacuum.

The novel is raw and powerful and compulsively readable. It's outrageous that it is not currently in print in English translation, but it is available through used booksellers and many libraries may stock copies from when he won the Nobel. Either way, it is well worth your effort to track it down.

GRADE: A-

Rating:
Summary: sounds a cautionary note
Review: Second only to the inestimable Don Quixote in the pantheon of Spanish Literature, Cela's Family of Pascual Duarte was published in the same year as The Stranger (Albert Camus) and, treating the same themes, is its superior. Cela was for many years denied the recognition he deserved due to his membership in the Falangist party and his service on Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War, but finally, in 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pascual Duarte is a brutal Spanish peasant, shaped by poverty, ignorance and hatred. The book recounts his mounting depravity as he goes from killing his dog to knifing a romantic rival to final horrific matricide. Duarte falls prey to the type of alienation and world weariness described by the Existentialists. He describes himself prior to killing his mother:

The day I decided I would have to use my knife on her, I was so weary of it all, so convinced in my bones that bloodletting was the only cure, that the thought of her dying didn't even quicken my pulse. It was something fated, it had to be and would be.

And even as he writes this account of his life as he sits in prison, awaiting death, he acknowledges:

...there are moments when the telling of my own story gives me the most honest of honest pleasures, perhaps because I feel so far removed from what I am telling that I seem to be repeating a story from hearsay about some unknown person.

But Cela, unlike Camus, seems to trace Duarte's pathologies to his environment, to the circumstances of his life, rather than trying to make a universal statement about the human condition. Duarte is a distinct type, but one that has been all too familiar in the Century. His alienation, amorality and brutality are summed up in a chilling assertion of his own inhumanity:

...I'm not made to philosophize, I don't have the heart for it. My heart is more like a machine for making blood to be spilt in a knife fight....

Nor does Cela offer much philosophical elaboration, neither to explain Duarte nor to offer a cure for the world's Duartes. Instead, what is really noticeable here is the absence of any institutions to inculcate values or venues in which to express individual aspirations. Missing are the Church, an open economy and participatory democratic structures, the triune basis of modern Western civil society. In this sense, the novel sounds a cautionary note about the sorts of men that arise in this kind of moral vacuum.

The novel is raw and powerful and compulsively readable. It's outrageous that it is not currently in print in English translation, but it is available through used booksellers and many libraries may stock copies from when he won the Nobel. Either way, it is well worth your effort to track it down.

GRADE: A-

Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: This book was riveting. The plot is dark, and the main character nothing to be admired. But there is a struggle between his irredeemable, murderous ways, and an occasionally bulging (at best) conscience, and (at worst) paranoia that gives him a hint or whiff of something better than he is. The writing style is very vivid. Cela has a great command of expression, yet you can almost imagine this story being told to you orally on the front porch of a house in the evening. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: This book was riveting. The plot is dark, and the main character nothing to be admired. But there is a struggle between his irredeemable, murderous ways, and an occasionally bulging (at best) conscience, and (at worst) paranoia that gives him a hint or whiff of something better than he is. The writing style is very vivid. Cela has a great command of expression, yet you can almost imagine this story being told to you orally on the front porch of a house in the evening. I highly recommend it.