The Life and Death of a Spanish Town.

Rating:
Summary: Another Casualty of the Spanish Civil War
Review: The Spanish town of the title is Santa Eulalia Del Rio, known to its inhabitants simply as Santa Eulalia. Elliot (correct spelling) Paul made Santa Eulalia, a small fishing village on the Spanish island of Ibiza, his home from 1931 to 1936. He did not live there as an outsider, but rather as an accepted and loved member of the community.

During Paul's first few years on Ibiza, life seemed idyllic. Most of his friends and neighbors were simple, somewhat naive, generally kind people who ranged from those who struggled to eke out a living to those comfortably well off. If the rich preferred to stay that way and weren't too anxious to share the wealth, so be it. If the Communists thought the wealth should be spread around, that seemed to be normal for your everyday Communist. If the Republicans liked the old style government and the Fascists thought that they should be in control, as long as it was just a thought, it didn't hurt anyone, did it? In spite of these conflicting agendas, all seemed well and no one thought that the problems on the mainland would spill over to their little island.

Paul brings Santa Eulalia to life. He introduces us to the leading citizens in each walk of life, and invests them with real personalities. No wooden characters here. Paul's genius is in making us feel that we know everyone and that we are participants in the life of Santa Eulalia.

He immerses himself deeply into the life of the village, and, it is my opinion that if not for the hostilities of the Spanish Civil war, Paul and his family would never have left Santa Eulalia. As it was, they waited until the last possible minute to escape, fleeing to the last neutral ship to dock in the harbor minutes before it left. At the time he wrote this book, Paul was still suffering from feelings of guilt over having survived when so many of his friends didn't.

With the coming of the Spanish Civil War, Ibiza was alternately ruled by Fascists, Loyalists, Communists, and whatever other ist's could wrest control. Each successive change of power was accompanied by new oppressions, imprisonments and executions. The true victims of all of this were the innocent majority who naively believed that they could continue their old ways of life no matter who was in power.

The day after Paul and his family made their escape there was an invasion by Italian Fascist troops. Within a few hours these troops herded most of the remaining males into a town square and machine gunned them. The Italians didn't care whose side the men were on, they considered all of the islanders to be a threat and thus executed all the males they could find, no questions asked. A day or two later, Spanish government planes bombarded Santa Eulalia, destroying nearly every home in the village. At the time of the publication of this book in 1937, Paul was still unable to determine the fate of any of his friends.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A SPANISH TOWN brings a community to life, presents its inhabitants as real living people, and eventually brings home the horror of war through the deaths of innocent people with real names, families, and feelings. An out of print book that merits reprinting.

Rating:
Summary: At one time a best seller, it still is a great book.
Review: When this autobiographical account was published in the late 30's it was an immediate sensation. Though Elliot Paul is pretty well forgotten today, he was the author of many best sellers. The Life and Death of a Spanish Town is generally regarded as his masterpiece. In this all but forgotten book Paul describes the destruction of the idyllic life he led on the Ballearic Island of Ibiza by the Fascists, both Italian and Spanish, who struck out against the Spanish Republic in 1936. It has long been considered one of the classics of the Spanish Civil War.