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Indlæser... Death in Spring (1986)af Mercè Rodoreda
Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. I'm glad I read this short Catalan classic written over 20 years in exile and published after the author's death. It's short, brutal and somewhat surrealistic (or maybe it's more slightly magical realism). It's also poetic and lyrical, as it describes, through the eyes of a young boy who becomes a man over the course of the book, life in an isolated small town with unusual and sometimes violent customs and practices. Each spring a young man must swim the river running under the town, which often results in the death or mutilation of the swimmer. Other strange customs include a forest of the dead, where the dead of the town are buried inside trees after first filling their mouths with cement to seal in their souls. Each spring the villagers must paint their houses pink, and pregnant women are blindfolded. A prisoner in a cage near the town neighs like a horse. Overall the book is dark and fable-like, and the writing is original and superb. I can't say I was emotionally moved by the book, but it is one I recommend. 3 1/2 stars Tortures and Torments as Metaphors Review of the Open Letter english translation edition (2016) of the Catalan language original "La mort i la primavera" (Death and Spring) (1986) The great posthumous novel of Mercè Rodoreda that catches us with a poetic sting. I always feel a bit let down by translated editions (like this one from Open Letter) sourced from a writer from an unfamiliar language and culture that don’t provide anything in the way of context via an Introduction, Foreword or Afterword. And I end up feeling short-changed by the lack of footnotes and untranslated words. Maybe I’m too fixated on an idealized format from reading too many Penguin Classics in my youth? Those missing features had me googling further about this book which led to the discovery of a recent (Oct 24 – Nov 10, 2019) theatrical production of “Death in Spring” in Barcelona by the National Theatre of Catalonia. With a bit of Google Translate, I assembled somewhat of a glossary of the untranslated place names and items from the book. Some of those may seem trivial, but reading about the place names of "Tall Stones" or "Low Stones" said a lot more to me that "Pedres Altes" and "Pedres Baixes." Death in Spring with its grotesque torments of cementing a person's mouth (presumably symbolizing censorship), its ritual beatings, imprisonments and sacrifices was probably viewed previously as a commentary on Franco's fascist Spain but now probably speaks to a wider yearning for Catalan Independence esp. given the recent events of massive crowds protesting the sentencing of Independence activists. The timely staging of the book as a theatrical piece by the NTC is also likely not a coincidence. Still, it was depressing and somewhat of a task to read. There was certainly an element of the 'poetry' that some reviews speak of, usually in the descriptions of nature scenes. I read Death in Spring as the November 2019 Group Read of the 100 Best Women in Translation GR Group. Glossary & Catalan to English translation caramens = caramels font de la jonquilla = fountain of the daffodils maraldina = ? [could not find any translation or explanation for this] muntanyes morades = purple mountains pedres altes = tall stones pedres baixes = low stones pont de fusta = wooden bridge Plaça = Plaza (Town Square) Senyor = Sir Links and Trivia * See the NTC production page (in Catalan) here: https://www.tnc.cat/ca/la-mort-i-la-primavera See the theatrical trailer for the NTC production (again in Catalan) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj0dFEw6XiY Certain characters from the book seem easily identifiable i.e. the Prisoner, the Senyor, the child (played by a doll), the Stepmother etc. I think the narrator actress seen at the very end is meant to be the author Mercè Rodoreda herself. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
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Lushly surreal, Rodoreda's masterpiece is a mythological depiction of a city ruled by rituals, almost like Franco's Spain. Death In Spring tells the story of the bizarre and destructive customs of a nameless town - burying the dead in trees after filling their mouths with cement to prevent their soul from escaping, or sending a man to swim in the river that courses underneath the town - through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy who must come to terms with the rhyme and reason of this ritual violence, and with his wild, child-like and teenaged stepmother. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)849.9352Literature French Provençal and Catalan literature Catalan literature Fiction 1900-1945LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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Alas, Death in Spring turned out to be slow and reluctant reading because it is so violent and grotesque that I could only read it in the daylight hours. The publisher's description at Open Letter Books didn't really prepare me for what lay ahead...
Wikipedia tells us that Mercé Rodoreda (1908-1983) is the most influential contemporary Catalan language writer. Although she lived to see the death of Franco, his fascist government was the catalyst for her to flee Spain and live in exile from 1939-1972. Hugh Ferrer from the University of Iowa suggests in his review at Words Without Borders that Death in Spring is an address to oppressive, authoritarian government, especially Franco's, and so it indeed seems. The harsh, authoritarian blacksmith who rules the village with his despotic, irrational regime commands terror, not respect, but his rule seems impenetrable to change, a permanent blight on the villagers he brutalises.
Written in the style of a grisly fairy tale, the novella is narrated by a teenage boy observing the rituals and trying to make sense of things that make no sense. It begins in the forest where he witnesses his dying father trying to pre-empt the savagery of the ritual that is inflicted on the dying so that their souls cannot escape. There are moments of some relief when he frolics with his young stepmother—and moments of hope when he conspires with the blacksmith's son to prevent some of the violence—but these episodes are fraught with tension because of the fear of discovery and its consequences.
The blacksmith's son has been deliberately kept frail so that he cannot participate in the perilous annual ritual prescribed for all the men of the village. They are required to swim in the river that the village straddles, many of them emerging disfigured by being hurled against the rocks. Some of them die. The narrator learns unspoken things from the blacksmith's son, some of them just part of the superstitious nonsense his father insists on, but he also speaks some truths. Some terrible things happen only because people believe they will happen.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/07/28/death-in-spring-by-merce-rodoreda-translated... ( )