A masterpiece about racial injustice, old age in all its harshness, the reference biography of Kierkegaard and other books of the week

Our book of the week is The stone angel, by Margaret Laurence, written in 1964 by the Canadian author, but which is very current due to the problem of caring for the elderly. The protagonist is Hagar Shipley, who has not known how to care, nor, in the last part of his life, let herself be cared for. In addition to the pain and anger of not recognizing oneself in a decadent body, this wonderful novel describes many other feelings: “Dependency, compassion, contempt for the people who care for us, responsibility, generosity and selfishness, emotional blackmail, vampirism, guilt, search for one's own space, self-defense behaviors, desire for liberation, fear of loneliness, vindication of one's own space, discomfort for needing help and simultaneous demand for help… The catalog of emotions is applicable to both the object and the subject of care,” writes Marta Sanz in his review.

In the narrative section the titles also stand out Thesis on a domesticationin which Camila Sosa Villada tames the crude writing used in her great success, The evil onesto narrate the process of gentrification of its protagonist, a married transvestite, with a comfortable life and already freed from social oppression, who suffers a process of family apathy despite attempts to transgress roles with an open marriage; Write to save a life, by John Edgar Wideman, a terrible story in which the author turns to his own childhood in a world of racism and segregation to tell the famous true case of a 14-year-old boy murdered in 1955 by white men who were acquitted; or the latest novel by Sergio Ramírez, The golden horsein which its author “draws an old Europe that is reeling in the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and travels through it until he takes us to his sentimental Nicaragua,” as Berna González Harbor explains in her review.

In another interesting article, Jordi Gracia talks about the process of adaptation to exile of several writers while reviewing two recent titles Epistolary.1944-1977which collects the letters that María Zambrano and José Ferrater Mora sent to each other, and Arturo Barea. Portrait of a temperamentthe biography of the writer written by Coradino Vega.

Other books reviewed by our experts this week are Kierkegaard. The philosopher of anguish and seductionthe biography of the Danish philosopher written by theologian Joakim Garff; Vietnamese against Franco, by Jesús A. Martínez, an interesting essay on the importance of printed paper in the clandestine fight against Francoism; and The keys to Flight 605by Javier Lodín, which discovers the influence of the announcer Ángel Álvarez on the dissemination of modern music on Spanish radio.

Very elderly people who care for the elderly. The wonderful novel by the Canadian author, written in 1964, is very topical due to the problem of care for the elderly.

Read the entire review here Marta Sanz.

The American writer starts from the famous and brutal murder in 1955 of a 14-year-old black boy to narrate, in a mix between research and memory, the racial segregation during his childhood.

Read the entire review here Paco Cerdà.

They met in the first days of their exiles in Cuba, and since then they followed each other incessantly to learn about each other, announce ideas, share apprehensions or comment with a joyful complicity on their respective books, shortcomings and joys.

Read the entire review here Jordi Gracia.

Barea a
nd his British exile have become involved in Vega's sentimental and intellectual life in such an inextricable way that the book turns into an analytical essay on the relations of the Transition with exile and the shortcomings of that rescue.

Read the entire review here Jordi Gracia.

The essay by Jesús A. Martínez, with a profusion of images and documentation, reveals how the distribution of leaflets was propaganda and information, but also a deeply transgressive act in itself.

Read the entire review here Jordi Canal.

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