Monday, February 07, 2022

The other heavy-rotation book, nearly finished.

The Cypresses Believe in God by José María Gironella.

The classic novel of the run-up to the Spanish Civil War, it is back in print thanks to the efforts of Cluny Media. CM also just republished the second book in the trilogy, One Million Dead, and presumably Peace After War will follow.

As to the first book, it's...a lot. A meditative, slow-burn elegy which shows how political polarization can make good people bay for blood and turn neighbors into enemies. 

Yes, Gironella was a Nationalist soldier. But while he was a believing Catholic whose sympathies are obvious, he creates no strawmen and deplores the failures of the Church and right wing politicos to address economic and spiritual destitution.

The Gospel verses that leap to mind as one reads it are from the Olivet Discourse:

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away...

A full review to come.

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