Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385914 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Synopsis
Presents an account of a journey to Spain in 1949.

Customer Reviews

A minor-key journey in post-war Spain
"Face of Spain" lacks the polemic of "The Spanish Labyrinth" - it lacks, too, the thematic treatment and supportive detail. Instead, it's essentially a travelogue, of G Brenan's return to Spain in 1949, and his journeys from Madrid back towards Andalusia. During the narrative, he capably describes what passes by the rail carriage's window, and what he finds in the hungry towns. He also recounts several vox pop chats with frustrated fascists and pensive democrats. Quixotically, he goes in search of García Lorca's grave, and constantly admires the passing countryside, while noting, with a strangely resigned tone, the pervasive poverty of that time. This is a better book than Laurie Lee's "A Rose for Winter", being far less introspective, but shares with it a sense of passive dismay.

A must to read
A superb insight into Spain during the Civil War and after.

An easy history lesson.

Gerald Brenan is sorely missed.