My Book Review for
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Niebla
Miguel de Unamuno
This review is a contribution to the Spanish
Word-A-Day written by
Christopher Champion
from Oxford.
Niebla deals
with many of the major themes that preoccupied Don Miguel during his
life e.g. existence, faith and suicide. Also it is a truly impressive
demonstration of his ability to write, since the way fiction and fact
are intertwined in the narrative is one of his key areas of interest.
Augusto Pérez,
the protagonist, is trying to figure out the meaning of life, he has
found himself so carefree that he is trying to find things to do and
think about and he goes in for the toughest of all questions. Through
interaction with others around him in a way in which we are only
interested in his mind, we see an unfolding exploration of life and its
central questions. The book is cleverly constructed with many images and
symbols that are important along the way, but what is interesting is
that it is not a novela (a novel), but a nivola, a genre created by a
character in the book so that he can write a book with the rules that he
wants. In fact, isn’t this character writing the novel we are reading?
Time and again, we are confused by the author, not sure where we stand,
are we looking from the outside, or are we on the inside looking out? The
fiction revolves around us as we engage with the thoughts of the
protagonist, and we are left with a great deal to think about. If you
want a novel that is going to throw up questions and make you think then
this is definitely for you.
I find Unamuno
very approachable linguistically, so I would highly recommend people to
read it in Spanish. It is not a very long novel (his other novels are
even shorter and equally worth reading e.g. San Manuel Bueno, Mártir
or Abel Sánchez) and it is less complex than many others. If you
would like further information on any of the shorter novels by Unamuno
please do email and I will be happy to supply more information.
Miguel de
Unamuno (1864-1936), was an important scholar in the Spain of
his time. He can be considered a writer, an academic and a philosopher.
Del Sentido Trágico de la Vida (Of the Tragic Sense of Life) is
his most complete philosophical work dealing with many aspects of his
thinking. You can further your reading in his collected essays, always
written in an interesting and witty style, although always challenging
intellectually.
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