Not having left myself much time to read something for Spanish Lit Month at Winston's Dad, I chose Death in Spring (La mort i la primavera) from the TBR, thinking that at 150 pages I could read it quickly, and that it was a great lead-in to #WITMonth as well. It's also said to be Mercé Rodoreda's masterpiece, published posthumously in 1986. (I've previously read her short stories and In Diamond Square.)

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... ( )

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.
A strange ritual ensures the stability of a town where sexual desires are systematically repressed with all kinds of torture. Every year, a young man's life is sacrificed, when he is thrown into the river to check the condition of the underground tunnel that passes under the town. In the violent rigor of this ferocity, it seems that any dissent can lead to a cataclysm of unforeseeable consequences.
A masterpiece of Catalan narrative, this posthumously published novel is considered the great literary testament of Mercè Rodoreda. A text of enormous poetic richness and at the same time with a sting-heartedly glaring look at the ancestral violence that fuses contemporary discomfort. – translated from the promotional text from the National Theatre of Catalonia's (NTC) theatrical adaptation* (2019)

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. ( )

Understanding that this novel is a metaphor for Franco's Spain, I just could not engage. Historically , I do not connect well to fables. ( )

Ja n'he llegit una edició anterior però aquesta del 2017 ho faig per ser lectura del club al mes de maig 2018. Amb una anàlisi molt acurat de les intencions i idees de Rodoreda ( )