First thing: it's an amazing reading. Second thing: it reconciled me on Spanish civil war readings. Third thing: it's been a great wake up call.
I condensate the two first points in a quick plot of the book: it tells the story of a Spanish writer and fascist "probably the man who has spent more work and intelligence onto sinking Spain into an orgy of blood"(1)--and indeed the first fascist of Spain, as he called himself-- who escapes a massive shooting in the last days of the Spanish civil war. I don't know if the anecdote is worth telling, but the actual story told is worth reading. The book contains digressions where many other stories of beaten glory come up to tie you up to your past (if you are Spanish or European, or maybe whatever you are).
So the reading has always been pleasing and the writing is great; but it hasn't been until the last part, when it's told the story of an ancient fighter of the Spanish republic, later a soldier in equatorial and north Africa and eventually a conqueror of the liberty of Paris--all of them are the same person--; that I got enlightened. This old beaten man telling his story, the story of his dead comrades who have died for us, surrounded by a world that doesn't even remember him anymore while bunches of neonazis parade in streets with names of old fascists... this has been my wake up call for me to remember my past, to be thanked to the people who made my present possible and to help make a future in which they are again remembered.
I know there's a film based on the book. I haven't seen it. I recommend the book. I recommend anyone steaming from an european family to read the book, to know a great approximation to the very beginning of the whole horror on which our accommodated lives rely--though, as for everything, that horror had many beginnings; any of them as valid as a beginning as any other--. I recommend anyone to read the book, regardless of the family from which she or he steams. It's a great book. And the last god of the literature, Roberto Bolaño, plays a crucial role on it!!
Some links:
Original book in Spanish: Soldados de Salamina (Spanish Edition)
Book in English: Soldiers of Salamis: A Novel
DVD film: Soldiers of Salamina (Soldados de Salamina) (NTSC/REGION 1 & 4)
(1)From the book, though this translation is mine and you might find a different one if you read the English version of the book.
