A Yank in Spain's Opinion

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	• Blood and Sand Vicente Blasco Ibanez Kessinger Publishing, 2005 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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The " Return"

"Blood and Sand" was one of the books I read as a young girl - recently, I have been on a kick of revisiting that time of my early literary life; re-enjoying many of them with a newly found appreciation. Some of them have amazed me with the knowledge of what I didn't get out of them at the time but should have; some were as I remembered; some much better under the microscope of time and maturity; but virtually all have given me to realize just how much we owe the authors of our books, the writers of our songs, the resulting films that give visual life. The old version of the movie with Tyrone Power is an excellent choice of a viewing experience.

"Blood and Sand" is a tale splendidly woven as a Spanish tapestry - around many native subjects and how one thing affects another. Poverty; insecurity that "spawns" and subsequently grimly "receives" adoration, either real and/or misplaced; loyalty, deceit, infidelity, struggle. You glimpse intimately the inconsistency of emotion dwelling within the character of a man brave enough to face death before a crowd in the afternoon, but who crumbles into superstitious fear at the sight of a serpent's picture in a book or of an old one-eyed woman scrubbing a floor immediately before another of his arena events. He cannot read or write, yet he possesses a library full of elegantly bound volumes he has never opened the covers of - and would not understand even if he did since his non-existent education has limited everything about him except his courage and agility. He is momentarily powerful enough to win a beautiful woman as a trophy; yet he knows he cannot keep her interest for long due to the fundamental differences between them that can never be bridged; still, he is willing to sacrifice his good wife and family for her in the meantime should it come to that in order to prolong the fantasy. His is the world of physical strength which will be enough - until it fails him. Perhaps even more poignant is the underlying message thread regarding the sport of the bull fight itself, delivered without malice, without judgment, but nonetheless without approval.

It takes you from the simple countryside to the sophisticated city of Madrid and all of it's "less-than-savory" elements; it takes you back again. You feel the "pull of the tides" that the matador felt between the two worlds he lives in - the one that gives him safety and love, the other of the money, the ego stroking, the danger, the ruthless competition that ultimately destroys them all since it is a life that cannot be sustained.

This book is an excellent choice for a read and deserves every accolade attributed to it, including my own tardy acknowledgment of Mr. Ibanez's timeless talent.

Ole!

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A Yank in Spain's Opinion

I quite by accident came upon this very excellent book recently, when enjoying a drink with a fellow American in a restaurant in eastern Spain that was showing bullfighting on its television. We got to discussing the pros and cons of bullfighting, which has become quite controversial in Spain, and he suggested that if I ever had the chance I should read 'Blood and Sand,' which, frankly, I thought was a Hemingway book that I had already read. As coincidence would have it, I came across a used copy of the book, in English, a few days later, and promptly bought it.
I read it in a few days. It is compulsive, excellent reading for anyone the least bit interested in Spain or bullfighting. Written in 1908 by a journalist from Valencia who is now considered one of Spain's greatest novelists, published first in English in 1913, you would be hard pressed to know when reading the novel that it is as old as it is. The form is very modern and the plot can be quite gripping. The author, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, presents a fascinating, reasonably suspenseful 'story,' involving the eternal triangular romance, and supplements it with a mine of useful, detailed information on Spanish bullfighting, including all of the relevant bullfighting terms, in Spanish of course, defined very simply into English.
If you like(d) Hemingway's books about Spain, or even if you are interested in Spain, you will find this very tight (285 pages) and absorbing novel, in which the author does eventually but very subtly reveal a point of view, a compelling read. In fact, if you liked Hemingway's books about bullfighting and Spain, you will LOVE Ibanez, since 'Blood and Sand', made into a film in the 1940s starring Tyrone Power, is manifestly more vivid and realistic. The real deal for Aficionados and Espanophiles.

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1919. Ibanez, Spanish novelist and political activist, also wrote The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which made him world famous. From the lowest ranks of poverty to unprecedented heights of riches and popular acclaim-thus was the career of Juan Gallardo, Spanish bull fighter. In telling his story, Ibanez has achieved a novel even more dramatic and powerful than his legendary Four Horsemen. From his boyhood Juan longed to be a bull fighter and, as he climbs the ladder step by step, the reader lives with him in the very atmosphere of the arena. No detail of the picture is spared-one can see and almost hear the actual battle-the crowds-the many characters that stream through the pages. And Juan himself, with his vanities, his superstitions, his daring attacks, his wounds and recoveries, emerges as real, vital and colorful as the sport to which he and many others dedicated their lives. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

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