Novel
El paredón
Not translated into English
Carlos Martínez Moreno · 1963
Synopsis
Julio, a Montevideo journalist in his forties from a Colorado family, sees the Blanco Party take power after nearly a century of Colorado governments; his father, a doctor, sees in it the end of a world, and illness overtakes him. Invited to Cuba in the first days of the revolution, Julio attends the trial of an officer of the old regime and has a brief affair. The narrative, told almost entirely from his point of view, weaves into this journey his childhood, his youth and a stay in Bolivia, and makes death, in all its forms, its thread.
Context
The novel grew out of the author's trip to Cuba in 1959, as a journalist invited by the new government. It was published in Barcelona by Seix Barral in 1963, in 286 pages. In Montevideo it was accused of existentialism and sensationalism; the right-wing press took offence at the title and the cover, the left-wing press judged the hero unorthodox, and many read it as a disguised autobiography.
Who it is for
A novel of ideas in Spanish, journalistic in manner, which assumes an interest in the Cuban Revolution; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
Distinguished by a runner-up place in a Spanish competition, it was from its publication one of the bestselling books on both banks of the river.
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