Fiction, World Literature, Peoples & Cultures - Fiction

Carpenter's Pencil

Name: Carpenter's Pencil
Author: Manuel Rivas
ISBN: 9781585672837

by Manuel Rivas, Jonathan Dunne

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Overview

Manuel Rivas has been heralded as one of the brightest in a new wave of Spanish writers influenced by Spanish and European traditions, as well as by the history of Spain over the past seventy years. A bestseller in Spain, The Carpenter's Pencil has been published in nine countries.

Set in the dark days of the Spanish Civil War, The Carpenter's Pencil charts the linked destinies of a remarkable cast of unique characters. All are bound by the events of the Civil War-the artists and the peasants alike-and all are brought to life, in Rivas's skillful hand, with the power of the carpenter's pencil, a pencil that draws both the measured line and the artist's dazzling vision.

Translated from the Galician by Jonathan Dunne.

Synopsis

Manuel Rivas has been heralded as one of the brightest in a new wave of Spanish writers influenced by Spanish and European traditions, as well as by the history of Spain over the past seventy years. A bestseller in Spain, The Carpenter's Pencil has been published in nine countries.

Set in the dark days of the Spanish Civil War, The Carpenter's Pencil charts the linked destinies of a remarkable cast of unique characters. All are bound by the events of the Civil War-the artists and the peasants alike-and all are brought to life, in Rivas's skillful hand, with the power of the carpenter's pencil, a pencil that draws both the measured line and the artist's dazzling vision.

Translated from the Galician by Jonathan Dunne.

"A profound tale of love, art, politics and the lingering effects of a gentleness and cruelty on the soul." (The Miami Herald)

"Rivas is a master . . . You never know, at the beginning of a paragraph, where he will take you. His pages bloom like flowers, swerving in unpredictable arcs toward a light-source that is constantly moving." (Bookforum)

"He is an important storyteller because he is sensitive and has an incredible ear, which, in his fiction, is allied to great ingenuity." (John Berger)

Miami Herald

A profound tale of love,art,politics and the lingering effects of a gentleness and cruelty on the soul.

About the Author, Manuel Rivas

Manuel Rivas was born in Galicia, in Spain, in 1957, and has worked for many years as a journalist as well as a prize-winning novelist. One his short stories formed the basis for José Luis Cuerda's award-winning film Butterfly, which Gabriel Garciá Márquez said was "a perfect marriage of film and literature."

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
A prize-winning Spanish journalist and novelist makes his U.S. debut with this graceful, dream-like tale of life, love, and art.

The story takes place during the Spanish Civil War, when political prisoners from all walks of life converge in Franco's brutal jails. Among the incarcerated is Daniel Da Barca, a well-known doctor, who adores -- and is adored by -- the beautiful debutante Marisa. Their devotion to one another, despite Da Barca's imprisonment, is witnessed by Herbal, a crude and murderous prison guard. Herbal's voyeurism is supplemented by the ghost of an unnamed painter, who sits tucked behind Herbal's ear, much as the carpenter's pencil was kept behind the painter's own ear when he was alive. The irony in this intricate conceit is that the dead painter -- the spirit who accuses Herbal -- had also been a political prisoner -- executed by none other than Herbal under duress.

Already a bestseller in Spain, The Carpenter's Pencil is as devastating as it is beautiful. In the words of one of our readers, Brad, "this book cries out to be read more than once. I've read it three times now and feel I'm just wrapping my mind around all he has to say." But don't be intimidated by Brad's comments. Rivas weaves together the horrors of war with the magic of art, and the frailty of life with the endurance of love. The resulting tapestry is a gentle story that feels both fresh and intimately tied to the finest in Spanish and European literary traditions. (Summer 2001 Selection)

Miami Herald

A profound tale of love,art,politics and the lingering effects of a gentleness and cruelty on the soul.

Bookforum

Rivas is a master...You never know,at the beginning of a paragraph,where he will take you. His pages bloom like flowers,swerving in unpredictable arcs toward a light-source that is constantly moving.

John Berger

He is an important storyteller because he is sensitive and has an incredible ear,which,in his fiction,is allied to great ingenuity.

Arturo Perez-Reverte

Manuel Rivas has written a beautiful novel,filled with tenderness and humanity.

Library Journal

Set in Galicia during the Spanish Civil War, this novel tells the story of Dr. Daniel Da Barca, who twice miraculously escapes death in front of the firing squad only to be given life imprisonment, a sentence that is later commuted. The principal narrator, though, is Herbal, the guard who escorts Da Barca during his various incarcerations. The third major character is Marisa Mallo, whose marriage by proxy to the doctor is ultimately consummated with Herbal's assistance. Ironically, the ubiquitous role of the painter ("He's the one who paints the ideas") is mostly symbolic. Rivas leaps across time zones and switches narrative voice. Yet with minimal description he masterfully sketches, for example, the hopeless atmosphere of the dank prison with a few brushstrokes, as if he held the titular pencil. And for a novel set during wartime to convince us of the doom and despair of conflict without a single battle scene is admirable indeed. This British-slanted translation marks the first American appearance of this up-and-coming Spanish author. Recommended. Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

This internationally acclaimed 1998 novel—the first of its Galician author's to appear in English—is an elegantly composed mosaic portrayal of the human cost of the Spanish Civil War. The story begins many years afterward with a journalist's visit to interview Dr. Daniel Da Barca, a "revolutionary grandfather" hero of the Republican resistance to (fascist) Falangist tyranny, who has returned to Spain after a long exile in Mexico following his escape from prison. The journalist's story is joined by other voices remembering—the primary one being that of Falangist stooge and former prison guard Herbal (who's sharing his memories with a sympathetic prostitute at the whorehouse where he's now employed as a handyman). Herbal is tormented by accusatory images from his past: specifically, his reluctant murder (under orders) of a (nameless) painter whose drawings had boldly exalted the figures of his fellow prisoners; more generally, the stoical Da Barca's love for beautiful Marisa Mallo, the granddaughter of a Falangist collaborator—a relationship that endures as a rebuke to the captors who tried to break Da Barca's spirit. Furthermore, the aforementioned painter's "carpenter's pencil," which Herbal has appropriated, evokes the spirit of the painter, which now "visits" and speaks with the chastened Herbal. Rivas creates a dramatic and fascinating nexus in which these and other vividly realized characters (notably Mother Inane, a fervent nun who angrily debates religion with the freethinking Da Barca) are shown in an increasingly complex interrelationship, also captured in a series of stunningly evocative "pictures" (the dark shape of a wolf against a background of snow,a train full of tubercular prisoners, an "orchestra" of musicians who have no instruments). The result is a deeply moving depiction of heroism and survival, this despite an uneven translation whose frequent awkward phrasing (e.g., "in the jovial manner some of them had been doing") suggests an overly literal blurring of the differences between Galician and English idiom. Exciting and accomplished fiction. One looks forward to further translation of Rivas's work.