The Time of the Doves (La Plaza del Diamante)
Editorial Reviews
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
"To me a cork was like a stopper...I was like a cork myself. Not because I was born that way but because I had to be. And to make my heart like stone. I had to be like a cork to keep going because if instead of being a cork with a heart of stone I'd been like before, made of flesh that hurts when you pinch it, I'd never have gotten across such a high, narrow, long bridge." Natalia is a young woman living in a small village in Spain without a mother to give her advice. At a dance in the plaza she meets Quimet, with his "gleaming monkey eyes," who convinces her to reject her fiance and marry him. Her decision marks the beginning a life of toil for Natalia which continues through two children, the Spanish Civil War, Quimet's death, a second marriage, and finally into a feeling of rest. Told through Natalia's stream of consciousness, the novel is filled with precise observations, magical ramblings, exquisite metaphors, and a feeling as rushed, rippling, and languorous as a river running a long course. Merce Rodoreda was twenty-six and just gaining recognition as an important author when Franco took power and repressed the Catalan language; she went into exile and did not write again for twenty years. The Time of the Doves, written when she was fifty-three, is a stunning recreation of both a Spanish history and the life of one hard-working woman. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.
Review
"The most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War."—Gabriel García Márquez
"Mercè Rodoreda is the writer I cannot stop talking about."—Alberto Ríos
"[I] read [The Time of the Doves] cover to cover all in one afternoon. When I was finished, I felt as foolish as Balboa discovering the powerful Pacific."—Sandra Cisneros, from her Foreword to Camilla Street
The Time of the Doves (La Plaza del Diamante),Merce Rodoreda,Graywolf Press,0915308754,Fiction,Fiction - General,Gay,War & Military,Fiction / Literary,Modern fiction,Spain,Barcelona
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