The Family Of Pascual Duarte

Many believe that this novel by the winner of 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature, Camilo Jose Cela, was a classic from the very beginning. I can understand why.

While waiting for his execution, Pascual Duarte recounts his growing up in a world of poverty and hatred, which turned him into committing a series of meaningless murders, by writing his public confessions in his prison cell. In his confession he includes details about his mother that he hates, his unfaithful wife, his sister, and his crimes. These confessions are the novel.

They call the novel a crude realism and I understand they it such.

(September 20, 2009)