The Family Of Pascal Duarte
(Camilo Jose Cela)
Pascual Duarte is the story of a hard life lived harshly. It is a glimpse of life at poverty level during the early years of Franco's rule over Spain. Although a work of fiction, it strikes relentlessly at the truth of life in Spain at that time and Franco banned it's publication. Thank goodness, a copy was smuggled out of the country and published elsewhere.
Pascual Duarte is the eldest son of a common family and it is his view of life that we see. The visions he reveals to the reader are cruel and graphic, at times, so viscious as to put the book down to take a breather. It is easy to understand that Pascual is a product of his childhood environment; his father, an abusive alcoholic that dies in agony, his elder sister, a prostitute and his younger brother, an idiot child whose ears are chewed off by a pig. While family members enter and exit his life, his mother remains a key figure throughout, but do not mistake it for a good thing.
Pascual enters adulthood by violating a woman on the fresh grave of his brother. The line between love and hate for Pascual is fine and blurred. At time, it is difficult to distinguish whether his motives are good or evil or if there's no motive at all and he acts upon primal instinct.
It's not for the faint of heart nor the squeamish, but it is a novel at it's grittiest best.
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