Celebration in the Northwest

It being on the reading list aside, this author unwellknown in the United States, is well. I dont have time to write a review that does it justice, but this is what it feels like to be young. Well, for me..I guess I had a bleak childhood.

I read this book in Spanish and have some good things to say about it and some other comments.The novel is written in a rushed, but exciting prose that picks up one of its themes, that of flight and escape. Matute has a great talent for this style and once you become involved( right from the start) it's hard to put the book down. The descriptions of rural Spain are a startling revelation for the yankee reader, and the conflict between "los de abajo( the under dogs) y los de arriba( those above)is beautifully done. The pueblo, Lower Artamila,is not a friendly place and Matute seems to have been born and raised there even though we know she is from Barcelona the capital of Spanish sophistication. The conflict between Juan and Pablo, half brothers in blood and social standing, is lopsided because we learn so much about Juan, the inheritor of of his father's estate. The land where the action takes place and its workforce. Yet we are given the one dimensional portrait of Pablo which to me was not satisfying.As good as Pablo is we see in counterpoint how evil and confused Juan has become. There is a definite family bond that is emotional at one plane and sexual on another. Mix this with envy and loneliness and you have Juan reavealed as a kind of little monster who is the opposite of the good but boring little half brother Pablo. What goes on inside Juan's head is where the novel both succeeds and fails. You have little to lose in reading this short book and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't put Lower Artamila on my travel plans, nor woud I want to have as my next door neighbor Juan Medinao.

it saved me in ap spanis

Increible, por todos que le gustan las novellas que tienen un reaccion a la moda del mundo. Gives the reader a sense of environment and sheds light on the all too real problem of broken and abusive households.... giving the impact on the children as well. Me hace darse cuenta que los ninos son productos de su ambiente, somos que nos hacemos...somos unico es de las familias y cultures de sus ninez