Time of Silence

This novel has a recognizable argument: it's the history of Pedro, a young physician inmediately after Spanish Civil War. Spain was blocked then because his tolerance with the Axis powers during WW II. As it were Pedro only wants to investigate about cancer, but at his institute there's lack of all means. One of these is a special class of mice only available from the USA. Howewer Pedro gets to know that some of these mice have been robbed by a beadle of the research institute and maintained under terrible conditions in the suburbs of Madrid. Pedro goes in search of the mice and so, he contacts with a horrorful underworld of degenerate criminals which owns these animals. Well, this plot may be more or less appealing, but the real merit of this novel is the form, by nothing realist as XIX century type, but close to "Ulysses" by Joyce or another modern novels. Martin Santos breaks the normal linear discourse of the recit and remakes it with a strong appeal to subsconcious sensations when poverty and impotence predominate. The author dued in a car accident wwhile writing another unfinished novel.

...so thst I may become dried tunny fish in the good Castilian air,where thoughts of a future were lost three and a half centuries ago,and the future is now nothing more than the prospect of decay,an oxhide spread out to dry with the mummifying flesh resembling dried tunny fish,and men like myself who become accustomed to eating dried tunny fish with a glass of wine,and prefer it to caviar,herring,or foie de gras from the Landes.How unfortunate are those of us not fitted for ecstasy!...And I'm like St.Lawrence,you know,that's who I am ,and you turn me over because I'm roasted on this side like the sardines,Lawrence,like the humble sardines,I'm roasted,the sun roasts,I'm being roasted dry.St.Lawrence was a man,he didn'y cry out,he lay there silently while the pagans roasted him over the fire,and history tells us that all he said was:"Turn me over,for I'm done on this side"...With this ends Time of Silence by Luis Martin-Santos.Elements of Beckett,Antonio Lobo Antunes and Reinaldo Arenas and if you wish Malcolm Lowry...what more could you ask for.Unfortunately it is the only novel he wrote.

Tiempo de Silencio ofrece la oportunidad de leer un libro unico, distinto de otros. Todo esto gracias a un autor que utiliza nuevos recursos literarios e incluso vocabulario medico. El autor describe la ciudad de Madrid en los anos cuarenta y las distintas clases sociales. Recomendo este libro pero no es un libro que se lee para relajarse, de hecho, necesitaria no una pero dos o tres lecturas para que se entiende verdadamente bien.