Post by shakhar24 on Feb 28, 2024 1:49:04 GMT -5
Alex Couto Lago works on one of the topics that generates the most controversy at the present: the relatives of torturers in the dictatorship. In this case, the writer is located in the Franco dictatorship , in Spain. Silvia Duarte discovers the letters that Francisco Duarte -her grandfather- wrote to his wife Soledad Montesinos Duarte. She is hospitalized for advanced Alzheimer's. The novel highlights four voices: the voice of Francisco, Silvia, Soledad and an external narrator who looks from the outside and gives us another view of what is happening. In the letters Silvia encounters her grandfather's way of speaking again, in the writings it resonates with her, it is familiar to her, it is him: a man who knew how - despite sometimes calling him a grumpy old man - to be affectionate with her and her grandmother. .
Silvia feels admiration for him, she feels him as a father, who taught her many things about the world. As the story progresses we find Silvia's differences with her grandmother Soledad. She presents Soledad as an apathetic woman, who did not smile and was always silent, while her grandfather was the complete opposite. Silvia enjoys meeting a part of Francisco, the one who replaced her father Rafael, the place of her father C Level Executive List who committed suicide when she was a girl. When Silvia finishes reading those diaries, she seeks to find more letters, more diaries to continue reading and maintain a little of her grandfather's presence with her. She searches the furniture, the desks until she finds hidden, locked letters from addressed to Soledad. At that time, Francisco had been transferred to Madrid to work in the women's prison . In her letters he tells Soledad about the dramas of the prison, her tasks and disparagingly describes the prisoners, establishes value judgments regarding her knowledge and narrates some of the tortures that he exercised against them.
Soledad's responses are the impression of a time: she knew a little about what was happening and she was also unaware of other things that she preferred not to know or have to remember. Those sensations are there, in the bundle of letters among which Soledad responds with approval, barely contradicts him, agrees with his actions, agrees with Francisco's prejudices and actions and from time to time prevents him from getting too involved in the stories of the dams. Upon learning this part of her grandparents' history, Silvia continues an internal monologue trying to understand how her grandfather had agreed to work there and torture women who were in captivity, how her grandparents had hidden this truth and how Decades later they continued to remain silent. The discovery of these letters will only be the beginning of a deeper search for the family truth. The story offers a look from several angles: the executioner's family and the one in search of a new memory.
Silvia feels admiration for him, she feels him as a father, who taught her many things about the world. As the story progresses we find Silvia's differences with her grandmother Soledad. She presents Soledad as an apathetic woman, who did not smile and was always silent, while her grandfather was the complete opposite. Silvia enjoys meeting a part of Francisco, the one who replaced her father Rafael, the place of her father C Level Executive List who committed suicide when she was a girl. When Silvia finishes reading those diaries, she seeks to find more letters, more diaries to continue reading and maintain a little of her grandfather's presence with her. She searches the furniture, the desks until she finds hidden, locked letters from addressed to Soledad. At that time, Francisco had been transferred to Madrid to work in the women's prison . In her letters he tells Soledad about the dramas of the prison, her tasks and disparagingly describes the prisoners, establishes value judgments regarding her knowledge and narrates some of the tortures that he exercised against them.
Soledad's responses are the impression of a time: she knew a little about what was happening and she was also unaware of other things that she preferred not to know or have to remember. Those sensations are there, in the bundle of letters among which Soledad responds with approval, barely contradicts him, agrees with his actions, agrees with Francisco's prejudices and actions and from time to time prevents him from getting too involved in the stories of the dams. Upon learning this part of her grandparents' history, Silvia continues an internal monologue trying to understand how her grandfather had agreed to work there and torture women who were in captivity, how her grandparents had hidden this truth and how Decades later they continued to remain silent. The discovery of these letters will only be the beginning of a deeper search for the family truth. The story offers a look from several angles: the executioner's family and the one in search of a new memory.