Perfect primer for Barcelona and Catalonia
|
A slim volume that is an excellent introduction to Catalonia, its cities, history, artists and culture.
It isn't an historical essay,or writer's indulgence, but just a collection of well-written and easy-to-read chapters that you can pick off in any order, and get more context and detail than any Visitor's Guide can offer.
Why 4 stars? Because whilst this book stands the test of time ( this is the 2001 revision of a 1990 publication), the chapter on 'Nightclubbing' doesn't.
But don't let that put you off-buy it for the other 14 alone.
|
|
Homage to this memoir of Barcelona
|
|
I read this book in 1994 while working on a rural development project in El Salvador. I had never been to Barcelona and that post-war time in El Salvador was hard. There was violence and the threat of violence. There was brutality and silence and ignorance and poverty and hardship and want and illiteracy. Starved of English-language reading material, or indeed, any reading material at all, I fell upon Homage to Barcelona by Toibin. I didn't start it with any great anticipation but by the end of it I almost had to tie myself down to prevent me running to the airport and boarding the next plane for Barcelona. I read the bit about the bar where the old man and his sons and grandsons served up hams and sherries and wines, where there were wooden barrels and I cried for that city I had never visited. When I did get to go to Barcelona I made sure I had the book with me and enjoyed re-reading it in all the places it mentions. I felt I knew the city with the knowledge contained within the book at my disposal. This is a really great book and fitting homage to a really great city.
|
|
|
A Great Book About a Great City
|
|
In advance of a recent trip to Barcelona, was scouring bookshops for suitable volumes to take, and loathe to take Robert Hughes' heavier tome (in both weight and subject matter) was pleased to find this lovely short volume. Colm Toibin has many years' experience from living on-and-off in the city and his love for it (and exasperation at times) shines through. Presents the city in its context as the capital of a region yearning for autonomy, and dissects its relationship with Spain as a whole, with good, brief chapters on politics and history. The greater part explores the artistic personalities which I am particularly interested in, namely Picasso, Miro and the ubiquitous Gaudi. The above description sounds dry, in fact the prose is unpretentious and easy to read. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada