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33rd out of 192 books
—
60 voters
The Spanish Bow
**DEBUT FICTION**
I was almost born Happy.
Literally, Feliz was the Spanish name my mother wanted for me. Not a family name, not a local name, just a hope, stated in the farthest-reaching language she knew—a language that once reached around the world, to the Netherlands, Africa, the Americas, the Philippines. Only music has reached farther and penetrated more deeply.In a du...more
I was almost born Happy.
Literally, Feliz was the Spanish name my mother wanted for me. Not a family name, not a local name, just a hope, stated in the farthest-reaching language she knew—a language that once reached around the world, to the Netherlands, Africa, the Americas, the Philippines. Only music has reached farther and penetrated more deeply.In a du...more
Hardcover, 560 pages
Published
September 10th 2007
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Oh, the treasures that await at Seattle's "The Spanish Table" market, tucked underneath the Pike St. Hillclimb. Reflecting off the gleam of steel paella pans and bottles of port and Albarino, lining the way to the cheese and sausage cold case, are several rows of books: cookbooks from Spain and Portugal, travel books to illuminate the Santiago de Compostela, and works of fiction about Iberia or by authors who have a connection to that peninsula so ripe with history and romance.
Enter "The Spanis...more
Enter "The Spanis...more
This book came highly recommended by a good friend of mine. I can see why she thought I would like it; the protagonist is a cellist, and the book follows his life, from his inauspicious birth through his rising career, and finally into his old age, when his life has changed dramatically.
The portions having to do with music are enthralling. It's clear the author has first-hand knowledge of the art, the pull of the instrument, the need to play. As a pianist, I identify with the main character, as...more
The portions having to do with music are enthralling. It's clear the author has first-hand knowledge of the art, the pull of the instrument, the need to play. As a pianist, I identify with the main character, as...more
In his debut novel, Romano-Lux follows the life and musical devlopment of the fictional character, Feliu Delargo. While Delargo is inspired by the historical cellist Pablo Casals, it is clear this is not a fictionalized biography of Casals. In the opening chapters, young Feliu receives news of his father's death in Cuba, which is then followed by the arrival of a bow his father purchased as a gift for his son. Felius is first given violin lessons, at which he shows great talent. However, his tru...more
The novel follows the fictitious cellist Feliu Delargo from his birth in a Catalan village in 1892 to the concert halls of Spain, France and Germany in the early 20th century and finally to the train depot in a small French port city in October 1940.
Romano-Lax has included a number of historical figures from the worlds of art, culture and politics – Kurt Weill, Pablo Picasso, and Adolf Hitler to name just three. The author was inspired by the life of Pablo Casals, but the book is NOT a fictiona...more
Romano-Lax has included a number of historical figures from the worlds of art, culture and politics – Kurt Weill, Pablo Picasso, and Adolf Hitler to name just three. The author was inspired by the life of Pablo Casals, but the book is NOT a fictiona...more
Feliu Delargo was almost born happy, almost born with the name Felix as his mother had wanted. But instead he was a breach birth, born butt first into a house of chaos that mistakenly thought he was born dead. His name is misspelled on his birth certificate but does this mistake rob him of happiness in later life? He grew up in a small Spanish town in the late 19th century, where as a young boy he is taken to the train station by his mother. He thinks he is there to pick up his father. He is the...more
Can art save us from ourselves? In her elegant debut, THE SPANISH BOW, Ms Romano-Lax ponders this timeless question through the ambitious tale of Feliu Delargo, a gifted cellist born in turn-of-the-century Spain who receives the unexpected gift of a bow from his dead father and sets himself on a resolute path to mastering his craft. His journey takes him from performing in the defiant streets of Barcelona to the confidences of the queen of Spain and a tumultuous partnership with flamboyant piani...more
As a boy, Feliu Delargo receives the posthumous gift of a bow from his father. Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century Spain, this fusion of art and politics traces his destiny as fated by the gift. As he travels from anarchist Barcelona to royalist Madrid and on to the capitals of Europe, his musical ability brings him into contact with a who’s who of non-fictional political leaders and artists. However, when the fascists take control in Spain, his passion is channeled into the Republic...more
Review of the unabridged Audible audiobook.
The narration on this audiobook was very, very good. The narrator gives unique and believable voices to male and female characters of various ages and even nationalities.
As for the book itself, as historical drama it's a little too heavy on the history and a little too light on the characterization. The concept of following a single character through the tumult that gripped Spain in the 20's and 30's is strong, but the main character, Feliu, is so und...more
The narration on this audiobook was very, very good. The narrator gives unique and believable voices to male and female characters of various ages and even nationalities.
As for the book itself, as historical drama it's a little too heavy on the history and a little too light on the characterization. The concept of following a single character through the tumult that gripped Spain in the 20's and 30's is strong, but the main character, Feliu, is so und...more
Aug 09, 2011
Mhurst
added it
Set against the backdrop of political turmoil in early 20th c. Spain (from the overthrow of its monarchy, through the Spanish Civil War to the uneasy alliance between Franco and Hitler) the recurring question that is asked in this novel is "what is the place of art in time of war and upheaval?"
The author does not draw any hard and fast conclusions. Rather, she elegantly and beautifully examines the complexity of this issue through the first-person memoirs of the cellist-protagonist.
The Web site...more
The author does not draw any hard and fast conclusions. Rather, she elegantly and beautifully examines the complexity of this issue through the first-person memoirs of the cellist-protagonist.
The Web site...more
I made it nearly halfway through this book before deciding not to continue. It's a well-written, carefully told story. Perhaps a little too carefully told as regards the endless details of Feliu's life. I felt like the author assumed too much knowledge on the part of the reader about the events surrounding Feliu's experiences. I had hoped to learn something about Spanish history, but the author makes a lot of veiled references to events and intrigues with which we're already supposed to be famil...more
Wow.... an impressive novel. For some reason, I feel that the books by Andromeda-Romano Lax have a omniscient, dark and calm mood (not typical for a work by a travel-writer). She sculpts a plot that is fairly dramatic of the semi-chaotic life of Feliu Anibal Delargo, but maintains a shaded, tranquil tone even at the the wildest events such as war, violence and death (well, yes, to my opinion. Perhaps I have read too much of the cheap drama of "Hunger Games", Rick Riordans or Dan Browns) . The bo...more
Very loosely based (very) on the life of Pablo Casals, this book is a moving meditation on the nature of art in the world, questioning whether or not art does indeed have power to change the world, what an artist's responsibilities are, whether sometimes the more powerful choice is not to create at all. If you have a classical music collection that includes Bach's cello suites, Elgar's cello concerto, Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain and other such things, it's absolutely marvelo...more
Feliu Delargo suffers two accidents at his birth in a Catalan village in 1892. A traumatic birth burdens him with a hip injury and the notary mistakes his mother’s intention to name him Feliz, or Happy. When he is six years old, his father, soon to die in Cuba, sends a box of gifts to be distributed among his children. Feliu is drawn to a wooden stick that sets him on his life’s course as he learns first to play the violin and then the cello.
Over the course of the 20th century, as Feliu becomes...more
Over the course of the 20th century, as Feliu becomes...more
The first 200 pages of this book were fabulous and I blew through them. The next 350 pages were a little weighted down with history. I felt like it would have been a lot more enoyable as a straight novel, rather than bringing in the historical perspective.
I don't know how others would feel about this book because it is also really heavy in cello and music background. Perfect for me, I don't know if it would be interesting to anyone not involved in music. The aspect comparing music with current e...more
I don't know how others would feel about this book because it is also really heavy in cello and music background. Perfect for me, I don't know if it would be interesting to anyone not involved in music. The aspect comparing music with current e...more
Excellent, Excellent Book! Loved the characters, the storyline & how so much love of music was infused into the story. I have always loved books that center around one instrument, might come from my fond memories of the video, The Master's Hand or that movie about the Red Violin that was painted with the violin crafter's wife's blood after she dies in childbirth. There's just something about those stories that reaches out to me. That sounded kind of morbid didn't it? hahahaha
I haven't read anything like this in quite a long time. The thing with well-researched novels is that you tend to forget that they're just fiction. Spain is one of my favorite European countries, so you can just imagine my happiness reading about how it was in the olden days - specifically during the Spanish civil war and the World War II. The cameo appearances of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Picasso, and King Alfonso of Spain make this novel all the more interesting. You should read this book, I...more
If you’ve read this then you know why this is so sad. It’s not entirely bad, it’s just that it drags on and on far past the point where you’re interested in the main character. I like how the author incorporates known artistic and political figures of the time period in, but that still doesn’t make up for the fact that it just drags. Not the best novel I’ve ever read but out of the bunch I brought home with me, I guess this was the best. *sigh*
This is an excellent debut novel, one that was pulled at random from the Kindle store. Chronicling the life and times of a fictional Spanish cellist from the waning days of Spain's monarchy to the facist onslaught that swept Europe during WWII. As much as I felt the novelist kept the narrator at a frustrating arm's length, the supporting characters were rich and the depiction of music inspiring.
Andromeda's beautiful descriptions and characterizations carried me farther into this book than I might normally have gone. Somewhere in the middle I began to despair at its length and wondered where it was going and if it were ever going to end. A short while later, however, my interest was captured again and I willingly completed it. I think it's wonderful that a fellow Alaskan wrote such a beautiful book.
Since having traveled there this past summer, I have been searching for novels set in Spain. I was hoping and, up through the first fourth of the book, finding this to be a wonderful story of the technique and heart and soul of cello playing set in the time of Pablo Casals. After that, it became too much a story of immorality for me to continue it. That's it for this book.
Loved it. The story of a Spanish cellistborn in the late 1800s. The story takes you through life in rural Spain, throught the courts and the fall of the monarchy, World Wars and Franco. The story is compelling and well concepted. THe book does justice to a very interesting time in Spain's recent history and brings to life the politics in a very relatable way.
The book was semi fun to listen to. The narrator affected a delightful Spanish accent and mispronounced only a few words. I kept listening, after being tempted to quit several times, because it was inspired by the life of Pablo Casals. Now I want to read a true biography of Casals to learn how much of this story was invention.
An interesting read and definitely well written. I was surprised and delighted by the obvious understanding the author must have of music, the cello, and the Spanish language, and how these aspects were woven tightly throughout, with all the history and several significant historical figures. A few things I didn't care for, so I rated it lower. The fictional characters were very well developed and it was an interesting sensation to understand the protagonist even while I didn't particularly like...more
This novel wasn't my cup of tea, but I think that others may really love it. It is the story of the life of a cellist, with all interesting and boring bits of the tour circuit provided in great detail. For me, there were too many boring bits. And, because the story is told from the cellist's perspective looking back at his long life, the narrative was dull in places. Felix seemed so stuck in the mud, that it was hard to understand how he became a political activist. Set in the time of two World...more
A fairly good read. I felt the first half of the book read better than the latter half. Sometimes less is more, and this would be such an instance: no reason to stretch it out without providing the same detail and depth of a storyline as was shown earlier in the work.
I really enjoyed the story of this book, and though the history was quite complicated and took a bit of slogging at times it really did interest me in the time period. It reads as a fictional autobiography, and the story does get submerged a bit at times.
I was perhaps too disappointed in this book, since my standards for historical fiction are fairly high. It felt very much like three books, one quite good if uneven (the early years in Spain), one confusing and odd (the obsessive "love" story), and one a fairly dry history lesson complete with didactics (in case we missed the point that fascism is bad). But ultimately, it was the narrator that put me off the story most. Deeply and irrevocably passive and self-absorbed, he is extremely hard to ca...more
This is a sweeping, ambitious novel about a Spanish cellist that covers his life, from his birth to his death in 1978. I found it surprisingly funny, historically fascinating (I knew very little about the Spanish Civil War) and couldn't wait to get back to reading it when I had to stop. I was going to give it 4 stars because it's not a perfect book: there tended to be some lags before she picked up the thread of the story again, and it may have over-reached just a tiny bit at the expense of some...more
I liked this book when it wasn't lost in moments of prolonged history lessons. It's story was good at moments but the last half of the book was difficult to read as none of the characters had an abundance of redeeming qualities. Often I caught myself thinking how self-absorbed all of the characters were. The best part of the book was Feliu's early days up until he pissed off Queen Ena.
According to the Author's Note at the end of the book, this novel started out as a work of non-fiction, to depict the life of Pablo Casals. Along the way, the author found the need to create new characters, including one for Casals, and turn to fiction in order to express herself, to "immerse myself in something beautiful and hopeful" following 9/11. The result is a passionate and interesting story set against the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of WWII. Lots of historical figures (Franco, P...more
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“Since I was a very small boy, traveling from town to town, three hundred days a year, I learned to love this life. The cradlelike rock and sway of the train, the hospitality of our countrymen, the gentle hearts of our countrywomen. You will find that, as long as you keep moving, there is no end to the delights awaiting you. But you must keep moving, Feliu. Even when the heart skips; even when the view blurs.”
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