Nerea and I: Translated by Linda White

by Linda White

Laura Mintegi's Nerea and I provides a unique viewpoint from which to examine women's role in the world of Basque nationalism, and Linda White's translation gives us a rare example in English of this late twentieth century novel by a prominent Basque writer and political activist. This volume also includes White's examination of the role of women in Basque society, and the rise of the women's movement in the Basque country of Spain.

178 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2005

About the author

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Reviews

[Iraultza · Rating 2 out of 5]

eleberriaren premisa ona da, bere ikaslea den Nerearekin maitemintzen den Isabel, gutun bidezko amodioa kartzelan dagoen ETA kide batekin, aldez aurretiko bizimodu tradizional heterosexuala zartatzen duen gertakizuna… ta gero, zer? Ez da inora heltzen, Nerearen ahotsa ia ez dago presente kontakizunean zehar eta amaiera… amatasunaren pisura mugatutako ama bilakatzen da berriro Isabel eta Nerea desagertzen da (agian Isabellen interesa bakarrik piztu nahi duen epaiketan bere alde egiteko?)… gainera topikoz beteriko deskribapenak topa daitezke maiz (ezin berezi pertsonaiarenak berak edo egilearenak direnik)

En fin, alegre pero no mucho. Nerea eta biok baino, 4 urte Isabel entzutzen deitu beharko litzateke lana.

[Sara Sams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this Basque novel in translation. It's splashed with the ever-changing interior landscape of Isabel, a professor of literature and single mother of two. White does a pretty great job rendering the internal voice of Isabel-- whose thoughts, like our own, meander from the profound to the petty; from wanting to make something more of her life to wanting to maintain the comfort of her status quo. Isabel forms a (from the audience's point of view) very one-sided relationship with a prisoner-student of hers, Nerea, who has a gift rendering both the abstract and the real in language. There are undercurrents to the prose that continually push toward questions of identity, questions of gender and nationality. The seriousness of those questions almost snuck up on me, considering that the one-way conversation can seem repetitive, even sometimes juvenile. But isn't that what we all sound like in our own heads? Read this book! I'll be trying to get my hands of more of Mintegi's work.