Journey of the Wolf

by Douglas Day

Journey of the Wolf depicts the last days in the life of Sebastian Rosales (known in other times as El Lobo), a veteran of the Civil War who has lived in France for thirty-four years: from 1939, when he and the last remnants of the Republican army fled across the Pyrenees, until the novel's present, the fall of 1973, when he decides to return to his native pueblo in the Alpujarras, a remote and mysterious region on the south slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Andalucia. It is a journey across a harsh, cruel, extreme land (itself very nearly the chief character of the novel): a land so spectacular that Rosales, silent and lupine, is almost invisible as he moves along on his journey that culminates in violence and death, and ending hauntingly reminiscent of Goya's painting The Third of May.

Genres: Historical Fiction

245 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Mahdi Lotfi · Rating 2 out of 5]

این کتاب برنده جایزه ملی کتاب سال ۱۹۷۷ ایلات متحده شده و پیرامون جنگ داخلی اسپانیا میباشد. جنگ داخلی اسپانیا یک جنگ داخلی تمام‌عیار بود که از سال ۱۹۳۶ تا ۱۹۳۹ پس از کودتای بخشی از ارتش علیه جمهوری اسپانیا رخ داد. در این جنگ نیروهای طرفدار جناح چپ معروف به «جمهوری‌خواهان» از نیروهای معروف به «ملی‌ها» شکست خوردند و دوره طولانی دیکتاتوری ژنرال فرانکو در اسپانیا آغاز شد که تا مرگ او در سال ۱۹۷۵ ادامه داشت.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel when it first came out, primarily because I'd sat in an English lit course given by the author.

He is obviously hooked on the setting, Spain, in the way many Americans who travel abroad become hooked on some foreign country. (I understand how this works. In my own case, the infatuation was with parts of Asia.) He also obviously relishes a Hemingway-esque tone that is stoic, blunt, and implacable.

His character, an aged veteran of the Spanish Civil War, is returning home after a long absence, thinking of the life he might have led, had events not intervened, but maintaining above all a tough dignity: "A man lives as he has to, senor. Life is hard. Happiness is granted to few."

That's the gist of it, although this philosophy is perhaps made more palatable with occasional scenes of bawdy comic relief.

[Miles Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebastian Rosales, known during the Spanish Civil War as "el lobo" (the wolf) was a fearless killer, but following defeat lives in France where, 34 years later, he decides it is time to return home to his native village. The novel portrays the contrast between the old and the new Spain, as Rosales, a man stuck in the past likes so many involuntary exiles, finds that everything has changed and there is no place for the violence and conflict that he represents. Rosales is a bit too one-dimensional and unreconstructed but this is an interesting if flawed work and a worthy fictional background for anyone wanting to do some reading on a travel holiday to Spain.