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Quaranta anys perduts
Publicada per primera vegada el 1971 a Club Editor, Quaranta anys perduts narra la història de Laura Vidal, la filla d’una portera que esdevé modista d’alta costura i vesteix les senyoretes de la Barcelona del franquisme.
Rosa Maria Arquimbau ofereix un retrat viu de quaranta anys d’història de Catalunya: des de la proclamació de la República, l’abril de 1931, fins als anys setanta. I recrea un món que coneix de primera mà: l’ambient frívol de la Barcelona republicana, on el sexe era un mitjà d’ascens social, el drama d’un viatge frustrat a Mèxic el 1942 i el retrat desolador del país que s’ha venut l’ànima als vencedors.
Aquest és el tercer volum de Rosa Maria Arquimbau publicat per Comanegra, després de L’engima Arquimbau. Sexe, feminisme i literatura a l’era del flirt, la biografia de l’autora per Julià Guillamon, i de Cor lleuger i altres narracions de l’era del flirt, que recull les seves històries dels anys trenta. Tots tres volums formen una petita col·lecció tancada.
Rosa Maria Arquimbau ofereix un retrat viu de quaranta anys d’història de Catalunya: des de la proclamació de la República, l’abril de 1931, fins als anys setanta. I recrea un món que coneix de primera mà: l’ambient frívol de la Barcelona republicana, on el sexe era un mitjà d’ascens social, el drama d’un viatge frustrat a Mèxic el 1942 i el retrat desolador del país que s’ha venut l’ànima als vencedors.
Aquest és el tercer volum de Rosa Maria Arquimbau publicat per Comanegra, després de L’engima Arquimbau. Sexe, feminisme i literatura a l’era del flirt, la biografia de l’autora per Julià Guillamon, i de Cor lleuger i altres narracions de l’era del flirt, que recull les seves històries dels anys trenta. Tots tres volums formen una petita col·lecció tancada.
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Rosa Maria Arquimbau
10 books4 followersRosa Maria Arquimbau (Barcelona, 1909 - 1992). Escriptora, periodista i activista. L'any 1924 comença a escriure a la revista Joventut Catalana amb el pseudònim de Rosa de Sant Jordi. Des del 1926, escriu al setmanari Dona Catalana i, el 1927, també comença a col·laborar a Flames Noves. Revista de joventuts intel·lectuals de Catalunya. Des del 1930, escriu a la secció fixa "Film & soda" del diari La Rambla. És autora de les novel·les Al marge (1933), Història d'una noia i vint braçalets (1934), La pau és un interval (1970) i Quaranta anys perduts (1971). També publica les obres de narrativa Tres contes breus (1928), La dona dels ulls que parlaven i altres contes (1930) i Home i dona (1936). En el terreny teatral, és autora de comèdies com Es rifa un home! (1935), publicada a La Escena Catalana, Estimat Mohamed [amb Josep Maria Poblet], inèdita, o L'inconvenient de dir-se Martines, finalista del Premi Joan Santamaria del 1957. Amb un estil sovint directe i planer, l'obra de Rosa Maria Arquimbau mostra la vida i la societat de la seva època a partir d'una visió molt lliure de les relacions amoroses i de la feminitat.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 25, 2022
4.5 stars
A lost little gem from 1971 that is fascinating as a historical document and deeply satisfying* as a piece of literature. And a chance, always a pleasure, to read a translation by the wonderful Peter Bush.
We are thrown en media res into a poor Barcelona household in 1932 (a family of five lives in a concierge cubby, probably about 15-20 square meters). A friend rushes in and reports that the Catalan Republic has been declared. Our narrator, 14-year-old Laura Vidal, takes the afternoon off her job as an apprentice seamstress and paces the streets and rides the streetcars and listens to the talk of what’s to come.
And then we follow Laura from skinny teenager to a young woman with ambitions for herself, ambitions which are in conflict both with her lack of money and connections (solved by abandoning the morals of the previous generation and getting rich lovers to sponsor her) and more generally with the political maelstrom that descends on Barcelona. In the particularly memorable middle section, Laura and her friends flee Barcelona for France when the fascists arrive. They are lucky enough to avoid the concentration camps many of their friends and family are put into, and instead we get a fascinating portrait of the Perpignan of refugees and political exiles, and a memorable attempted escape to Mexico.
Reading the war years nowadays was a chilling reminder of how quickly things can go wrong, and how universal the horrors and indignities of war are, with Laura and her friends immediately preyed on in France as potential future prostitutes, reminiscent of the human trafficking stories that immediately surfaced earlier this year as Ukrainian women and children crossed borders.
There are two things that make this slim (130-page) novel particularly appealing. One is Laura herself. She changes a great deal over the course of the “Forty Lost Years,” but she is always a direct and sharp-tongued narrator, lambasting men, false-morals, hypocrites, the Spanish, as it takes her fancy. When a friend marries a rich old man for comfort, Laura tells the reader:
I was ‘la Vidal’ and being ‘la Vidal’ was enough for me. I came from the people and… though I tried to hide my roots when I spoke to my customers, I could never forget where I came from and never wanted to. I felt proud of my origins, my life in the concierge cubbyhole, my father’s ideas and all that. It was as if they were my birthright.
The other is the translation. Peter Bush has taken a vernacular and earthy approach to the story, and there’s a warm, kind of Northern inflection to the speech. The men are all lads and the young women are all lasses. When Laura reflects on the morals of the time, she thinks:
What did ‘sensible’ mean? Or being ‘a good girl?’ Did it mean a girl like her? Find what they call a good lad and court him for seven years in a row before being able to marry him?
In a way it’s a similar tale to Mercè Rodoreda’s In Diamond Square (also wonderfully translated by Bush). But where Rodoreda is more literary and symbolic, Arquimbau is more earthy and direct. And they are both compulsively readable.
*The last page is maybe an exception. I have decided to edit it from my memory, but other readers may feel differently.
A lost little gem from 1971 that is fascinating as a historical document and deeply satisfying* as a piece of literature. And a chance, always a pleasure, to read a translation by the wonderful Peter Bush.
We are thrown en media res into a poor Barcelona household in 1932 (a family of five lives in a concierge cubby, probably about 15-20 square meters). A friend rushes in and reports that the Catalan Republic has been declared. Our narrator, 14-year-old Laura Vidal, takes the afternoon off her job as an apprentice seamstress and paces the streets and rides the streetcars and listens to the talk of what’s to come.
And then we follow Laura from skinny teenager to a young woman with ambitions for herself, ambitions which are in conflict both with her lack of money and connections (solved by abandoning the morals of the previous generation and getting rich lovers to sponsor her) and more generally with the political maelstrom that descends on Barcelona. In the particularly memorable middle section, Laura and her friends flee Barcelona for France when the fascists arrive. They are lucky enough to avoid the concentration camps many of their friends and family are put into, and instead we get a fascinating portrait of the Perpignan of refugees and political exiles, and a memorable attempted escape to Mexico.
Reading the war years nowadays was a chilling reminder of how quickly things can go wrong, and how universal the horrors and indignities of war are, with Laura and her friends immediately preyed on in France as potential future prostitutes, reminiscent of the human trafficking stories that immediately surfaced earlier this year as Ukrainian women and children crossed borders.
There are two things that make this slim (130-page) novel particularly appealing. One is Laura herself. She changes a great deal over the course of the “Forty Lost Years,” but she is always a direct and sharp-tongued narrator, lambasting men, false-morals, hypocrites, the Spanish, as it takes her fancy. When a friend marries a rich old man for comfort, Laura tells the reader:
I was ‘la Vidal’ and being ‘la Vidal’ was enough for me. I came from the people and… though I tried to hide my roots when I spoke to my customers, I could never forget where I came from and never wanted to. I felt proud of my origins, my life in the concierge cubbyhole, my father’s ideas and all that. It was as if they were my birthright.
The other is the translation. Peter Bush has taken a vernacular and earthy approach to the story, and there’s a warm, kind of Northern inflection to the speech. The men are all lads and the young women are all lasses. When Laura reflects on the morals of the time, she thinks:
What did ‘sensible’ mean? Or being ‘a good girl?’ Did it mean a girl like her? Find what they call a good lad and court him for seven years in a row before being able to marry him?
In a way it’s a similar tale to Mercè Rodoreda’s In Diamond Square (also wonderfully translated by Bush). But where Rodoreda is more literary and symbolic, Arquimbau is more earthy and direct. And they are both compulsively readable.
*The last page is maybe an exception. I have decided to edit it from my memory, but other readers may feel differently.
September 18, 2022
I LOVED reading this feminist revolutionary classic I discovered and bought in a small bookstore in Barcelona. Reading this while in Barcelona was the best way to learn about the troubled Catalonian history and the suffering that society went through under Franco's dictatorship. Also so cool to actually walk the same streets as described in the book (so many decades later).
July 10, 2021
Historical fiction novel, translated from Catalan. Starts off in 1930s Barcelona and goes through the next 40 years of Laura (working class seamstress with big dreams)'s life - through the Spanish Civil War, WW2, the dictatorship. LOVED Laura, her relationship to .. relationships was so interesting to me. Also loved the thoughts about feminism and about class issues. The book was surprisingly funny in this dry, lowkey way. Idk, my type of humour anyway!! I didn't love the end as much as the rest of it, either cos ~30 years went by in way less pages than the first decade and it felt a bit abrupt, or maybe just cos *I'm* not middle-aged yet and her thoughts about that period of life as a woman don't speak as strongly to me. 4.5 star read anyway, so so so so good!!!! It's only 150 pages too, read it!!
April 25, 2022
When I started reading Forty Lost Years, I thought it was a dystopian novel. Picture it: a family member rushes into her parents house to alert her family that Catalonia is now independent from Spain. The I remembered that, the book’s setting does take place in the 1930s and the events actually did happen.
Forty Lost Years was originally published in 1971 in Catlan and could be considered a lost classic. Thankfully Fum d’Estampa have now translated it and the English speaking world can now have access to Rose Maria Arquimbau’s special novel.
The novel details the horrors which occurred during the period: fighting, killings, relatives never returning. However what separates Forty Lost Years from other literature dating from that era is that the main protagonist is a woman and a working class one. As Laura takes on a seamstress apprenticeship, she empowers herself, despite the exiles and turbulent atmosphere which would weaken any form of morale. Eventually, like the author herself, Laura joins the battles for freedom. The novel ends in 1971 when Laura realises that Catalonia (and herself) went through forty lost years.
I am surprised at how a proto feminist novel like this managed to get through Franco’s censors as it clearly does not hold back from criticising that era. As a read it is flowing and unpredictable. More than anything Laura is a memorable character, the reader can easily sympathise with her and that, for me, it the book’s strength.
Although a newish publisher Fum d’Estampa are continuously surprising me with their output. I never knew that Catalonia had a rich history and Forty Lost Years was published last year, in 2022 they’ve increased the number and variety of books they are publishing, cementing the fact that Catalan literature is boundless.
Forty Lost Years was originally published in 1971 in Catlan and could be considered a lost classic. Thankfully Fum d’Estampa have now translated it and the English speaking world can now have access to Rose Maria Arquimbau’s special novel.
The novel details the horrors which occurred during the period: fighting, killings, relatives never returning. However what separates Forty Lost Years from other literature dating from that era is that the main protagonist is a woman and a working class one. As Laura takes on a seamstress apprenticeship, she empowers herself, despite the exiles and turbulent atmosphere which would weaken any form of morale. Eventually, like the author herself, Laura joins the battles for freedom. The novel ends in 1971 when Laura realises that Catalonia (and herself) went through forty lost years.
I am surprised at how a proto feminist novel like this managed to get through Franco’s censors as it clearly does not hold back from criticising that era. As a read it is flowing and unpredictable. More than anything Laura is a memorable character, the reader can easily sympathise with her and that, for me, it the book’s strength.
Although a newish publisher Fum d’Estampa are continuously surprising me with their output. I never knew that Catalonia had a rich history and Forty Lost Years was published last year, in 2022 they’ve increased the number and variety of books they are publishing, cementing the fact that Catalan literature is boundless.
March 19, 2022
Arquimbau does such a good job of showing the world through Laura Vidal's eyes, yet despite the first-person narrative there's a feeling of perspective, of being able to see her as a figure against the ground of her own experiencing. Laura's youthful shyness develops into an emotional self-distancing, and finally into cynicism and an isolation she convinces herself is strength and independence. There's obviously much autobiography here, but I do hope Rosa Maria was happier in her own life than the character she created in this superficially cold and detached, but actually deeply emotional, novella.
There's a short author biography at the back which sketches out Arquimbau's life and times, which I read part way through the book itself, and which I think would have done well as an introduction. 4⭐, but I think it might, with reflection, grow to 5.
There's a short author biography at the back which sketches out Arquimbau's life and times, which I read part way through the book itself, and which I think would have done well as an introduction. 4⭐, but I think it might, with reflection, grow to 5.
February 17, 2023
Està sent un descobriment llegir a Arquimbau. M'agrada molt la protagonista que ha perfilat en aquest llibre, tan diferent al model de dona de bé que imperava durant aquesta època
September 10, 2025
Tenia moltes ganes d’acostar-me a l’obra de la Rosa Maria Arquimbau, coetània de Mercè Rodoreda i a diferència d’aquesta, tan desconeguda.
Quaranta anys perduts tracta sobre la Laura Vidal, una noia que viu a Barcelona els anys de la República, postguerra i franquisme i que tot i que prové d’una família molt humil, aconsegueix ensortint-se’n treballant com a aprenent de modista i posteriorment com a mestressa del seu propi taller.
M’ha recordat molt a la Rodoreda, en aquesta manera aparentment freda d’escriure, com de mostrar sense sentiments, i de sobte, com fan les dues autores, sents que la desil•lusió de la protagonista és fruit de la manca de llibertat i que com a lectora, acaba per atrapar-te.
M’ha agradat molt aquesta perspectiva femenina, d’algú que va viure els esdeveniments esmentats i que plasma de manera senzilla i innocent. La Laura Vidal és un personatge bastant avançat però comú a la Barcelona del moment, d’emancipació femenina i obertura sexual.
L’única cosa que potser no m’ha agradat és el component polític i els comentaris una mica racistes, però entenc que és un llibre escrit als anys 60.
AIXÒ SÍ: Aquesta portada tan lletja???? Tan maca l’edició anglesa!!
Continuaré llegint a l’Arquimbau segur.
Quaranta anys perduts tracta sobre la Laura Vidal, una noia que viu a Barcelona els anys de la República, postguerra i franquisme i que tot i que prové d’una família molt humil, aconsegueix ensortint-se’n treballant com a aprenent de modista i posteriorment com a mestressa del seu propi taller.
M’ha recordat molt a la Rodoreda, en aquesta manera aparentment freda d’escriure, com de mostrar sense sentiments, i de sobte, com fan les dues autores, sents que la desil•lusió de la protagonista és fruit de la manca de llibertat i que com a lectora, acaba per atrapar-te.
M’ha agradat molt aquesta perspectiva femenina, d’algú que va viure els esdeveniments esmentats i que plasma de manera senzilla i innocent. La Laura Vidal és un personatge bastant avançat però comú a la Barcelona del moment, d’emancipació femenina i obertura sexual.
L’única cosa que potser no m’ha agradat és el component polític i els comentaris una mica racistes, però entenc que és un llibre escrit als anys 60.
AIXÒ SÍ: Aquesta portada tan lletja???? Tan maca l’edició anglesa!!
Continuaré llegint a l’Arquimbau segur.
December 29, 2023
"The days and months passed so slowly. I wanted to grow up once and for all and be a woman. To be able to do whatever I wanted. And not to have to ask permission to do everything. To be free. To not have to depend on mother and father, or even on my brother and sister. That didn't mean I didn't love them. Quite the opposite. I loved them a lot and would have done anything for them, even if it meant making sacrifices. But being fourteen meant just that, obeying, obeying, always obeying despite the rebellious spirit you feel inside you."
Rosa Maria Arquimbau's novella, in a translation from the Catalan by Peter Bush, brought to mind Danielle Dutton's Margaret the First. Both appear to be sleek historical fiction novels that shed off the necessity of being a fat tome with narratives that cover decades. In both instances, too much is elided and telescoped. One gets a general feel of time passing, or rather rushing by, without any sense of depth or transportation. All of this aside, I did like Forty Lost Years more than Margaret. It still says something though when an appended essay is more fascinating than the novella itself.
Laura Vidal is an engaging protagonist with such potential. Hence, it's extremely frustrating to see Arquimbau not use her to the fullest. She presents an absorbing portrait of her coming-of-age in turbulent times, of feminine independence as a working-class woman, breaking away from the mould and defying the world to live on one's own terms in the mid-20th Century. The narrative doesn't really engage with the actual happenings in Catalonia or Spain. It is all filtered through a net and the readers just get impressions of events. Franco's name isn't even mentioned once, as far as I can remember.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
January 4, 2022
Note: This is a half-baked review based on notes I made while reading.
This is a great little book. I often found myself gazing into space thinking about politics, the tides of history, and the people swept up in them: this despite the book mentioning events only in passing; never delving or dwelling. All the reader sees is the effect on Laura and a handful of people around her.
There are also plenty of times Laura tells us about things she wanted to say but never did, or emotions felt but never expressed, many of which would have had a positive impact.
This discrepancy between negative things in the world that happen to us and wash over us, beyond our control and not necessarily with intent to affect us as individuals, and the absence of things that should and could bring positivity if only they were expressed or said or otherwise brought into existence is thought-provoking and haunting.
Laura is unable to give herself these things, let alone others. She denies herself the need to grieve. She refuses to - or is unable to - acknowledge love.
The book really flourishes in the final chapters, where Laura meditates on the gaps between the past and present. She reflects how "disillusion had made me what I was, a woman who'd seen the world and felt hollow inside and expected nothing from life."
Then, chapter 18 is a marvel. Here she laments her "poor mother, who would depart this world, where she had hardly ever been," referring to her limited time spent away from home and hearth, but discounting the rich emotional life she led, the strong family connections with children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and so on: none of which Laura had.
This raw realisation that her life was spent following unexamined impulses and that it's too late to do anything about it is very poignant.
This is a great little book. I often found myself gazing into space thinking about politics, the tides of history, and the people swept up in them: this despite the book mentioning events only in passing; never delving or dwelling. All the reader sees is the effect on Laura and a handful of people around her.
There are also plenty of times Laura tells us about things she wanted to say but never did, or emotions felt but never expressed, many of which would have had a positive impact.
This discrepancy between negative things in the world that happen to us and wash over us, beyond our control and not necessarily with intent to affect us as individuals, and the absence of things that should and could bring positivity if only they were expressed or said or otherwise brought into existence is thought-provoking and haunting.
Laura is unable to give herself these things, let alone others. She denies herself the need to grieve. She refuses to - or is unable to - acknowledge love.
The book really flourishes in the final chapters, where Laura meditates on the gaps between the past and present. She reflects how "disillusion had made me what I was, a woman who'd seen the world and felt hollow inside and expected nothing from life."
Then, chapter 18 is a marvel. Here she laments her "poor mother, who would depart this world, where she had hardly ever been," referring to her limited time spent away from home and hearth, but discounting the rich emotional life she led, the strong family connections with children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren and so on: none of which Laura had.
This raw realisation that her life was spent following unexamined impulses and that it's too late to do anything about it is very poignant.
July 9, 2025
This reads like someone sitting down and giving you their life story over a long lunch. It’s not written in dialogue or in a ‘chatty’ style but episodes are covered fairly briefly without too many embellishments - just as you would if you were recounting highlights of a life occasionally throwing in more detail on events that have really resonated. As a result it may feel a bit too sketchy for some - it certainly could have been more of an epic. I would normally have agreed but it felt right to me as it made the fleetingness of forty years of life more stark, distilling a life down into its most succinct experiences - and of course there are plenty of books that you can read that take the opposite approach.
It was good to see what feels like a less common aspect of 20th century Spanish history - a woman having a relatively successful career during Franco’s reign and the lightheartedness that surrounded a lot of her younger life despite her poor background. For a woman who fought so much for feminism and socialism there are occasional prejudices that really jar but that are also a good reminder of how nothing should be taken for granted. However overall this is easy to read, wonderfully informative and with a protagonist who is determined and pragmatic and just doing her best to make her way through a certain period in history - even if the final chapters rather detract from this.
It was good to see what feels like a less common aspect of 20th century Spanish history - a woman having a relatively successful career during Franco’s reign and the lightheartedness that surrounded a lot of her younger life despite her poor background. For a woman who fought so much for feminism and socialism there are occasional prejudices that really jar but that are also a good reminder of how nothing should be taken for granted. However overall this is easy to read, wonderfully informative and with a protagonist who is determined and pragmatic and just doing her best to make her way through a certain period in history - even if the final chapters rather detract from this.
October 31, 2023
"Calia que fes un esforç per vèncer la meva timidesa, que em convertia en tonta potser sense ser-ne."
"Vaig descobrir aleshores que la moral és una cosa que s'estira i s'arronsa a conveniència de cadascú i també que els pobres que es poden permetre una moral rigorosa són una excepció."
"... s'anava eixamplant Barcelona amb tota una colla de barris tot al seu voltant, amb unes construccions que semblaven immenses gàbies verticals d'una lletjor i d'una tristesa que et deixaven estabornit..."
"Vaig descobrir aleshores que la moral és una cosa que s'estira i s'arronsa a conveniència de cadascú i també que els pobres que es poden permetre una moral rigorosa són una excepció."
"... s'anava eixamplant Barcelona amb tota una colla de barris tot al seu voltant, amb unes construccions que semblaven immenses gàbies verticals d'una lletjor i d'una tristesa que et deixaven estabornit..."
January 5, 2022
Historia Katalonii 20-ego wieku oczami barcelońskiej krawcowej. Polityka, klasa pracująca i feminizm prostym, niemetaforycznym językiem.
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September 8, 2021Forty Lost Years, translated by Peter Bush from Catalan, is a classic work of literature by outspoken feminist author Rosa Maria Arquimbau, finally published in English translation by Fum d'Estampa Press. It is semi-autobiographical: Arquimbau herself was bold and fought for Catalan independence and the right of women to vote, and was later forced to flee Barcelona to escape the Franco regime as a result. Though it contains some spoilers, I strongly recommend reading the 'epilogue' by Juliá Guillamon before the text itself, as it gave me a lot of context that really enhanced the novel.
The book features young seamstress Laura Vidal, a woman determined to buck tradition. Raised by her parents in a tiny concierge apartment, her goal is to become independent, to make her own money and never get married. As she works her way towards this goal, she dates with a fierce detachment, but never lets her own values and convictions slide for any man or for the judgment of her family or friends. She leaves through the declaration of the Second Republic of Catalan, to going into exile as Franco took power, to returning to Barcelona.
The epilogue reveals how fashion, which is Laura's whole world, reflects the politics of the time. The move away from constrictive garments and boots to dresses you could make yourself was a bold expression of liberatory fashion. As a seamstress, Laura was able to be part of a new, more independent generation of girls, who were encouraged to make her own way in the working world. As the Catalan republic is declared—but then war descends—fashion shifts, and so does Laura's world. It is a quietly searing story about independence. Laura reflects a materialistic and pragmatic attitude that is at once a little lonely, a little bitter, but also very determined and very proud.
I received a copy of Forty Lost Years from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It is on shelves on September 16 from Fum d'Estampa Press.
Content warnings for violence, shooting, stalking, racism and imperialist thinking, refugee experience, mention of concentration camps, and homophobic remarks.
The book features young seamstress Laura Vidal, a woman determined to buck tradition. Raised by her parents in a tiny concierge apartment, her goal is to become independent, to make her own money and never get married. As she works her way towards this goal, she dates with a fierce detachment, but never lets her own values and convictions slide for any man or for the judgment of her family or friends. She leaves through the declaration of the Second Republic of Catalan, to going into exile as Franco took power, to returning to Barcelona.
The epilogue reveals how fashion, which is Laura's whole world, reflects the politics of the time. The move away from constrictive garments and boots to dresses you could make yourself was a bold expression of liberatory fashion. As a seamstress, Laura was able to be part of a new, more independent generation of girls, who were encouraged to make her own way in the working world. As the Catalan republic is declared—but then war descends—fashion shifts, and so does Laura's world. It is a quietly searing story about independence. Laura reflects a materialistic and pragmatic attitude that is at once a little lonely, a little bitter, but also very determined and very proud.
I received a copy of Forty Lost Years from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It is on shelves on September 16 from Fum d'Estampa Press.
Content warnings for violence, shooting, stalking, racism and imperialist thinking, refugee experience, mention of concentration camps, and homophobic remarks.
August 4, 2023
I appreciated the setting of this novel - a female perspective of Catalonia’s plight during the Spanish Civil War and the following years of dictatorship - and its main character, a working-class woman that adapted to the chaos that war imposed on civil society to reject gender expectations and forge her own path. Unfortunately, significant shortcomings in the narrative’s pace and structure made the novel feel unbalanced, and several pages may focus on relatively trivial plot points whilst deaths, moments of grief, years of exile or entire decades are swept away in a couple of sentences, widening the distance between the reader and the main protagonist. By the resolution of the novel it is quite unclear what has actually been lost (spoiler - especially as the heroine achieves exactly what she wanted from youth) and the borderline existential questioning of the last few pages feels like an underdeveloped afterthought.
August 3, 2024
Malaguanyat argument. Amb el tema que tracta, s'hauria pogut escriure una gran novel·la, i l'únic que va aconseguir l'autora és una novel·leta rosa en què les protagonistes són unes bledes. La qualitat literària és nul·la. Si no fos que la protagonista rebutja uns pocs pretendents i no en busca d'altres, es podria dir que és una "típica novel·leta rosa" que podria haver escrit na Corín Tellado.
El segon paràgraf de la sinopsi és el següent:
"Rosa Maria Arquimbau ofereix un retrat viu de quaranta anys d’història de Catalunya: des de la proclamació de la República, l’abril de 1931, fins als anys setanta. I recrea un món que coneix de primera mà: l’ambient frívol de la Barcelona republicana, on el sexe era un mitjà d’ascens social, el drama d’un viatge frustrat a Mèxic el 1942 i el retrat desolador del país que s’ha venut l’ànima als vencedors."
Doncs la guerra civil no l'esmenta, la Segona Guerra Mundial són dos línies que expliquen que França està dividida en dos zones, i la postguerra franquista no és més que un run-run de fons. De retrat viu, de retrat desolador, res de res.
El segon paràgraf de la sinopsi és el següent:
"Rosa Maria Arquimbau ofereix un retrat viu de quaranta anys d’història de Catalunya: des de la proclamació de la República, l’abril de 1931, fins als anys setanta. I recrea un món que coneix de primera mà: l’ambient frívol de la Barcelona republicana, on el sexe era un mitjà d’ascens social, el drama d’un viatge frustrat a Mèxic el 1942 i el retrat desolador del país que s’ha venut l’ànima als vencedors."
Doncs la guerra civil no l'esmenta, la Segona Guerra Mundial són dos línies que expliquen que França està dividida en dos zones, i la postguerra franquista no és més que un run-run de fons. De retrat viu, de retrat desolador, res de res.
May 12, 2025
40 anys perduts parla d'absolutament tot allò que m'emociona: feminitat i ser dona, el pas del temps i fer-se gran, amor, homes, amisat, catalanitat i repressió, consciència de classe... i tot en el context de la República, la guerra i la postguerra!
En fi, tenia tots els elements perquè m'encantés, i efectivament així ha estat. Més enllà de tots els temes que toca, i del temps històric en què passa (que sempre fa emocionar), l'estil de l'autora m'ha fascinat. De fet, m'ha recordat una mica a Mercè Rodoreda, però sense tantes descripcions.
Em sembla increïble no haver sentit mai a parlar de Rosa Maria Arquimbau!
En fi, tenia tots els elements perquè m'encantés, i efectivament així ha estat. Més enllà de tots els temes que toca, i del temps històric en què passa (que sempre fa emocionar), l'estil de l'autora m'ha fascinat. De fet, m'ha recordat una mica a Mercè Rodoreda, però sense tantes descripcions.
Em sembla increïble no haver sentit mai a parlar de Rosa Maria Arquimbau!
September 8, 2021
He llegit aquest llibre pel club de lectura Clementina i en fer-ho he descobert l'obra d'Arquimbau.
La novel•la m'ha agradat molt, trobo que la ploma de l'autora és fabulosa i a més molt avançada al seu temps. En ella tracta punts molt diversos que van des del feminisme i els drets de l'obrera, fins la justícia, la història i les conseqüències de la guerra a nivell social i cultural.
Quedo amb ganes de seguir llegint més sobre ella.
La novel•la m'ha agradat molt, trobo que la ploma de l'autora és fabulosa i a més molt avançada al seu temps. En ella tracta punts molt diversos que van des del feminisme i els drets de l'obrera, fins la justícia, la història i les conseqüències de la guerra a nivell social i cultural.
Quedo amb ganes de seguir llegint més sobre ella.
December 30, 2023
An interesting recounting of one woman's life just before and during the Spanish Civil War; however, the story feels somewhat detached and superficial as a personal memoire about a single individual, and without sufficient perspective for a history.
September 12, 2021
Meravellòs...únic 😍😍😍😍
September 21, 2026
Intriguing historical book about the upheavals of the spanish civil war, flight and the consequences of fascism told from then perspective of a working class catalan woman.
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