Years Like Brief Days

by Fabián Dobles

An elderly man revisits his childhood home, thereby initiating a nostalgic journey in which his boyhood and his earliest sexual experiences are vividly evoked by the scents, sights, and sounds of the place. His memories intensify when he sleeps and dreams of the family home, full of talk, music, and colorful relatives. His return trip home inspires him to write a confessional"" letter to his mother, the letter he did not write during her lifetime. He writes sadly, and sometimes humorously, of the solitary and shameful life he led when his father, the village doctor, placed him in a seminary to study for the priesthood. In the coda to the novel, forgiveness begins as the elderly son realizes his father, though severe, taught him more about personal and professional integrity than anyone else. 1996, UNESCO Collection of Representative Works,

Genres: Fiction

120 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Fabián Dobles Rodríguez was a Costa Rican writer and left-wing political activist. An author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays, he earned international recognition as an author dealing with the plight of the poor and with social protest.

Reviews

[Luis Rolando Durán Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgia que viene de la tierra, de las semillas y los árboles, del viejo cauce del río que hoy casi ya no está. Regresar manejando una camioneta por los viejos caminos de la historia que lo han forjado a uno, acompañado de las voces lejanas, de los hechos reveladores.

Volver a la base del compromiso social, a la esencia de los sueños. Esta novela de Fabián Dobles, un autor tan querido y necesario, fue escrita en otro tono, otra clave, otro lenguaje. Pero al igual que todo lo que escribió, nos pone frente a la esencia del país que somos y nos obliga, a veces sutil y a veces brutalmente, a mirarnos en perspectiva y a revalorar.

[Emanuel Morales · Rating 3 out of 5]

No es -por mucho- el mejor libro de Fabián Dobles, pero se disfruta. Por momentos tiene destellos luminosos. Me dio mucha nostalgia y me hizo pensar. Me hizo sentirme viejo, mirando para atrás.

[Sevval Zuhre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anılar arasındaki bağlantıyı kuramadım, kimin kim ve nerenin neresi olduğunu anlamakta zorluk çektim. Birbiriyle alakasız gelişigüzel bir anlatım olduğunu düşünüyorum.