100BestWIT discussion

This is the discussion thread for Death in Spring by Mercè Rodoreda (translated by Martha Tennent), our group selection for November. Happy reading!

Nice. I'll be going on another library adventure, unless a book sale is as (belatedly) lucky as my last one was for these reads.

So excited for this! I read this a a couple years ago for season 3 of the Two Month Review, a podcast by the publisher of this book in the US. Introducing Mercè Rodoreda

There's also a discount code, 2MONTH, to get 20% off this and her Selected Stories. It was fascinating to read through the short stories and see how she grew as a writer, and see her skill in full bloom in Death in Spring. This is a bizarre and fascinating book, can't wait to re-read.

Just put a hold on this, so I'll start reading it relatively soon. It's nice that this qualifies for Novellas in November.

My Sunday morning routine is in full swing:


Thus far, it's as eerie, brutal, and beautifully phrased as promised.

I started this today without having read so much as a blurb. I am pleasantly surprised and flying through the pages. So far it reads like a horror fable of sorts, written in a flowing and dreamlike style. I can't say I've understood everything I've read so far but I think that's the point - it will all be revealed in time.

I loved this book SO much. More when I have more time & more people have read/commented.

Just got my library copy but I’m SO behind in my reading it may take a little while to get to.

Aubrey wrote: "My Sunday morning routine is in full swing:


Thus far, it's as eerie, brutal, and beautifully phrased as promised."

Love your visual, Aubrey.

I am enjoying this book as well. I hope to be finished in a week or so.

I ended up not liking the book as much as I did Rodoreda's The Time of the Doves, but I'm glad to have finally gotten to it after adding the book way back in 2012. I'd be interested in reading other works by the author.

Just finished the book, it was wild, I love the balance between beautiful poetic writing and the absurd and grotesque. This novel is so layered, will need to read again soon.

This is not exactly about the book, but just an interesting find due to my trying to research more about it.
I often feel a bit let down by translations (like this one) from an unfamiliar culture that don’t provide anything in the way of context in an Introduction, Foreword or Afterword. Also feeling a bit short-changed by lack of footnotes and no glossary to clarify the untranslated words. Maybe I’m too locked into a format from reading too many Penguin Classics in my youth? Anyway that had me googling and searching further, which led to this discovery of a recent (Oct 24 – Nov 10, 2019) theatrical production of “Death in Spring” in Barcelona by the National Theatre of Catalonia.

You can view the production promotion page (in Catalan) here: https://www.tnc.cat/ca/la-mort-i-la-p...

You can view the theatrical trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj0dF...

Even with the trailer being in Catalan, some of the characters seem quite identifiable, e.g. the Prisoner, the Senyor, etc.

I put the promo text through Google translate and got:
“The great posthumous novel of Mercè Rodoreda that catches us with a poetic sting.
A strange ritual ensures the stability of a town where sexual desires are systematically repressed with all kinds of torture. Every year, a young man's life is sacrificed, which is thrown into the river to check the good condition of the underground tunnel that passes under the town. In the violent rigor of this ferocity, it seems that any dissent can lead to a cataclysm of unforeseeable consequences.
A masterpiece of Catalan narrative, this posthumously published novel is considered the great literary testament of Mercè Rodoreda. A text of enormous poetic richness and at the same time with a sting-heartedly glaring look at the ancestral violence that fuses contemporary discomfort.”

Alan wrote: "This is not exactly about the book, but just an interesting find due to my trying to research more about it.
I often feel a bit let down by translations (like this one) from an unfamiliar culture t..."

Thanks for this, Alan. This work would make for a fascinating visual experience, to say the least. My reading reminded me of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring', and I'd love to see something that blended the aspects of Rodoreda's text with more performative aspects.

Aubrey wrote: "Thanks for this, Alan. This work would make for a fascinating visual experience..."

You are most welcome Aubrey! I also now realize that the narrator shown at the end of the trailer is probably meant to be Mercè Rodoreda herself, since most of her photographs show her with white hair.

I thought this would be solidly in my wheel house, but I struggled with reading it and rating it. I would say my personal experience was a 3. The book was beautiful and harsh and visceral, yet I had to really work to connect with it. However, it was clearly of very high literary merit, and I could see giving it a 5 if read in another mood.

I liked it a lot, but a few weeks later, and I'm not sure that I am as enthusiastic as I was right after finishing it. June's experience feels a bit like how I feel now. I didn't struggle reading it, but I'm left a bit cold in the aftermath. I have to wonder if that's the translation or the book itself. I am very interested to read another book by Mercè Rodoreda, or even perhaps attempt to read this in the original (not sure how I'd do, but the differences are mostly about pronunciation & linkage, so I could get a basic grasp - doubt that would be totally helpful) to see if the experience is different. Either way, there is something devastatingly beautiful about Death in Spring that I won't soon forget.