[DeepL Translation - needs review] A key work of contemporary Spanish narrative,
Streetcar to Malvarrosa
is a novel of initiation in which first love, sensory pleasures, cinema, the sea, politics, the Catholic Church and death intermingle with the aroma and geography of Valencia in the 1950s.
LLETRAFERIT AWARD FOR VALENCIAN CULTURE 2021
"Against a background of boleros, the protagonist of this novel goes through adolescence with a forehead full of acne. Each one of those pimples was a morta...
One of the most frustrating books I have ever read
I found this book extremely difficult to read. Long tracts of the story are dull and rambling, with apparently no story progression and no character development.
The author, Manuel Vicent, is well known in Spain and the novel is clearly supposed to be poetic, conjuring up images of Valencia in the 1950s. It is unfortunate that the poetry is that of a boring uncle reliving his teenage years. There are huge quantities of repetition; turn-by-turn descriptions of his walk to university, lists of mu