I have just finished reading this moving book which I have had in my bookshelf for so many years and never found the right moment to read. I remember my brother gave it to me. He had bought it at some bookstore in Avenida Corrientes. It tells the story of a Jewish girl who, just like Anne Frank, had to live hidden during war. After being abandonned by her father, she, her mother and her brother had to face famine, violence and fear in a devastated Budapest where being Jewish was no longer safe. After suffering the loss of some members of her family, living in extremely poor conditions and getting false documments, they reach France and, finally, Cuba. It's amazing how the author tells us some painful moments of her childhood with such an extraordinary sense of humor that, according to her words, saved her from insanity. I truly recommended it. It is a vivid chronnicle of those hard, atrocious times humanity suffered. Sadly, Magda was not able to see her memoirs published since she died of a heart attack at age 62 a week before the publication of the book. The title of the book in Spanish is CASTILLOS DE DOLOR, published by EMECE.
WOW, it looks interesting. Some time ago I read that the relevance of A. Frank's book was not precisely its literary quality but the possibility of giving millions of people "a face or a single story" to igure out. It's hard for anyone to picture mass killings of millions of Jews or Gypsies (though not so many, luckily) or Armenians (beg of 20 C)or Argentine aborigines (Pueblos Originaris) or... .So having ONE individual case, makes us have a closer idea (if that is ever possible) of her/THEIR sufferings.
ReplyDeleteNice post
stella :-)
It's amazing how Anne Frank, Magda Denes, or whoever, have the ability of taking you to those places, those moments with their descriptions. You feel as if you were living that moment and suffering with them. I think that when that happens, when the author has the power to do that, the book surely covers my expectations. The same happened to me with books like Dracula, Harry Potter, Peter Pan in Scarlet, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, or Isabel Allende's novels.
Delete17 de agosto de 2012Emotiva, brillante y entretenida. Eso es lo que me ha parecido Castillos de dolor de MAGDA DENES, y que he leído en cuanto la he tenido en mis manos.Es una pena que la obra no se haya publicado en España, y por tanto que sea poco accesible aquí.
ReplyDeleteY como siempre valoro mucho el no perder el hilo respecto a la identidad de los personajes.
Especialmente reconfortante por lo que a mi toca es la llegada de la protagonista y su familia a Bilbao , que se escenifica como la salida de la torturada Europa,y el principio de una nueva vida camino de América. La impresión de libertad al llegar a España se relata al expresar la protagonista que "..por primera vez en más de dieciocho meses,viajábamos como civiles normales, indistinguibles del resto de la población..." (pág.329); quiere decir sin acompañamiento. "Buscamos a nuestro guía, pero no existía"(pág330). Y siendo 1946 sorprenden comentarios muy poco tópicos para la España que ahora se nos hace ver, de años grises y depauperados :"Los colores del mercado eran increíblemente bellos..."[se refiere a la variedad multicolor de las frutas y verduras,pág.331].
"El mercado no tenía cupones de racionamiento y se podía comprar cualquier cosa a bajo precio" (pág.332).
"Ya sabíamos que España reventaba de comida." "Por primera vez en muchos años vimos tiendas llenas de mercadería". (pág. 335)