I finished reading Maria Barbal's Stone in a Landslide mid-month, but I've been putting off writing about it and now as February quickly winds down I had better do so before the story goes completely hazy in my mind. This is one of a trio of books (actually now a quartet as their first of 2011 has recently been released) that has been published by Peirene Press. Peirene is a relatively new small publisher which translates contemporary European fiction into English, and the books are all under two hundred pages. I believe they focus on bringing out award winning novels, so I've an expectation that they will be quality stories and while I have a certain ambivalence about this one, it was beautifully told and a very good introduction for me to Peirene's authors.
Maria Barbal is, according to the biographical information, considered the most influential living Catalan author. She's won a number of awards for the eight novels she's written. Stones in a Landslide was published in 1985 and is now in its 50th edition. In a mere 126 pages Barbal brings to life a remarkable heroine whose life stretches across the tumultuous years of the twentieth century. Despite the hardships she must endure, it is always her quiet voice that is felt beyond everything else.
At the age of thirteen Concepció, or Conxa as her family calls her, is sent from her small village in the Pyrenees to her aunt's home a day's journey away. One of six children, someone must go as there are too many mouths to feed, and Tia has no children of her own. Life in her native village is difficult and her mother knows not one idle hour, so perhaps it is a mixed blessing for Conxa as she can live in a large house in a town. And while her aunt is not demonstrative she shows affection in her own way and Conxa easily falls into the rhythms of her new life. Relatives come from the city to stay, there is much work to do outside, mass on Sundays and in good times festivals for celebrating.
As time passes Conxa no longer misses her family and she comes to see these years as the happiest period of her life--"the bad times were just waiting behind all the laughter". Then she meets Jaume, "so open and full of charm that I quickly forgot my shyness". As a second son he could not make his living off the land so he becomes a builder and carpenter and after obstacles put forth by her aunt and uncle are overcome the two marry and start a family. Jaume must travel from place to place whenever and wherever his skills are needed. For Conxa daily life is fairly regimented but Jaume hears stirrings from larger places outside of their mountain village. The world is changing and Jaume gets caught up in the turmoil of the civil war to tragic ends. As a mother who deeply loves her children Conxa must get up and carry on even though she would rather stay still, unmoving and unthinking.
Conxa begins her life in a tiny Pyreneean hamlet and will end it in the beautiful city of Barcelona, where she didn't want to go, but her children wouldn't allow her to stay on the mountain. So, with modernity comes the exodus from the rural areas to the cities and once again an upheaval for Conxa--a re-imagining or rather reinvention of her life yet one more time.
This was a beautifully told tale, though bittersweet as well. It was sparsely written, but still Barbal conveys so much in so few pages. Conxa is described in the book as indomitable, and she is that. I do feel slightly ambivalent about it, however, but I'm not sure I can explain why. This is a book I really enjoyed, though perhaps can't say I loved, but it is definitely a matter of my own taste rather than any shortcomings of the author. Somehow, something about it felt very thin and maybe it is only due to the economy of words. I wanted to know more--more about everything. In thinking about Conxa, maybe 'more' would have ruined the characterization, I'm not sure. Still, this is a book I would recommend and seems to be well regarded by other readers. I have Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi and Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius on my pile of library books to read soon.