Calila

The Later Novels of Carmen Martín Gaite

Joan L. Brown

2021
228 pages
$37.95
ISBN 9781684483051
Campos Ibéricos

Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martín Gaite explores the last six novels by Spain¿s most honored contemporary woman writer. Its scholarship is enriched by the voice of Calila herself - as Brown called Martín Gaite, who was a dear friend - as they conversed and exchanged letters during the composition of the novels. The book opens with an introduction to Martín Gaite¿s life and literature and ends with a consideration of her legacy. Each central chapter analyzes a later novel in its historical, biographical, and critical contexts. From the young adult fantasy Caperucita en Manhattan (Red Riding Hood in Manhattan) to the post-Transition epistolary masterpiece Nubosidad variable (Variable Cloud), the Transition-era saga La Reina de las Nieves (The Farewell Angel), the Proustian reminiscence Lo raro es vivir (Living's the Strange Thing), the narrative tapestry Irse de casa (Leaving Home), and the memoir of family secrets Los parentescos (Family Relations), these fascinating novels evoke themes that resonate today.

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Reviews
"Joan L. Brown consigue con Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martín Gaite refrescar y actualizar la bibliografía ya extensa sobre la escritora con un ensayo muy documentado, muy bien escrito y muy personal. Y, ante todo, consigue animarnos a buscar sus novelas y leerlas, a reivindicar la vigencia de la narrativa de Carmen Martín Gaite para disfrutar de la lectura y entender el final del siglo XX." - Revista Letral, 2024

"Brown has crafted a nimbly written and compelling study of Martin Gaite's novelistic world since 1990. She adeptly summarizes plot development while appropriately interweaving key literary criticism of each work. The use of personal correspondence and photographs is especially engaging for this reviewer as they lend greater texture and nuance to Brown's elucidation of these novels."
- Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, 2022

"In a writing style that echoes Martín Gaite's limpid prose, Joan L. Brown delivers in Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martín Gaite a tour de force that makes a case for reading and studying the novels that the author published throughout the 1990s. For Brown, Martín Gaite was not only a favorite writer and a subject of research but a close friend, and in Calila the readers are treated to a critical perspective that is informed, yet not overshadowed, by the profound personal attachment between the two women."
- Hispania, March 2022

"Calila: The Later Novels of Carmen Martin Gaite is a fascinating window into the life and later works of one of the most eminent Spanish novelists of all times. Joan L. Brown combines relevant history, original analysis and personal anecdotes from 'Calila's' personal letters into a compelling and delightful rendition."
- María-Luisa Guardiola, editor of the Royal Spanish Academy's critical edition of Antonio García Gutiérrez's El trovador

"Martín Gaite's works are now studied all around the world, especially in further education establishments. More and more students are researching her latest novels and Calila will be an indispensable read as Brown combines the critical study of the author's texts, with their socio-historical background, and a personal view of the process of writing."
- Maria-José Blanco, author of Life-writing in Carmen Martín Gaite's Cuadernos de todo and her Novels of the 1990s

About the author:

Joan L. Brown holds the Elias Ahuja Chair of Spanish at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Hispanic studies and earned MA and PhD degrees in romance languages-Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania. Her publications have explored canon formation, literature by women, the contemporary Spanish novel, and language and literature pedagogy. Previous books include Secrets from the Back Room: The Fiction of Carmen Martín Gaite, Women Writers of Contemporary Spain: Exiles in the Homeland (editor), Confronting Our Canons: Spanish and Latin American Literature in the 21st Century, Approaches to Teaching the Works of Carmen Martín Gaite (editor), and, with Carmen Martín Gaite, the textbook Conversaciones creadoras: Mastering Spanish Conversation.

Distributed by Rutgers University Press

Cloth: $150.00, 9781684483068; PDF: $37.95, 9781684483099; EPUB: $37.95, 9781684483075