Con la pluma caliente, el escritor. El joven autor Camilo José Cela en su contexto (1939–1945): La obra y su expediente cívico by Eloy E. Merino (review)

Eloy Merino’s Con la pluma caliente, el escritor. El joven autor Camilo José Cela en su contexto (1939–1945): La obra y su expediente cívico is a captivating and comprehensive study of the early works of Spanish writer Camilo José Cela. Through his focus on Cela’s first contributions to Civil War and Post-Civil War literature, Merino fills in a noticeable gap in what is otherwise an extensive Cela scholarship, and thus, provides a key piece in the puzzle that forms this complex author’s portrait.

Through the lens of Cela’s “civic track record” (or “su expediente cívico”), Merino explores Cela’s relationship with his social, political, and historical circumstances and the “call to arms” that he believed this unique moment in Spain’s history demanded. One of the most impressive aspects of Merino’s well-researched text is his organization of the material presented. Within each chapter there are subdivisions, each cleverly bearing the title of a line from one of Cela’s works, and within each of those chapter divisions, Merino lists a series of topics in a table of contents to guide the reader through the various themes analyzed. This meticulous breakdown allows the reader to quickly recognize the relationship among the different topics mentioned and to gradually get an accurate understanding of the consistency of Cela’s work and its place in the larger world of Spanish letters. Though the text as a whole flows quite well and is a pleasurable read, the book is structured in such a way that the interested scholar could easily read one discreet section as if it were a self-contained article and garner much knowledge and insight.

In his introductory chapter, Merino formulates several assertions to which he returns throughout his text. One of the most essential is that without a firm grasp of Cela’s civic, social, and ideological commitment during his youth, we cannot understand the more widely known work of his later period. Merino also points out that we do not usually value the literature of regimes that we find reprehensible and that we do not often speak of the concept of the “ideal citizen” in non-democratic societies. As a result of these preconceived notions about the worth of the literature produced under repressive regimes, some critics have provided a superficial reading of Cela’s work, and many have assumed that Cela feigned commitment to Falangist ideals was a way to get ahead or simply survive. Merino, however, confidently addresses this assertion when he states that Cela was a firm believer in the ideology of New Spain and the intellectual’s corresponding responsibility to be a man of both “armas y letras.” Through his incorporation of respected criticism from Spain and other countries, Merino presents a thorough analysis of the concept of author and makes a clear distinction between the writer as a citizen who writes and the author as a textual construction. In other words, the writer already exists as an individual while the author, who is created by his readers consciously or unconsciously, cannot appear independent of his texts and is owned by his texts rather than is the producer of them. With the theories of critics such as John Rodden as a springboard, Merino presents a fascinating meditation on fame, prestige, and reputation in the literary world. Cela is seen as a “true believer” but also as one who was able to exploit the prevailing political discourse for the fulfillment of his personal ambitions.

Merino’s study fills yet another key critical gap by focusing not just on the frequently studied novel La familia de Pascual Duarte but also on all the genres to which Cela contributed: novel, poetry...