Carmen Martín Gaite, el juego de la vida y la literatura by José Jurado Morales (review)

José Jurado Morales, Catedrático de Literatura Española at the University of Cádiz, Spain, is a leading expert on canonical Spanish writer Carmen Martín Gaite (1925–2000). Among his books are one definitive volume on her short stories and another on her novels. Carmen Martín Gaite, el juego de la vida y la literatura presents nearly two decades of original scholarship on Martín Gaite's literature. As with his earlier books, this collection demonstrates Jurado Morales's talent for synthesizing her work. New and compelling ideas are rooted in a profound knowledge of Martín Gaite's life and literature and enhanced by a sweeping command of international scholarship and literary theory. A bonus for the reader is Jurado Morales's direct and engaging style. Although the term "page-turner" is not usually applied to volumes of literary criticism, it is an appropriate descriptor for this one.

The book opens with a preliminary chapter entitled "Carmen Martín Gaite: de la vida a la literatura." This introduction previews the volume's contents; it also reveals Jurado Morales's personal introduction to the author, when he first read her 1958 novel Entre visillos as a university student—a discovery that will resonate with many readers. Six thematic divisions organize the book's fourteen chapters. Fittingly, the first section is entitled "El fundamento autobiográfico." The opening chapter, "Tentativas autobiográficas," supplies a portrait of the woman who "vivió para escribir y escribió para sentir que vivía" (12). The next chapter, "Experiencia vital y escritura poética," traces the autobiographical content of Martín Gaite's poetry over time, and the third chapter, "Viaje a El cuarto de atrás," offers a succinct overview of her celebrated autobiographical novel from 1978.

Section 2, "Amistad y literatura: Ignacio Aldecoa," features two essays on the relationship between Martín Gaite and Aldecoa. "A modo de homenaje: Esperando el porvenir" is an incisive review of Martín Gaite's 1994 memoir of the generation of mid-century, and "Los pasos encontrados de Martín Gaite e Ignacio Aldecoa" is a revelatory exploration of Aldecoa's impact on Martín Gaite. Generational connections are further developed in section 3, "Etapas de aprendizaje: cuentos del medio siglo," whose two chapters focus on the author's short stories. In "'Un día de libertad,' primer cuento de Martín Gaite," Jurado Morales finds characteristics in her first short story that will typify all of her future work, and "Algo más que cuentos de mujeres" demonstrates how Martín Gaite's stories contain some of her most transcendent social criticism.

Part 4, entitled "El arte de pensar," presents four chapters related to narrative. "La entrada en el castillo: una poética del lector" defines Martín Gaite's relationship with her readers and with writing itself. In "Vivir el tiempo," time and temporality are analyzed across the author's fiction and nonfiction. The third essay in this section, "Sobre Los usos amorosos del dieciocho en España," elucidates the affinities between Martín Gaite's historical scholarship on the eighteenth century and her creative writing, demonstrating how both fields are informed by identical concerns. The final essay in this group, "La narrativa de Martín Gaite o la esencia misma del ensayo," also makes new connections across genres, showing how Martín Gaite's novels enact conceptions of literature and narration that are rooted in conventions of the essay. The last phase of Martín Gaite's career is the subject of Section Five, "Las novelas de supervivencia." In "De vida y literatura existencial: Lo raro es vivir" Jurado Morales traces the existential aspects of this 1996 novel, and in "Mundo interior y sociedad posmoderna: Los parentescos" he explores reflections of postmodern Spain in Martín Gaite's last, unfinished novel, published in 2001.

The volume closes with part 6, "Texto sobre texto." This section contains...