My first contact with Ramón J. Sender it was, as in so many other cases for countless authors, through that magical library at my parents' house.
One of those days when I would stop in front of her and go through titles, I noticed The teenage bandit, and without further ado I began to read. The plot was about the life and work of Billy the child and his antagonist Patt Garret, in that strange dichotomy between good and evil that in some cases aligns you on the side of evil. Billy the kid was a murderer, but with that myth on his shoulders that ended up making him an idol over time.
I recognize that starting with a probably minor work by the great Ramón J. Sender may sound inappropriate to the author's admirers, but that's the way things are. The experiences mark.
I finished reading that book and, without the current Internet, I inquired about the author. Well, he wasn't from Huesca and he lived in Tauste while I was from Ejea! It was fascinating to me and I gradually followed his trail with other works of greater substance, discovering an overwhelming author in his literary output and quality.
3 recommended novels by Ramón J. Sender
The teenage bandit
Sorry I have to put this personal gem first. For the rest, the basic argument about the life of Billy the Kid is already known roughly, but the important thing is how each author reflects it. In the case of Ramón J. Sender, he ended up drawing up an entire essay on the unpredictable vital yearnings of youth, all disguised as a novel.
Summary: It is the story of William H. Boney, aka Billy the Kid, that legendary character who started out in crime right out of childhood and was riddled with bullets at the young age of twenty-two.
Cold, endowed with courage bordering on unconsciousness, cruel and ruthless to his enemies, but a loyal friend of his friends, the gunman with the 'girl's cheeks' was both primitive and complex, and his character an amalgam of brutal manhood, murderous savagery, raging passions and rare delivery.
In the life of Ignacio Morello
Sometimes literature has purposes. In the case of Ramón J. Sender even more so. It is not about indoctrinating but about accompanying with your own impressions. Again youth and discovery, commitment and sincerity with oneself.
A novel of great vividness and a fascinating "everyday depth." Ignacio Morel prepares to discover the most intense adventure full of enigmas and surprises: his own life.
Summary: It is a novel that offers young people concerned about experimentation and novelty guiding examples. But above all it is a fascinating novel.
The action takes place on the outskirts of Paris and in the vital radius of a young Lyceum teacher. The author tells us, through the experience of Ignacio Morel, that art and truth can and must go together.
Women are for Morel, as for all men, a decisive experience. Marcelle, the protagonist, is one of many women that we meet at every step in the cities, but her relationships with Ignacio are of a genre not previously mentioned in any novel.
Sender has sometimes said that the novelist's mission is to make reality plausible, and this time he succeeds with the difficult simplicity to which he is accustomed. Several aspects stand out in this novel: its original composition, its abundant psychological observation and its enormous poetic projection.
Requiem for a Spanish farmer
It must be tempting to think of stretching out a good story that is more like a short novel for you. But when a work is completely round, neither 20 nor 800 pages, it must be left as is.
That's what happened to this universal aspirations short novel. Life and death, and the valley of tears where we all walk disoriented. A short novel that reminds me, and much to A Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which I would put at the same height.
Summary: Mosén Millán is about to offer a mass in suffrage for the soul of a young man whom he had loved in life like a son. While waiting for the assistants, the priest reconstructs the events.
The story is perfectly sober and profound and shocking simplicity. The narrative is overwhelming for its tight realism, for the efficacy of its symbols and for the deep knowledge of the mechanisms of consciousness, which is presented to us through the evocation of the priest.
Without a doubt, Requiem for a Spanish Peasant is one of Ramón J. Sender's best works and a definitive book on our civil war, far from any pamphlet intention.
About this last novel, there is a very interesting volume: The novels of the losers. He composed it as I say: Requiem for a Spanish Peasant, Imán, and Mr. Witt in the Cantó:
