El Camino by Miguel Delibes

by Miguel Delibes

Book Overview

Upon entering the Royal Spanish Academy in 1975, Miguel Delibes delivered an address which reclaimed El camino (1950) for the emerging Green movement. With a blend of hilarity, satire, pathos and tragedy, Delibes artfully explores the process of crossing boundaries in pursuit of maturity and social advancement, whilst also implying that real education is the unfolding of the human heart among friends and sweethearts within a shared social and natural...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0719080568
• ISBN13: 9780719080562
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

El Camino, a road for all.

I am an American student of Spanish and have been for many years. If I could shake people, Americans and others, to wake up to truly great literature I would start with Miguel Delibes because he deals with life at its irreducible beginings, a small town, a little boy and his relationships. There are no props, no embellishments only life in its atomic state.We don't have the verbosity of Marquez as magnificent as it is. Instead we have a Spanish Checkov who tells a story simply yet oh so powerfully.The atomic structure yields particles when we use our imaginative accelerator to split the center. The tracings yield all kinds of meaning and significance. It is a true test of the reader to come to grips with her-himself and see if you can carry the ball that Delibes has passed to you.I recommend that you read "La Mortaja with this book. It is a short novel and even more condensed yet just as satiffying as "El Camino."

este libro es padrisimo

Eate es un libro de mucha enseñansa y tristeza especialmente cuando se muere german. ellos son muy amigos y el camino tiene su moraleja.

Mark Twain meets 20th century Spain in this lovely novel

If I could give this book seven stars, I would. Its small town romanticism reminds one of the Missouri of Mark Twain, with all the colorful inhabitants of a rural, agricultural community. El Camino is filled with the innocence of its 11 year old protagonist, and the painful loss of that innocence, so achingly felt by all in post-civil war Spain. A wonderful book by any speaker or student of Spanish. If this ever gets translated to English, LET ME KNOW!!!

Wonderful!

This book is beautiful. It is a celebration of love for the simpler, but most significant, things in life: the small details that make a community, with its faults and virtues, just that and true friendship something to treasure.It is pure and inspiring. One of the best books I have ever read, it is one to be passed down to those you love.

A warm and charming tale of growing up in Spain.

El Camino is the story of a young boy growing up in rural Spain. As chapter one begins, Daniel is spending his last night at home before leaving for boarding school in the city. Unable to sleep, he tosses and turns in his bed. From the bottom of his 11-year-old heart he wishes that life were not taking this path, this 'camino'. He understands his father's desire to make something of his only son, but as far as Daniel is concerned, he would rather stay in his home town. The following chapters are Daniel's reminiscences of his childhood. We meet his two best friends, Roque and German, and join in their escapades. We see the colorful characters of Daniel's little village: the priest, "who was a great saint"; the old maid sisters; the batchelor school master; the blacksmith; the rich and beautiful young woman who captures Daniel's heart; and the freckle-faced Mariuca, who follows him around, hoping to be his friend. The book is a charming look at life in rural Spain as well as a look at life itself. Filled with philosophical insight, humor and wisdom, El Camino is a book to read over and over again. Written in an eloquent but not-too-difficult Spanish, this book is a treasure