The Hive: A Novel

By Camilo José Cela

Book Overview

In this extraordinary novel of life in Madrid after the Spanish Civil War, Camilo Jose Cela conveys with startling immediacy not only the brutality but also the vitality of life in the city.?His style-economical but vivid-carries the reader through a series of vignettes, following Cela's many characters through the streets and tenements and brothels and, above all, the caf?s of the great beehive-la colmena-of Madrid.?Both a social document of its time and place and a moving tale of human suffering-and human triumph--under a totalitarian regime, The Hive is "a brilliant and original work" (Gerald Brenan, The New York Times Book Review).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374522308
• ISBN13: 9780374522308
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.2" x 0.7" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Superb

For me Cela is one of the best Spaniard authors ever. This novel is a master piece. The only advice I can give you is: read it!

The fellowship of the cafe

In "The Hive", a most appropriate title, Cela recreates the everyday life of Madrid in the 1940's, centered around a small cafe and the life of its employees and clients. This place is the real protagonist of the novel, as we are witnesses to the small tragedies, triumphs, fights and passions of the people who live around it. It is verily a hive, an endless show of life with all its grandiosity, sordidness, pettiness and small acts of love and redemption. For those who know the modern-day Madrid, a cosmopolitan, prosperous place, it should be reminded that this book portrays the city right after the bitter Spanish Civil War, during the first days of Franco's dictatorship. Under Franco, Spain was a poor, provincial, backwards place where the most primitve form of Roman Catholicism was the religion of state, where the Catholic Church reigned supreme and where political repression was everywhere. Life wasn't easy in Spain in those days, and though this is not by any means a political novel, it is useful to remember this as we look at the lives of the many characters in this moving and excellent story.

A canvas and people's lives

It's a very refreshing book. Particularly how it's composed and how the stories develop. There is something about the artist's technique that will make you remember this book. Imagine yourself thousands of feet above the ground from where you can view the neighbourhoods of a big city. All at once. And you observe people in space and time creating a beautiful pattern of life and its richness. This could be any city anywhere in any age (though we know its Spain) because this pattern of human life is very central to our existence. Each paragraph is an incident that relates to other paragraphs in a very sketchy way and picks up its thread somewhere else when you least expect it. Also be prepared for a multi-dimensional story with one very important dimension missing - time and I think on purpose. Because it's a snapshot, it does not aspire to be a video, there in lies its beauty. Take a blank canvas and put threads of various colors in a random design and then step back. You may not remember the threads but you will not forget the impression.

Life

A masterpiece -- and a superb translation.