Guernica: A Novel | 
| Author: Dave Boling
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
List Price: $26.00
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 57945
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 1596915633
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781596915633
ASIN: 1596915633
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
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Product Description
An extraordinary epic of love, family and war set in the Basque town of Guernica before, during, and after its destruction by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War. Calling to mind such timeless war-and-love classics as Corelli's Mandolin and The English Patient, Guernica is a transporting novel that thrums with the power of storytelling and is peopled with characters driven by grit and heart. In 1935, Miguel Navarro finds himself in conflict with the Spanish Civil Guard, and flees the Basque fishing village of Lekeitio to make a new start in Guernica, the center of Basque culture and tradition. In the midst of this isolated bastion of democratic values, Miguel finds more than a new life—he finds someone to live for. Miren Ansotegui is a charismatic and graceful dancer who has her pick of the bachelors in Guernica, but focuses only on the charming and mysterious Miguel. The two discover a love that war and tragedy can not destroy. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this beautiful novel about the resilience of family, love, and tradition in the face of hardship. The bombing of Guernica was a devastating experiment in total warfare by the German Luftwaffe in the run-up to World War II. For the Basques, it was an attack on the soul of their ancient nation; for the world, it was an unprecedented crime against humanity. In his first novel, Boling reintroduces the event and paints his own picture of a people so strong, vibrant, and proud that they are willing to do whatever it takes to protect their values, their country, and their loved ones.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Engaging and beautiful! 4.5/5 stars September 12, 2008
onioneater (Rexburg, ID United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
I have read a lot of Spanish Civil War literature because I have a Ph.D in contemporary Spanish literature. (20th century). From Ramon Sender, to Hemingway, I have studied how this event has been portrayed in literature through the perception of many different authors. I say this not to boast, but to hopefully add a bit of weight to my opinion about this novel.
Dave Boling has written a nearly-perfect book with so many positives that I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading it. What he does so well is characterization. These Basque people come to life and from the pages of this book, the reader can see, smell and practically taste their culture and how it completely defines them. The dialogue between them is playful when it needs to be, poignant when it needs to be and yet seems so natural, as if you, the reader, were eavesdropping on actual conversations. I personally enjoyed the variety of characters (both historical and fictional) and how eventually people from all different nations came together to fight against evil. Reviewers have complained that Picasso wasn't "real" enough and that his character was flat. I wouldn't expect otherwise. Boling uses Picasso as a reference to his painting, and like his masterpiece "Guernica", he is an abstract observer of the fully-developed Basque characters, who are the true center of this novel.
Some have called the novel's conclusion "contrived". Perhaps, but I cared so much about the characters by that point, that I felt the emotional impact of that conclusion. Great books make us feel and think, and this book made me do both.
I don't really want to explain why this book isn't perfect other than by saying that the historical/political context of the novel, in my opinion, could have been handled slightly better. There are a few vignettes that are a bit too random. But, that doesn't matter. The story is beautiful, educational and delivers a memorable message about life.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
Well-written story based in an awful war August 28, 2008
Daisy (Flagstaff,AZ)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
By the end of the prologue, the author had captured my attention by presenting intriguing characters in a well-defined landscape and time. His writing is clear and confident and he does what I like best in historical fiction. He tells a fascinating story about a place and time without pages of fact. The story and characters themselves introduce all the elements of the reality. well done!
Guernica: a town, a painting, now a novel September 11, 2008
Alirambles
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Guernica, a debut novel by Washington writer Dave Boling, is the tale of two men and their families: Justo Ansotegui, who raised his two brothers and a successful farm after losing both parents, and Miguel Navarro, a fisherman's son too prone to seasickness to be much use on a boat. On another level, it's about the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and beginning of World War Two, and the Basque people who proudly held on to their traditions at a time when their language and customs were outlawed by the Spanish government. Boling portrays the Basque community with depth and a character arc equal to that which one would expect of an individual character.
Guernica is also the story behind the painting which shares its name. Picasso's mural was a memorial to the victims of the bombing of Guernica--the trial run of a Nazi tactic now used by militaries world-wide: demoralizing the populace by taking out civilians rather than military targets. Within weeks of the bombing, Picasso painted the horror of this senseless attack in shades of gray on an 11' x 25' canvas. Seventy years later, Boling brings both the painting and its subject to life through the written word.
A study of the despair and hope found in humanity's darkest hours.. September 6, 2008
Suzi Hough (San Jose, CA United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
On April 26th, 1937 the Nazis bombed the Basque town of Guernica on its market day. Modern scholars estimate about three hundred people were killed (the Basque government put the death toll at over 1600) and the slaughter has come to symbolize civilian suffering during war. The event inspired one of Pablo Picasso's most famous paintings (named for the town) a copy of which hangs on a wall in the United Nations building.
Dave Boling takes a single family, the Ansoteguis, and follows their lineage through the closing years of the 19th century, the rise of Fascism in Spain, and the Spanish Civil War as their people, the Basque, are systematically repressed. Yet this is not a depressing novel. Humor and love manifest in the Ansotegui family, headed by Justo, a larger-than-life Superman known throughout the town for his great strength and tall tales. When asked to confirm that he once carried an ox on his shoulders from his family's farm to town and then celebrated the feat by throwing the animal across the Oka River, Justo admits that it was only a small ox, his path was downhill most of the way, and the wind was with him when he threw the beast. His wife and daughter are both dancers and cheerful, spirited women. Even as war strips the Basque people of food and supplies, the people remain vibrant and united. Pablo Picasso makes several cameo appearances as he works on his Guernica painting. Truthfully, I felt his appearances were an intrusion on the story of the Ansotegui family, and wish he wasn't included. While most of the characters are fully realized, living people, Picasso - the one "real" person in the bunch! - comes off as flat and two-dimensional. But overall it's a beautiful story that highlights both the despair and the hope that comes in humanity's darkest hours.
 Love and War September 7, 2008
Roger Brunyate (Baltimore, MD)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The back cover compares this novel to such epics of love and war as CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, and in one sense it is right. Just as Louis de Bernieres introduced his readers to a close-knit community in the Greek Islands, Dave Boling does the same for the Basque mountains, in the corner between France and Spain, its proud people admitting allegiance to neither. Covering a period from 1893 to 1940, he takes us to Guernica, the cradle of the Basque homeland. Following the death of his parents, teenage Justo Ansotegui takes over the running of his family farm and the care of his younger brothers, one of whom goes off to become a fisherman and the other a priest. Prodigiously strong, Justo gains almost mythological status in the community as the Basque way of life becomes threatened by changing political forces in Spain and the onslaught of the Civil War. He also becomes in turn a husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, as the family saga moves outward from the farmhouse hearth, eventually reaching as far as England, while always retaining the values from which it sprang: fierce pride, and a passion for life expressed in hard work, laughter, dance, love, and loyalty. In these terms, GUERNICA makes an absorbing and heartwarming book for winter evenings or a long trip.
The town of Guernica was flattened to the ground in April 1937 by the Nazi Luftwaffe acting on behalf of the fascist side in the Spanish Civil War; it was a dress rehearsal of the techniques they would unleash two years later. Picasso's painting of the event -- shattered glass and silent screams -- is the most powerful piece of political art in the past century, making Guernica a synonym for inhumanity and terror. Picasso appears in the novel, but in celebrity gossip style that does not approach his passion as an artist. Boling's scenes of the bombing are certainly wrenching, but cannot come close to the impact of that picture. And they come out of nowhere; although we are told of the rising tensions as civil war approaches, it is almost impossible to follow who is fighting whom, and why. The author says, in an afterword, that he wanted to show events from the point of view of ordinary people caught up in a violence they do not understand. Ian McEwan faced a similar problem in the Dunkirk scenes in ATONEMENT, but managed to bring warfare into a love story without losing the intensity of either. Dave Boling does not try. Indeed, even in the romantic sections, his narrative style is just too easy. There is no moral conflict and few reversals. Whenever a man meets a woman, you know they will fall in love and probably marry; tricky situations are generally followed by happy resolutions. There are losses to absorb from the bombings, yes, but life goes on much as before, with wounded hearts repaired and new loves born. The Basque spirit is certainly worth celebrating, and Boling does this well -- but the terror of Guernica cannot so easily be contained in a romance.
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