Reading List

It has been quite a while since I read a novel in Spanish, but my friend Carol, who was the head of the foreign language department at the school where I taught, gave me a book by the contemporary Spanish writer Mario Escobar entitled "La bibliotecaria de St. Malo" (The Librarian of St. Malo).  

I had never heard of Escobar, but he is a best-selling author born in Madrid, Spain.  His university degrees were in history, and his works, both fiction and non-fiction, are mainly historical.  This novel takes place in the French coastal town of St. Malo during the Nazi occupation during World War II.  The main character is Jocelyn, who is in charge of the town's library.  Her efforts to protect the books bring her up against a sadistic Nazi commander and unite her with another German officer who is also a book lover and admirer of French culture.  It was a very interesting novel and an excellent depiction of the daily life and struggles of the people during that era.

After finishing that book, I began a novel which is considered one of the masterpieces of 20th century British literature, "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene.

The novel was inspired by a trip that he took to Mexico in the 1930s to study the efforts by the post-revolutionary government to secularize the country and to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church.  (Greene himself was a convert to Catholicism.)  It takes place during the Cristero War, an uprising by Mexican Catholics against the imposition of anti-clerical laws by President Plutarco Calles.   Although the name of the state is never mentioned, it is set in Tabasco, a place of swamps, forests, mosquitos and grinding poverty.  The governor of the state at that time (he is never mentioned by name either) was Tomás Garrido Canabal, a fanatical atheist who took the enforcement of anti-clerical laws to an extreme.  All churches were destroyed or converted to secular use, and priests were hunted down and executed.  The governor was also a teetotaler and criminalized the possession of alcohol.

The main character is simply referred to as the priest.  He is constantly running from the military officer, referred to as the Lieutenant, who is obsessed with capturing the last priest left in the state. (That character reminds me a bit of police inspector Javert from "Les Misérables".)   The priest flees from village to village, while attempting to minister to the spiritual needs of the people.  He is also filled with self-loathing.  He considers himself a bad priest because he is a drunkard and the father of an illegitimate daughter.

It is a very compelling novel.  During my slow day with the yard sale, I read more than half the book.  I should be finished with it in just a few more days.