Iberia Book

Spain was a theocracy, and I had lived in Israel and Pakistan, which were also theocracies, and the problems of such governments tend to be the same, whether the theocracy is Jewish, Muslim, or Catholic.




Father Jesus Precedo Lafuente. [chapter: Santiago de Compostela]

I've written a prior review in which I give more of an overview of the book, here:

My second reading of this book, begun last year, is being terminated today (at least for the foreseeable future). I've decided that I'm not interested enough in what Michener has to say about Madrid (where I've bogged down) to force myself to keep reading.

I will be keeping the book handy. If I ever plan a trip to Spain I certainly want to check out Michener's thoughts on the cities we would visit, for two prime reasons.

First, much of his narrative focuses on the history of the cities he writes about. And second, he writes of the sites (churches, museums, other buildings and locations) in the city or its vicinity which he found particularly interesting. Both of these could be helpful to a traveller in Spain, maybe even to a Spanish person who is visiting parts of the country new to them?

I will admit one problem I had with the book. Michener seems at times to really not know where/when to stop. He can't refrain from noting just everything about his experiences in a given city that stuck in his memory, a complete data dump. This can present the reader with an experience (in the same chapter, from one page to the next) of being very interested in the narrative, then suddenly realizing that a different topic is being discussed which has no connection to the other, and which is causing the reader's attention to wilt. TMI, James!

Another potential problem is that the book could now be quite dated in many ways. Published in 1968, many of the vignettes in the book are no doubt much older than that. Michener first visited Spain sometime in the late 20's, maybe 1930, and I think it likely that pieces of the narrative date back to any of the many trips he took to Spain over the next 35 years.

In fact, Michener writes about this explicitly in his Madrid chapter. He writes of the differences that have occurred in Madrid between his most recent (1966) trip, and his previous Madrid visit in 1950. Over eight or nine pages he mentions eighteen differences, ranging from the shortest (Then wine was drunk; now beer is popular.) to the last and longest:The biggest social differences between then and now is the radical change effected by what a Spanish man called 'the revolution of the Sueca.' … [The author told by a businessman that the term was used to refer to "the Swedish girls" (also Finns, Norwegians, Danes, Germans), who discovered Spain "and flocked down here by the planeload"] Their first impact was on the beaches, and once they stripped down to their bikinis and we saw what the human body could be, the old laws [a society rigidly obeying "puritanism", "but much stronger than yours in the States, because here the whole society supported it"] simply could not be enforced.
Well, the first result of the Sueca invasion was cataclysmic.And Michener goes on for two pages about how a revolution in morals began to occur. (395ff)



Along all the beaches of the Mediterranean it is the foreign girl who attracts and perplexes the men of Spain. [Barcelona]

Well, TMI, Ted.


But I must mention one more thing about the book. In the Sevilla chapter the author describes meeting a California photographer in that city, Robert Vavra. () After looking at his photos, he came back to Vavra. "I proposed that we do this book together."I remember the commission we agreed upon: 'Vavra will go over Spain guided only by his own eye, completely indifferent as to what Michener may write or think or prefer. Shoot a hundred of the very finest pictures he can find and make them his interpretation of Spain. If he can succeed in this, the pictures will fit properly into any text.I have not counted pictures in the book, most but not all full-page, black and white, all Vavra's. But they are a wonderful fulfillment of this commission. Here are a few, with captions from the book.




Afoot, on bicycle or on horseback, officers of the Guardia Civil in pairs move back and forth across Spain. [Badajoz]




Film makers from all parts of the world shoot motion pictures with Muslim backgrounds in Spain because the inhabitants recall the Moorish occupation. [Cordoba]



Seventeen-year-old gypsy mother. [Cordoba]



Gravedigger. [Teruel]



La zarzuela. [Madrid]




From this carefully designed window of Gaudi's Templo de la Sagrada Familia a stork is seen on its way to Africa. [Barcelona]



The ancestors of this fighting bull, standing along the banks of the Guadalquivir, were brought up the river by Romans more than two thousand years ago. [Las Marismas]



During feria the young women of Sevilla appear at their most seductive. And always in the background, iron bars of tradition. [Sevilla]



The demureness of the Spanish woman and the arrogance of the Spanish man begin early [Salamanca]




Some handsome things of great age should be left as they are. [Pamplona]



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