The impressionistic writing in chapter one continues through the book although some of the stories around the characters develop further. It is estimated that 10% of the customers are suffering from tuberculosis. It is a large cafe with a team of waiters, a manager, a shoeshine boy and a cigarette boy, but many of the customers are poor and spend their days in the cafe counting their pesetas. Then she snaps out of it, begins to walk up and down again, and smiles at the customers, whom at heart she loaths, showing her blackened little teeth encased in filth. When she is deep in thought, she forgets herself and picks strips off her face, sometimes as lons as paper streamers. for Dona Rosa her cafe is the world and everything revolves around the cafe.ĭona Rosa's face is covered with blotches, it always looks as if she were changing her skin like a lizard. Dona Rosa often says "damn it to hell" and "what a pain". Dona Rosa is the first to be described:ĭona Rosa comes and goes between the cafe tables, bumping into customers with her enormous backside. Chapter one contains pen picture of some of the characters who will appear and reappear in the book and from the very start a picture of selfishness and greed emerges. The reader concentrates on these fragments which radiate out from the cafe culture at Dona Rosa's cafe. Life goes on but life in hard times is a struggle which rarely brings out the best in people.
The second world war rages in the distance and many people are hungry, some in fear of retribution following the Victory of Franco that ended the Spanish Civil war. Marguerite Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrianįragments or vignettes of prose are set down in generally non chronological order to capture life in Madrid during a few days in 1942. John Steinbeck - The log from the sea of CortezĮlizabeth Taylor - A game of hide and seekĭylan Thomas - Do not go so gentle into that good night If I was going to do that then the list would be as follows:Įmile Danoen - Un maison souffleé aux ventsĪnthony Powell - A question of upbringing So with my intention read literature from 1591 and science fiction from 1951, it would seem a logical (to me) step to read non science fiction literature from 1951.
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