Location: United Kingdom
Member Since:
March 23, 2013
kitty dcosta
Smashwords book reviews by kitty dcosta
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Uncontrollable
on April 20, 2013
(no rating)
This is an exciting and interesting story of one man, an anarchist during the Spanish Civil war. The hero of the story, El Coco, has a comic -tragic birth over which he has not control and his life has a similar feel throughout the book. It’s uncontrollable. Having said that how much control do any of us have over our lives? Adventure follows adventure and each of our hero’s adventures of fighting on the side of the anarchists, is sadly curtailed, rather abruptly by finding himself on the wrong side of the conflict. He finds himself in Spanish prisons, Hitler’s concentration camp and Stalin’s gulags. I found the lack of gratuitous violence in prison a relief. El Coco does not display any self-pity, and is strongly committed to the cause of liberation and equality and this makes him a sympathetic hero. At the same time as weaving an excellent story about one man’s life, the author brings to life the political history of the Spanish civil war. There was so much I learned about the war, the way that it moved from one location to another, different groups forming alliances with each other during the war, the difficulty of the ordinary Spaniard’s life under Franco, the unpredictability of events and the geography of Spain, the interference and concerns of allies and the Soviet Union. The author brings to life the Spanish Civil war and I found I couldn’t put the book away and read it over a two day period. I enjoyed the unexpected ending because it confirmed my suspicions all along. I recommend that you read it to see if you agree. I was reminded of the films made recently about Che Guevra and thought this book would translate very well into such a movie.