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Title: Tender but rather bleak tale with Spanish flavor.
Review: Matute's subject matter is the coming of age of a young girl during the troublesome times of the Spanish Civil War. The war remains at a distance, percolating by drops into the story through the reactions of the adults who surround Matia and her cousin, Borja. Spanish cultural patterns and insights make for colorful and interesting reading. Matute's style of writing is uniquely different: lonely, stark, and intensely detailed. The story is bizarre at times, almost surrealistic. Camus-like images of the sun and light and glare evoke the excruciating realities of existentialism. Images are strong and not always pleasant. Tender moments are tender indeed, but the undertoe of isolation, cold-hearted authority, and prejudice pulls the reader into a world poignantly desolate, foreign, and ultimately, cruel.
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