(Reviewed by JD Jung)
“His discovery that I had been seeing a Moroccan immigrant half my age shocked him even more than the fact that I was implicated in my next-door neighbor’s death. He believed I was trying to destroy myself. Kamikaze behavior, he called it.”
“The Giant of Sarrià”, the first in these three loosely interrelated stories, will immediately grab readers into the realm of Barcelona Dreaming.
These stories feature three distinct areas of contemporary Barcelona, contrasted by both grit and beauty. They also highlight diverse protagonists such as a middle-aged English woman who runs a gift shop, an older musician/entrepreneur who hobnobs with celebrity and a translator who is chasing unrequited love, along with encountering some unseemly characters.
These descriptions really don’t give the stories justice though, as there are so many layers to the plot and characters. These layers not only include forbidden desire, but also class, race, addiction, and crime. Though readers will become entangled in the darkness, they will also become engrossed in the city.
This is all accomplished through succinct, yet beautiful prose. Author Rupert Thomson digs deep into these characters, not only developing them with skill, but creating them as far from the mundane and ordinary. Still, the reader will readily understand their emotions and motives.
Barcelona Dreaming offers a world of contrasts yet provides a wonderful tribute to this magnificent city.
