A book a day: Siân James: That afternoon

Títutulu Original: One afternoon
Year of publication: 1975
Translation: Esther Cruz Santaella
Valoración: Quite recommended

This book could be titled “A Year in The Life”, more or less as the well -known song of the Beatles. Because a year is what passes between the beginning and the end of the novel, between the moment Anna, a widow of about 35 years and with 3 daughters, meets Charlie and the moment when … no, calm, that I will not reveal anything.

The above could indicate that That afternoon It is a romantic novel to use and, in a way, in its initial pages it is. Woman knows man (or vice versa), first weeks exciting and exhausting, desire and doubts about the past and present, a certain distancing with daughters, etc. But the novel is something much broader and more complex than all of the above. Fundamentally, for three reasons.

The first of them is that, without forgetting at any time that That afternoon It has in its center the relationship between Anna and Charlie, this explore in other family relationships. Especially well treated to me Anna’s relationship with her father.

The second is its link to the historical moment in which it is written. This is a novel of the year 1975 and have passed just 7 years, 68, the sexual revolution, etc. But a widow who “lia” with a somewhat younger man is something that not everyone is willing to accept. Sometimes even its own protagonist.

The third and most important, and to some extent linked to the previous point, is that That afternoon It is a formation / awareness novel for what it is revelation about the past, on previous and other relationships, about the discovery of times and stories that perhaps do not belong to us at all, about how Sometimes we decided on instinctively and then we look for reasons that support that decision.

The aforementioned reasons give complexity, therefore, a leading character and a novel that grow, especially in their second half and that only “weighed”, in my opinion, for certain passages somewhat melodramatic and for those children’s voices so difficult to achieve. I know, I have a problem with books that include children’s voices. It already happened to me with Helena or summer sea And, to a lesser extent, with The dethroned prince. Will it be serious, Doctor?