Reviews

Pagan Spain by Richard Wright, Faith Berry

niniane's review against another edition

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4.0

Travel memoir of a Black author in Spain in the 1950s. From his description, the people were deeply religious and their sexuality was repressed.

He attended a bullfight, talked to local young Spaniards who felt trapped, lived in various hotels with difficult landlords.

dietzy's review

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

jonathantoews19's review against another edition

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4.0

Really, really cool. Essentially a travel diary, but written by someone with such a mastery of the medium that it reads like something entirely more adventurous.

tippycanoegal's review

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3.0

Extremely dated, weirdly opinionated, and in moments bizarrely argued--Here is an example of one of his many questionable aphorisms sprinkled throughout the text: “Spanish men have built a state, but they have never built a society, and the only society that there is in Spain is in the hearts and minds and habits and love and devotion of its women."--this mid-century report of Wright's travels through Spain during the Franco era is also beautifully observed and often compelling. I find Wright's writing to be most effective when he is describing interactions with the Spanish people and least interesting when he moves into his quasi-psychoanalytic stance. I would have liked to have read more about Wright's experience of traveling through Spain as an African American man. He touches on race a bit, and when he does, his perspective is fascinating and thoughtful. I wish that he had discussed that aspect of his trip more.

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