Reviews

Ordesa by Manuel Vilas

breadandmushrooms's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

noemini's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

isabelrstev's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

karinlib's review against another edition

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I don't really know how to rate this book. I saw this book in the book store, and I downloaded it because I liked the title and the cover picture, yes it was a cover buy.

Mr. Vilas' writing is beautiful, no question, and the translator did a wonderful job. I liked when he discussed Spanish life in the '70s, and I would have liked more of it. 4 stars for this.

What I didn't like was the descriptions his dead relatives, 1.5 stars for this.

It may have been I really wasn't in the mood for it, idk.

civil6512's review against another edition

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5.0

Es imposible leer Ordesa sin pensar en nosotros mismos, sin trasladar o adaptar su historia a la nuestra. Hacer eso tiene el efecto de exponernos a remordimientos, a dudas y miedos que típicamente se guardan debajo de la alfombra.
La fuerza de Ordesa es brutal, hace que nuestros cimientos se tambaleen. Tremendo libro para comenzar el año.

angeladobre's review against another edition

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3.0

3,5
https://booknation.ro/recenzie-in-toate-a-fost-frumusete-de-manuel-vilas/

brunomonteiro's review against another edition

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5.0

Em “Ordesa”, título original deste livro, o escritor galego Manuel Vilas escreve sobre as circunstâncias e minudências da sua vida e, sobretudo, da sua relação com aqueles que ama.

É um livro narrado na primeira pessoa, atreito às classificações de género literário sempre redutoras, em que a escrita parece funcionar como catarse. Vilas não o esconde — este livro é sobre si e as pessoas mais estruturantes da sua vida.

O leitor é convidado a partilhar esta viagem, sempre imprevísivel, pelas suas memórias. E se a grande literatura relata o extroardinário, o poeta de Barbastro consegue nesta obra peculiar evidenciar, de forma por vezes comovente, a beleza nas mais “ordinárias” vidas.

cptotoy's review against another edition

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2.0

Creo que es justo decir que este libro lo disfrutas más si eres español. Aunque los libros no tienen fronteras, encontré que este particularmente lo tiene ya que pone muchas referencias y sentires que no pueden ser percibidos por otras personas que sean ajenas a la cultura española. La historia es buena pero creo que hace muchas referencias que , si eres extranjero, no la entiendes.

millen13's review against another edition

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2.0

I like books that show and don't tell. This book is tell tell tell, and then tell some more. It has some beautiful scenes that didn't hit me as hard as I know they would have if there was a little bit more meat to the story than this dry telling of everything.

The deliberate confusing of names is another thing I didn't like. Every character gets a composers name. Like his father Johan Sebastian Bach. Not only was it up to me to remember that this was his dad, he also alternated between only Johan Sebastian or Bach.

At the end I feel I don't know the storyteller at all apart from the fact he whines about death a lot. He claims to nothing almost nothing about his parents, but on the other hand he clearly remembers the name of a shop his father bought a watch when he was around 6, the place where they got a flat-tire around the same age and the names of his parents' friends including their ages.

lucypipper's review against another edition

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4.0

"No esperes a mañana, porque el mañana es de los muertos".
"No te amé lo suficiente, y tú a mí tampoco. / Fuimos condenadamente iguales".
"Solemos decir que se parece a su padre, o a su tía, o a una abuela para evitar lo inevitable: que ese niño acabará siendo un hombre solitario o una mujer igualmente solitaria. / Que acabará muriendo solo. / Es nuestra manera de conjurar el futuro".
El alma, desnuda, al alcance de los desconocidos. De los desconocidos que son hijos, padres, madres, que sienten el amor, el dolor por la muerte, el sufrimiento de una familia y de una España que no nos conoce. El alma, del protagonista y de su madre, que es uno, aunque el último se haya ido. Quizá no del todo porque vive en las páginas de este libro, porque duerme en el corazón de quien escribe.
Vilas no cuenta una historia, no. Cuenta muchas historias: la suya, la de su padre, la de su madre, la de una España que nadie sabe quién es, la de todos los habitantes del mundo. Con una prosa que se cobija a la sombra del lirismo y que se rinde al poema en el epílogo. No digo nada más porque él ya lo dice todo:
"Qué bien. Qué hermoso. Cuánto te quiero /
o te quise, ya no sé, y a quién le importa, /
desde luego no a la historia de España, /
nuestro país, si es que sabías cómo se llamaba /
la solemne nada histórica en que vivimos papá, tú y yo".