Guernica by Dave Boling: book review

Guernica: A Novel (2008) is set in Guernica in the Basque Country of northern Spain from 1893 to 1940 (well before it received autonomous status in 1978). The novel is divided into six parts, following the Spanish Civil War, Germany’s support for General Franco, and the commencement of World War II.

Part 1 (1893-1933) commences with the couple Angeles and Pascual Ansotegui and their three sons: Justo, Josepe, and baby Xabier – all born within a four year period. When Justo is fifteen his father disappears and he takes over the family farm. Josepe travels to nearby Lekeitio to become a fisherman at the age of 17, and Xabier joins the priesthood.

Justo marries Mariangeles and a year later their daughter Miren is born – the same year that German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, dies during enemy fire. When Miren is 14 years old she befriends Alaia Aldecoa, a convent girl blind from birth, and they become as close as sisters. Alaia is a soap maker and creates the beautifully scented Miren blend for her friend. It is the same time that Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter meets his famous long-time muse, Marie-Therese Walter, in Paris.

Part 2 (1933-1935) brings Miren in contact with Miguel, the second son of Jose Navarro, a fisherman colleague of her uncle Josepe, when they are both about 20 years old. It was the year that Wolfram von Richthofen, the cousin of the Red Baron, joined the Luftwaffe – Germany’s aerial warfare branch. Miguel leaves the fishing village of Lekeitio after conflict with the Spanish Civil Guard. He also leaves the family tradition of fishing to become a shipbuilder. Miren and Miguel marry.

Part 3 (1935-1937) is the arrival of Miren and Miguel’s daughter Catalina. By now Alaia has several suitors. Men find her lack of sight “comforting” because it brings them the anonymity of not being recognized. Of course, they are recognized – by their voice, walk, touch, and scent. When Catalina is a year old, Picasso is angry that General Franco, the Spanish dictator, captures Malaga where he was born. But Picasso could not return to Spain to fight. Instead he creates a comic book.

Part 4 (26 April 1937) brings the scent of war. Miguel states that if troops come to his home he would fight – “Nationalists, Germans, Italians, Moors, all of them.” Von Richthofen is now in Spain with the Condor Legion, leader of combat formations. The nuns on the roof spotted the German bombers first. The bells of Santa Maria ring with urgency to alert the city.

Part 5 (27 April 1937-May 1939) tells of Picasso reading the headline of the local Parisian newspaper: “Planes reduce city of Guernica to cinders.” He paints a mural called Guernica.

Part 6 (1940) is the German Occupation. A German office approaches Picasso as he sits in the café Les Deux Margots in occupied Paris.

Intertwined in the third person narrative are snippets of information about Pablo Picasso – Spanish yet living in Paris: opposing the war with art – and Wolfram von Richthofen – German in General Franco’s Spain: fighting the war with air raids. Sometimes the interjections of von Richthofen and Picasso were abruptly inserted into the text. I understand what Boling intended, especially with regard to Picasso’s painting of Guernica, and had to stop to place these in their historical context. The painting is a powerful political statement of the Nazi bombing during the Spanish Civil War, in black and white.

The novel is interesting in parts, but it has a lot of superfluous characters, especially those introduced during the British response to the German Occupation about 80% into the book. The younger brother, Xabier, was underwritten in the first four parts, although was more developed in the latter two sections.

Overall Guernica is an epic story based on family, and family generations, where everyone in a small city knows each other and their history. Boling writes of the history of one city and its citizens through Miren and Miguel’s relationship, but the main star in the novel is Guernica.