The Tomb in Seville, by Norman Lewis
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The Tomb in Seville, by Norman Lewis
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In 1934, Norman Lewis and his brother-in-law Eugene Corvaja travelled across the breadth of Spain on what turned out to be the eve of the murderous civil war. Commissioned by his Sicilian father-in-law to locate the tomb of the last Spanish Corvaja in the cathedral of Seville, when public transport came to a standstill, the two walked more than a hundred miles to Madrid, and were then forced via Portugal to Seville. Lewis makes light of being caught in the crossfire of a fractious country, sometimes literally, and glories in the beauty of nature and the common humanity of the Spaniards he meets on the way.
The Tomb in Seville, by Norman Lewis- Amazon Sales Rank: #6488816 in Books
- Published on: 2015-06-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x 5.50" w x .55" l, .84 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 192 pages
From Publishers Weekly Acclaimed travel writer Lewis (Naples '44; Golden Earth; etc.) died in 2003 at age 93; this is his final book. In it, he recounts traveling through Spain in 1934 with his brother-in-law Eugene Corvaja to find the Corvaja family tomb in Seville. Their plans for a straightforward north-to-south journey, beginning in San Sebastián, are altered by uprisings foretelling the impending Spanish Civil War. Lewis and Corvaja's ever-changing travel plans lead them on a circuitous route—they wind up going through Portugal—and shape the episodic tone of this memoir, in which each town and encounter provides its own story. Lewis eschews delving into the complex politics of 1930s Spain to focus instead on the social ramifications of the country's political situation. While Corvaja yearns to join the battle for Spain's future, Lewis remains an outsider, with his sharp eye set firmly on observing Spain's people and places. Whether he's capturing the comedy of trying to find a suitable cafe in Madrid while a street fight rages, depicting the isolated wildlife of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains or commenting on the "cheap and cheerful" lives of the farmers' daughters he and Corvaja meet on a train, his well-crafted descriptions are honest and evocative. Lewis and Corvaja eventually find the tomb, but it's been destroyed, which is actually quite fitting, reminding readers that the journey is the story. (Mar. 1) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The New Yorker Lewis, who died in 2003, at the age of ninety-five, was often described as the finest travel writer of the last century. In his final book, he revisits the material of his first one, a journey through Spain with his brother-in-law in 1934. It is a tale of two Spains: in the harsh terrain of the countryside, the friends are continually amazed by the extreme poverty and primitive existence of the peasants, many of whom still live in caves. Meanwhile, in the cities, skirmishes between Fascists and Reds, which later erupted into civil war, are already under way. In Atocha, where the travellers narrowly escape being mown down by machine-gun fire, they find the main café, amid the pandemonium, still open and busy. When their train pulls into Madrid, a gun battle is raging, and Lewis, taking cover, notes the words on a travel poster: "Under the Blue Skies of Spain Cares Are Forgotten." Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker
From Booklist This is famed British travel writer Lewis' last book, written before he died in 2003 at age 95. He and his brother-in-law first visited Spain in 1934, traveling to Madrid and then, by way of Portugal, to Seville. Lewis chronicled that trip in Spanish Adventure (1935), and this last book is a memory of that particular journey. Lewis remembers attending a Communist Party cell meeting, walking through a rain forest (they walked hundreds of miles), riding trains and trams, and finding his in-laws' family tomb in Seville. They witnessed the insurrection of October 1934, walked into a fight between the People's Army and government forces, and attended a bullfight that they found disgusting. Reading the author's account of his travels in a country on the brink of war is almost as satisfying as being there. George CohenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Before death, Lewis looks back at 1st journey By Lynn Harnett Exquisite descriptions and a youthful disregard for danger mark Lewis' last book before his death at 95 in 2003. This final volume in a long and lauded career of travel writing and fiction looks back at the journey that got him started in 1934. It's actually a retelling of his first book, a mostly forgotten Wodehouse-inspired piece called "Spanish Adventure."The journey begins at the behest - and expense - of Lewis' father-in-law Ernesto Corvaja, a Sicilian of Spanish ancestry. In hopes of finding his family fondly remembered in Seville, he sends his son Eugene Corvaja and Lewis to Spain to pay their respects to the Corvaja tomb. However, Spain is on the brink of its bloody civil war between the fascists and communists.The young men cross the border from France, with some delays and difficulties, to bask in the tranquil flow of life in San Sebastian. In contrast to France, "No one was in a hurry, or carried a parcel, and there were no clocks." Despite a few minor inconveniences - disrupted phone service, a sightseeing drive cut short by armed guards, a sinister police visit to their hotel - the two are chiefly discomfited by the closing of the local cabaret and equally reassured by its abrupt reopening.The next day an official "State of Alarm" is declared, the trains stop running and both experienced "a sensation that the personality of this town had undergone a remarkable change. The people of San Sebastian, as we had agreed, seemed to set great store by matters of personal deportment." But, "at this moment San Sebastian seemed full of running figures and queues had formed at the doors of food shops with desperate would-be customers struggling to get in. Such was the confusion that even the paseos were abandoned." The paseo being a delightful, healthful evening stroll at which the citizenry, particularly the young, could see and be seen.The upheaval continues, on again, off again. Plans are derailed but not their goal. They will reach Seville, zigzagging across Spain, taking a side jog through Portugal, moving by bus, train, truck, car and foot. Through it all, Lewis is alive to fresh enjoyments. Mounting a decrepit bus (even the driver at first refuses to board), they cross a spectacular mountain range. "Our exhaust thundered and rumbled as we hustled through narrow, rocky valleys, dislodging flocks of jackdaws and doves from the trees like alternating avalanches of soot and snow."But first, Lewis and Corvaja must wend their way to Madrid, in hopes of a train to Seville. Various kindly Spaniards provide rides in defiance of the official "State of Alarm," but 100 miles from the nearest train to Madrid, all private vehicles grind to a halt. So the young men walk.The country is rural and poor and many people live in caves they have dug out of the ground. "These could have been villagers in cottages which through an earthquake of exceptional violence had toppled into holes in the earth from which roofs, chimneys, and even a window sometimes appeared." But a second glance shows the structures to be deliberately constructed, "rent-free and cool in summer."Corvaja is something of a naturalist and Lewis' welcoming curiosity finds rewards in every bend in the road. His descriptions of the sun-warmed, sparsely populated plains with their silent inhabitants who ring church bells as the strangers pass to warn the next village of their approach, segue into chilly "winter-scented" rains which fall on isolated rain forests teeming with wildlife, which give way to fierce partisans in Zaragosa, a city of extreme wealth and poverty.Lewis is essentially an easygoing person. When Corvaja informs him fairly early on that he is a card-carrying communist who fully intends to join the insurrection, Lewis takes this in stride. Only when Corvaja is on the brink of running off does Lewis dissuade him with a very reasonable, British argument of family obligation. Not that Corvaja seems all that difficult to dissuade. The "Red Army" never materializes and the promised legions turn out to be small rag-tag bands that melt away into the countryside leaving red flags behind. But there's plenty of danger.Snipers in Madrid force peaceful citizens to move about with their hands in the air, or sometimes on all fours. In search of libation and a bit of social life, the pair finds themselves herded at gunpoint, questioned by the police and drinking in bullet-studded bars. Later, fleeing through brambles, Lewis tears open his leg on barbed wire.But his attitude remains understated in a way that captures the youthful sense of adventure, along with the old man's unstated marvel at the young's casual risk of life. Written from notes and journals as well as memory, the journey conveys immediacy, not nostalgia, but also conveys the fondness of an old man for an experience that led to a lifelong thirst for more.The Portsmouth Herald, April 3, 2005
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. A read-in-one-sitting travel journal By Jay Stainbrook There's no agenda in this book, but the observations are so keen and the prose is so clear that you will find yourself connecting the episodes with themes of your own. The author's character is non-existant and you can substitute yourself easily enough. Never boring, I easily could have read a hundred pages more.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Snapshots of Spain in 1934 By R. M. Peterson For his last book, written in his mid-eighties, Norman Lewis recounts experiences from a trip he took sixty years earlier with his brother-in-law to Spain, ostensibly to search for information on his in-laws' family history in Seville. As things happened, the trip occurred in late 1934, in the midst of civil unrest that was one of the precursors of the Spanish Civil War that broke out in full force less than two years later. Lewis was present during the five-day "Battle of Madrid" and was forced to crawl across streets while gunfire whistled overhead.To me, the more interesting incidents are not those relating to political turmoil but rather to everyday life in the Iberian peninsula (his trip also took him through Portugal) -- such things as a daily promenade in a public garden of wet nurses clutching their infant charges to their bosoms, women queuing up at a slaughterhouse to drink fresh blood from the severed veins of animals for a boost of vitality, and the communal burning of a young woman thought to be possessed by an evil spirit. And there are numerous vivid verbal snapshots, such as the one of the Portuguese village of Villa Real de Santo Antonio: "Despite the grandiose name it appeared more as an untidy village with dogs disputing the rubbish in its streets, and most of the inhabitants looked like criminal suspects temporarily free while awaiting imprisonment in chains or deportation."But in the end THE TOMB IN SEVILLE is on the thin side, both too short and too impressionistic (not so surprising after sixty years). It does not measure up to "Voices of the Old Sea", the only other book by Norman Lewis I have read. While THE TOMB IN SEVILLE is worth reading, no one need regret not getting around to it.
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