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the complete review - non-fiction

The Anatomy of a Moment

by
Javier Cercas

[an overview of the reviews and critical reactions]

general information | review summaries | links | about the author

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Why we haven't reviewed it yet:
Only had a library copy to work with and this detailed look at Spanish history deserves/needs a closer/longer look


Chances that we will review it:
Decent

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  Review Consensus:

  Generally very, very impressed, and think it's an important documentation of recent Spanish history

  From the Reviews:

• "Mr Cercas has written a persuasive, brilliant and absorbing book that has more contemporary resonance than even he might have imagined." - The Economist
  
  
• "Anatomie d'un instant avance réponses et hypothèses, brasse avec brio destinées individuelles et collectives en balayant quelques idées reçues." - Christian Authier, Le Figaro
  
  
• "Cercas’ thorough examination of events -- richly imagined, suspenseful and surprisingly poignant -- is a reminder of how Spanish history might have taken a dramatically different turn that evening 30 years ago." - Ángel Gurría Quintan, Financial Times
  
  
• "Man muss kein Spezialist in der von Verschwörungstheorien umrankten Literatur zu diesem Putsch sein, um die Originalität von Cercas' Verfahren zu erkennen. Denn hier wird der historische Augenblick jeweils zusammen mit Vorgeschichte, Lebensgeschichte und politischer Mentalitätsgeschichte beleuchtet, hier stehen Personen in einem Kontext, den sie formen und von dem sie geformt werden. (...) Anatomie eines Augenblicks ist ein freies Buch, das keiner Theorie folgt, nichts behaupten oder beweisen will. Gerade in der Ruhe und Absichtslosigkeit der Reflexionen kommt es viel weiter, als es starre Geschichtslektionen könnten." - Paul Ingendaay, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  
  
• "Unlike the shimmering, lucid prose of Cercas's two great novels, here he has adopted certain mannerisms and stylistic infelicities. The twisting sentences over-use colons and semi-colons. His skilful translator Anne McLean is sometimes drawn into following too closely the Spanish in these long sentences studded with multiple sub-clauses. Cercas is attempting to be precise and express every nuance with this style; but it is tiresome that sometimes one has to read back to grasp the meaning. Cercas is a major novelist who has written a fascinating account of a key event in Spain's recent history." - Michael Eaude, The Independent
  
  
• "Javier Cercas hat sich in einen Kampf mit der jüngsten Vergangenheit seines Landes gestürzt. Er hat es auch für die Spanier seiner Generation getan, keine Mühe gescheut, weder Zweifel noch Verwirrung verheimlicht. Seine Landsleute haben es ihm gedankt. Ob sich die Leser im deutschsprachigen Raum genauso in diesen inhaltlich ausufernden, sprachlich überwiegend trockenen Monolog einfühlen können, ist jedoch fraglich." - Jeannette Villachica, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  
  
• "Nada de eso: este libro está febrilmente armado y construido precisamente para que nada quede en manos del novelista caprichoso que ha de dar sentido a lo que no lo tiene y ha de buscar secretas ataduras que pasteuricen la viscosidad de lo real en la historia. Sin ser una novela, es una lección magistral sobre lo que es y puede ser la novela en las letras internacionales del siglo XXI y es además, pero secundariamente, la versión que el siglo XXI va a interiorizar y normalizar del golpe de Estado del 23-F en España." - Jordi Gracia, El País
  
  
• "With this book, then, Cercas is not only writing a scrupulous, truthful account of the failed coup, he is helping to bring the tormented story of the Spanish Civil War to its conclusion at last. His subtle intelligence, narrative gifts and intellectual honesty are outstanding." - Anne Chisholm, The Telegraph
  
  
• "The rewards of this book do not come for free. While Cercas’s prose (in Anne McLean’s English) isn’t difficult in any conventional sense -- you don’t have to fathom his meaning -- its rigour and intensity are taxing. I reckon the longest sentence is about half as long as this review, and it has a lot of competition. Brackets and semi-colons seem to outnumber full stops. But Cercas is trying to find a way of writing that avoids jumping to conclusions as he seeks to undo the knots of motive and consequence in the skulduggery he describes. His syntax -- unlikely as it might sound -- proves to be the basis of the generosity and insight with which he surveys this fevered period of Spanish history." - Anthony Cummins, The Telegraph

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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Links:

• Bloomsbury publicity page
• Bloomsbury USA publicity page
• Actes Sud publicity page
• S.Fischer publicity page
• Guanda publicity page

• The Awl
• Biblioblog (French)
• Deutschlandradio (German)
• The Economist
• L'Express (French)
• Le Figaro (French)
• Financial Times
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German)
• The Independent
• Irish Independent
• Irish Times
• Kirkus Reviews
• LetrasLibres (Spanish)
• The Modern Novel
• Le Monde diplomatique (French)
• n+1
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German)
• El País (Spanish)
• Il primo amore (Italian)
• Publishers Weekly
• The Quarterly Conversation
• Que leer (Spanish)
• The Scotsman
• Sepanet (Italian)
• Tages-Anzeiger (German)
• taz (German)
• The Telegraph (1)
• The Telegraph (2)
• Télérama (French)
• Tredynas Days
• La Vanguardia (Spanish)
• Winstonsdad's Blog

• The Motive
• Outlaws
• Soldiers of Salamis
• The Speed of Light
• The Tenant

• See Index of Spanish literature

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About the Author:

       Spanish author Javier Cercas was born in 1962.

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© 2011-2016 the complete review

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