Occupation

I think this may have been one of the books I’ve tried to read the most over the second lockdown, I may have started this six or seven times.

This is not a statement of the quality of the book apart from that the book deserves your full attention and I was unable to give it that until now.

A book like this is so hard to review as Julián is writing about what feels like extremely personal episodes in his own life which are attributed to Sebastián, his alter ego and this can at times feel quite voyeuristic as the near death of his father, his wife’s pregnancy, and the lives of the occupiers all feel so raw.

But this personal also looks at the universal, life, death, relationships, fear, anxiety. Feeling we can all share are explored in an extremely honest manner and the wounds of experience shared for all to see.

Exploring this in small, but punchy chapters gives plenty of opportunity to pause and digest, reread if required, this almost poetic exploration of what it means to be Sebastián at this period in his life.

This is also another book from Charco Press where you don’t ‘feel’ the translator which shows the thought and time this will have taken Daniel Hahn to get right (and another great cover from Pablo Font).

Looking forward to reading ‘Resistance’ now as well.