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Juan Marse. Rabos de lagartija Barcelona. Arete/Lumen. 2000. 353 pages 3,250 ptas. ISBN 84-264-1284-X
JUAN MARSE WAS BORN in Barcelona in 1933 and is one of the few members of the midcentury generation who comes from a working-class background. Encerrados con un solo juguete (1960) was his first novel, but it was Ultimas tardes con Teresa (1966) that caught the attention of both readers and critics. That novel represents the peak of social realism and is a sharp criticism of the upper class that allowed Franco to rule Spain tyrannically while others were totally destitute. Since 1970, when La memoria de mi prima Montse first appeared, the concept of memory begins to take on an increasingly important role in his writings. La muchacha de las bragas de oro (1978) is narrated through memories which ridicule the figure of an old falangist. In El amante bilingUe Marse explored the linguistic problems found today in Catalonia. He was awarded the Juan Rulfo Prize in 1977 for his book Las mujeres de Juanito Marse.
The story in Rabos de lagartija supposedly begins during the summer of 1945. There are various references to the effects of the atomic bomb and how it has most surely (according to the characters) affected climatic and atmospheric conditions in the region. In this novel Marse returns to his...