Recounting (Antagony, Book 1)

Recounting surveys the social history of Barcelona andCatalonia, primarily since the end of the Spanish Civil War in1939. The novel follows the youth and education of Raúl FerrerGaminde, son of a well-connected, middle-class Catalan family thatembraces Franco and Spanish Nationalism. The novel's potent dramaplays out through Goytisolo's crisp, forceful presentation ofyouth, humor, optimism, rebellion, violence, sexual awakening,indulgence, punishment, and the realization of one's artisticvocation. Alternately modern and historical, Recuento displaysintelligent realism, emotional gravity, profane beauty, brutevulgarity, sweeping rhetorical scope, and seamless transitionsthrough long, streaming passages of narrative andintrospection.