"The Accordionist's Son," the new novel by Basque author Bernardo Atxaga, contains a coming-of-age story which is also a tale of coming to consciousness.
The setting is the fictional town of Obaba, in Euskadi, the Basque homeland in Spain, where Atxaga's 1988 novel, "Obabakoak" took place. The time is the mid-1960s. Fifteen-year old David Imaz slowly becomes aware of the scars left in his community by the Spanish Civil War 25 years earlier. His father, an accordionist, allied himself with the Nationalists while his uncle Juan helped Republicans escape, then in disgust emigrated to California.
We sometimes forget that in World War II all fascist governments did not fall in 1945; Franco's regime continued on another 30 years. "The Accordionist's Son" contains a dense account of life during this period, when the victors of the civil war and the conservative Catholic Church retained privileged positions and class stratification was rigidly maintained. For those on the right side, life could be pleasant, but a trap door opened beneath that life for anyone even suspected of questioning the status quo.
David Imaz's story flutters between his past in Euskadi and his present on a California horse farm, like the butterflies that cross the pages frequently. Interspersed also are sections from the point of view of David's childhood friend, Joseba, and pieces each has written about their shared past. This technique enlivens the story, exploring the difference perspective makes and how the desire to make meaning out of the past can, itself, alter meaning.
David's growing-up years are overpopulated and heavy on detail, so leisurely paced they have an autobiographical feel. The language, too, is clumsy and almost stilted in places, perhaps the result of translation. But the narrative picks up when, driven by disgust with his father's role in the war, David resists. When scheduled to play accordion at the unveiling of a Royalist monument, he hides where his uncle earlier sequestered escaping Republicans. Later, with Joseba, David is drawn into political activism with ETA, the violent wing of the Basque separatist movement. Both soon see that ETA's violence mirrors all they are reacting against and attempt to extricate themselves, body and soul.
In addition to the well-received "Obabakoak," also about the town of Obaba, Atxaga has written two other novels which approach these issues from different perspectives. Splintered and playful, "Obabakoak" may be his most successful fiction, but "The Accordionist's Son" is a more direct exploration of the consequences of the Spanish Civil War, re-creating what was suppressed.
Christopher Hedges and others argue that reaching a common understanding of a conflict is the first step to its resolution and healing. In this sense, despite David's looming death from a heart condition, "The Accordionist's Son" is a deeply hopeful book.
Atxaga composed the novel in Basque before translating it into Spanish himself. Others have translated it into English. Franco outlawed the Basque language, and speakers of the language are now few. The act of writing this book stands, on several levels, as an admirable act of resistance.
Details: THE ACCORDIONIST'S SON
Bernardo Atxaga, Graywolf Press
$25, 370 pages